Human Resources and Sustainable Development in the EU: The Case of Erasmus+ Program

Erasmus+ is a European Union (EU) program in the fields of education, training, youth and sport for the period 2021-2027 with a major impact at the international level. These areas are making important contributions to help address socioeconomic changes and the key challenges that Europe will face until the end of the decade as well as to support the implementation of the European policy agenda for growth, jobs, equity and social inclusion. The general objectives of the Erasmus+ Program are intended to contribute to the overall achievement of the objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy, among others related to both human resources and sustainable development. Therefore, the main question of this paper is: How does Erasmus+ contribute to the objectives of human resources and sustainable development? After a short presentation of the Erasmus+ Program, the paper will answer the two questions by adopting two different (albeit interconnected) perspectives: first, it will look at internationalization as a factor helping the development of human resources and, second, it will examine the link between the Erasmus+ Program and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The paper will conclude by showing how human resources and sustainable development are key elements of the ambitious agenda of the EU in the field of (higher) education.