Do your ESC in North Macedonia.

It’s funded, not salaried — you don’t earn a wage. Instead the European Union covers everything: a monthly allowance for food and pocket money at the rate set by the current Erasmus+ rules for North Macedonia, free shared accommodation, travel to and from the country, full insurance and a Macedonian language course. Your cost to take part is zero.

Anyone aged 18–30 and legally resident in an ESC programme country. North Macedonia is a programme country, so Macedonian youth are eligible too — and because we hold the Supporting role of the Quality Label, we can send you to a placement abroad ourselves. You don’t need a degree, prior experience or perfect English — just motivation.

ESC volunteering runs from 2 weeks to 12 months: short-term placements of up to two months, and long-term placements of two months to a year. Which lengths, towns and roles are open depends on the projects running when you write — tell us your timeframe and we will answer with what is actually available, not with a brochure.

In everyday speech, yes. Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps (ESC) are two EU programmes run by the same agencies; ESC is the volunteering one — what many people still call “Erasmus+ volunteering”. It is not a study exchange: you volunteer full-time on real projects, fully funded.

Enquiries are open all year — there’s no fixed deadline. Send us an e-mail (the address is below) and we reply within 3 working days. Write ideally a few months before your preferred start date, so there is time to match you with a project and complete the paperwork.

Choose a role that grows out of our real work — supporting day-care centres for people with disabilities, eco actions, radio and magazine work, sport including Boccia, school workshops — or propose your own project. Every role comes with a mentor, weekly evaluation meetings and a Youthpass at the end.

Kocani, Stip, Strumica, Delcevo or Lozovo — the Quality Label belongs to the association, so any of our five towns can be the base, and we agree the town together with the role before anything is signed. Right now Stip is recruiting most actively. If you want to check us on the European Youth Portal before you write, Kocani, Stip and Strumica each have their own entry there; Delcevo and Lozovo are covered by the association's label rather than a separate listing. All five are small, walkable towns in the east of North Macedonia where your accommodation is within walking distance of your placement.

ESC volunteering starts at 18. Under that age you can still join our local activities in Kocani, Stip and Delcevo with parental consent, per our safeguarding policy — and register on the European Youth Portal at 17 so you are ready the day you qualify.

No, and it is not our call. The 18–30 age limit and the residency rule are written into the European Solidarity Corps regulation by the European Union. We are a host organisation: we cannot waive either of them, and neither can any other host in Europe. If we accepted your application anyway, it would fail at the funding stage and you would have spent months waiting for a no.

What we can do is tell you straight away, and point you at what is actually open. Three other routes take people the ESC rules exclude — two of them have no age limit and no country rule at all. And if a funded placement is what you need, the European Youth Portal lists every ESC host in Europe, not just us.