Safety First … Insurance for Your Erasmus+ Internship

Everything is prepared: your Erasmus+ destination, your work placement and even your accommodation. You can’t wait to finally leave your comfort zone and spend a defined period of time abroad, where you will learn a lot about another culture, improve your language skills as well as expanding your professional experience. The Erasmus+ mobility is just perfect and will help you to do all of those things. As an experienced travel agency that specialises in the organisation of various Erasmus+ internships, we want to stress the importance of insurance. Many circumstances that occur are unpredictable and sometimes there is no way to prevent them. For that reason, we want to give you an overview and answer any questions you may have about insurance so that you will be able to decide what insurance best fits your needs.

One of the most common questions to do with Erasmus+ experience, participants often ask is if they need insurance for their stay? The answer is yes. Besides obviously having general insurance in place (which we’ll explore later on), there are lots of aspects that confirm the need for insurance, for example, look at the following scenarios:

• You arrive at your destination’s airport and your luggage gets lost. Would you be able to replace all your clothes and belongings in a short time without considering the financial aspect?

• On a lovely day you decide to explore your new hometown, and on your way you slip and break your leg. Can you afford to receive medical treatment without insurance in place?

• You met great new people and are abroad, so what’s missing? A party! What if you forget your keys and leave them inside your apartment? You’ll have to call expensive lock changing services in the middle of the night.

We could continue this list with lots of possible incidents, such as theft, accidents, and injuries, not to scare you but to make you aware that insurance is an essential part of your trip and you must organise it for your Erasmus+ experience. As mentioned before, there are unpredictable occurrences that could happen in a flash and we want you to enjoy your time abroad satisfied and happy without being stressed about matters you could avoid. Remember, we deal with different insurance agencies that have perfect packages designed for students’ spending time abroad.

So, we want you to have an overview of insurance’s benefits and answer frequently asked questions:

1. I already own a credit card that includes insurance, which means I do not need to arrange insurance for my Erasmus+ experience, right?

No, that information is not correct. It is right that most credit card owners already have insurance, but that so-called “travel insurance” is only valid for maximum 3 months. What about the remaining three months left if you stay for half a year abroad? Furthermore, that travel insurance is intended for tourist travels, such as a vacation.

2. Do companies have the right to tell their interns that they must take out insurance or can interns choose whether or not they want insurance?

3. Does my insurance have to cover certain insurance benefits, like a certain sum of money?

4. Are Erasmus+ interns obliged to provide evidence of their insurance?

5. What is the correct procedure in the case of a damage report?

6. I don’t know what insurance I need, as there are so many insurance agencies, I’m a bit confused. What should I do?

Everything in a nutshell:

• As an Erasmus+ intern you are obligated to arrange an insurance contract (at least medical, liability and accident insurance)
• You can get a European health insurance card that is valid in all EU-countries
• Check various insurance agencies to compare the different benefits or let us do the work for you and we will send you the insurance contract afterwards
• A copy of your insurance contract should be carried along with your learning agreement during your stay abroad so you can produce it at any time
• Keep all your invoices and documents you receive in case of a damage report as that serves as proof for your insurance agency

Are you missing further information? Let us know in the comments below or contact us by clicking here.

Did you know that we also share content regarding Erasmus+ and language trips? Browse our website and be up to date on related topics.

If you need information regarding the application process, check our guide for Erasmus+ funding applicants or read our Handbook for Erasmus+ Project Management & Execution.