Planning a training and hosting programme in Montenegro

Who is this guide for?

This guide is for schools, public bodies, associations and businesses planning to send a group of teachers, staff, pupils or students, or adults to Montenegro for job shadowing, training or a study visit. The programme may be funded under Erasmus+ or from the organisation's own budget. In both cases, planning starts with the same question: at the end of this visit, what will the participants have learned and what will the organisation have changed?

Check the funding rules first

For a mobility funded by Erasmus+, the first thing to check is country eligibility. According to the Programme Guide, Montenegro is among the third countries not associated to the Programme, in the Western Balkans group (Region 1). This affects, depending on the type of action, whether the activity can take place in Montenegro.

In mobility projects in the fields of school education and adult education, the Programme Guide requires activities to take place in an EU Member State or a third country associated to the Programme. For this reason, Montenegro is not an eligible destination for Erasmus+ mobility in these two fields.

In vocational education and training (VET), however, the Programme Guide states that organisations holding an Erasmus accreditation may send staff to non-associated third countries for job shadowing and teaching or training assignments, and learners for short-term and long-term (ErasmusPro) mobility and for vocational skills competitions. The share of the grant that can be allocated to these activities is limited. In the youth field, organisations from non-associated third countries neighbouring the EU in Regions 1–4 may take part in mobility of youth workers under certain conditions; these activities last between 2 and 60 days, excluding travel days.

The rules may be updated each year. Before designing your project, read the Programme Guide for the year of application and consult your country's national agency. If the programme is run outside Erasmus+, from the organisation's own budget, these restrictions do not apply; however, the objectives, the programme and the documents still require the same care.

Write concrete learning objectives

A general objective such as “getting to know the education system in Montenegro” is not enough to design a programme. Write the objectives as things participants will be able to do at the end of the visit: observing a particular practice on site, taking notes to adapt a method to their own organisation, following the work processes in an occupational field, and so on. The programme should show which visit, workshop or meeting will meet each objective.

• Which need of your organisation does this visit relate to?
• What will participants know or be able to do at the end of the visit?
• In what kinds of organisations and on which topics should observation take place?
• How will what was learned be used and shared in the organisation after returning?

Build the programme day by day around the objectives

A good programme is more than a sequence of visits. Time for observation, discussion, practice and reflection should be balanced. In job shadowing, it should be clear whom the participant will work with at the host organisation; the Erasmus+ Programme Guide also requires a main contact person (mentor) to be clearly identified at the host organisation for job shadowing.

When building the programme, take into account the schedules of the organisations to be visited, school holidays, public holidays and travel times. Visits depend on the agreement of the host organisations, so identify an alternative for each important visit.

• Arrival day: welcome, settling in and programme introduction
• Observation and visit days: objective, place, time and person responsible for each day
• Reflection time: short sharing and note-taking at the end of the day
• Closing: summary of what was learned, certificates of attendance and feedback

Bring logistics together in one schedule

Flights, airport transfers, accommodation, local transport and meals should be planned together with the programme schedule. The distance between the accommodation and the places to be visited directly determines how realistic the daily programme is. Collect special needs such as accessibility, diet and health from participants in advance and pass them on to service providers.

Calculate the budget from the same schedule. In Erasmus+ projects the grant is awarded as unit costs, and these amounts may not match actual expenses exactly; in programmes run from the organisation's own budget, every item is paid directly by the organisation. In both cases, open separate lines for accommodation, transport, meals, entrance fees, interpreting and local coordination; get written quotations from service providers and find out their cancellation and change conditions in advance. Also confirm the group size at this stage: the organisations to be visited may limit the number of people they can receive at one time. Dividing a large group into small sub-groups is a practical way to maintain the quality of observation.

Check documents and travel conditions in advance

Check each participant's passport validity and visa situation early. According to the official pages of the Government of Montenegro, citizens of the Republic of Türkiye will need a visa to enter Montenegro from 1 November 2026. Groups travelling from Türkiye should therefore put the visa application at the start of the programme schedule and check the current notice of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro before travelling.

• Valid passport and, if required, a visa
• Travel and health insurance
• Participant list and emergency contact details
• Parental consent for underage participants
• Agreements required by the programme (mobility and learning agreements in Erasmus+ projects)
• Certificates of attendance and the records needed for reporting

Prepare participants and support them on site

Before setting off, participants should receive a briefing covering the programme, addresses, contact persons, local transport and practical information. Short cultural and language preparation increases the benefit gained from the visits. During the programme, a contact person must be reachable, and what to do in situations such as illness, lost documents or transport disruption must be set out in writing in advance.

Evaluate and share on return

When the programme ends, measure with a short evaluation how far participants have achieved the objectives. Put in writing how you will share what was learned within the organisation and which practices you will try out. In Erasmus+ projects, these outputs are also used for reporting and for disseminating the results.

Invest Consulting prepares the local side of the programme in Montenegro: it plans the visits, liaises with the organisations, coordinates accommodation and transport with service providers and supports participants on site. Writing the Erasmus+ application is a separate service. If your programme requires a particular accreditation or status, we check this together at the outset.