Grant

Please note: As the educational agreement between Switzerland and the EU will entail essential changes, the information below is only valid until the end of 2010. However, StudEx may support trainees with a Leonardo grant until May, 31st 2011. Please find more information here.   

Within the vocational programme “Leonardo da Vinci” there are funds available to financially support traineeships abroad. You may profit from these funds no matter whether you were placed by StudEx or found your traineeship on your own.

This partial funding includes a monthly contribution to the cost of living as well as a one-time contribution to your travel expenses (max. CHF 250.-) and to a language course (max. CHF 300.-). . Please note that you can only submit an application for a Leonardo grant if the criteria of eligibility of the programme are met.

The Leonardo grant depends on the traineeship salary. The maximum monthly contribution towards living expenses amounts to CHF 500.- for European students and graduates who are completing a traineeship in Switzerland and to 750 CHF for Swiss students and graduates who have trainee position in Europe. / For European students and graduates who are completing a traineeship in Switzerland the monthly contribution amounts to CHF 500.- at the most and up to CHF 750.- for Swiss students and graduates with a trainee position in Europe.

Please note that even if your request for a grant is accepted you might need some funds of your own, since the cost of living in Switzerland and in most European countries is considerably higher than the Leonardo grant. If you do not have any money available to cover the remaining costs, you should therefore not accept an unpaid traineeship. Please find more information on the costs of living in Switzerland and Europe here.

Each year, StudEx supports approximately 250 trainees with Leonardo grants provided by the Swiss government. Since the demand for grants is higher than our financial ressources, not every application can be accepted. Every other month, StudEx evaluates the requests in application rounds. The decisions are based on criteria such as a balanced repartition among the countries of residence and fields of study. StudEx also takes into considerationthe various arguments which are presented in the letter of application.

Bimonthly application rounds

In order to ensure a continuous support throughout the year, requests for a grant are processed in bimonthly application rounds. In between two deadlines, no decisions are taken. If you have all the necessary documents ready, you can send us your application before the beginning of your placement (according to the table below), so as to allow for an efficient planning of your budget.

Please note that the deadline to hand in your request is four weeks after the beginning of your traineeship (date of the postmark).

Once we have received your application, we will send you a confirmation within ten days per email. If you do not receive this confirmation, you may assume that your request was lost. In that case, please contact us via email or phone. We do not accept late claims regarding lost requests.

Our decision will be communicated by email within three weeks after the closing of the corresponding application round. If we have accepted your request, you will receive the grant contract with the same email.

Please note that no claims on a Leonardo grant can be raised. Since we cannot accept every request, applicants should not rely on receiving a Leonardo grant.

The StudEx grant application consists of the following documents:
(all forms can be downloaded in our Download Area):

1. The form "Request for a Leonardo-Grant". Please fill in the form and do not forget to print the request afterwards, sign it and have it stamped and signed by your employer.
2. A detailed letter of application answering the following questions:
   • Why are you applying for a StudEx grant?
   • Which is the relation between the placement and your field of study?
   • Why do you want to undertake a placement in the German-speaking part of Switzerland?
   • What are your plans after your placement?
3. A signed contract between you and your employer, stating the exact dates, working hours, salary, your tasks as well as the conditions of your traineeship. If your employer does not issue a contract, we can accept a written confirmation signed by your employer which includes the afore-mentioned information. Please note that your employer may use our model contracts.
4. The signed and stamped form "University Confirmation".
5. The signed form "Student's Statement".
6. The signed and stamped form "Company's Statement".
7. The signed form "Declaration of Consent".
8. A xerox copy of your identity card or passport (page with photo and your personal information).

Preference will be given to applicants who have been placed by StudEx. The remaining applications will be processed according to the following criteria:

• Balanced distribution amongst fields of study;
• Balanced distribution amongst countries of residence;
• Promotion of longer traineeships;
• Support of unpaid or poorly paid traineeships;
• Relation between traineeship and education;
• Answers to our questions in the detailed letter of application;
• Quality and completeness of the request.

In every application round, a selection of requests is chosen according to these criteria. Appeals in cases of rejected requests cannot be filed. You may not hand in a second request for the same traineeship. However, for another traineeship a new request can be handed in, as long as our criteria of eligibility are still met.

ATTENTION! We unfortunately cannot support traineeships with monthly gross salaries of CHF 2300.- or more.