Permaculture Education in Portugal
Erasmus+ Placements Portugal
Keela is a working regenerative farm in central Portugal. People come here to learn permaculture, natural building and land restoration by doing the work with us — and for many, the EU covers most of the cost. Our OID is E10340911.
Find which of the three options you belong to and click the more info button
Funded Farm Placements in Portugal | Erasmus Grants
You don’t need farming experience. You don’t need to be young, and you don’t need a degree. There are a few different funding routes, whether you’re studying, recently graduated from a college or university, or are an adult. One of them probably fits you.
If you are a sending organisation, please click here
Funding Option 1
If you're starting a business
There’s a separate EU scheme for people building their own enterprise, and it works differently from the student routes. It’s open to anyone over eighteen who is seriously planning to start a business, or who has started one within the last three years.
There’s no age limit and no requirement to have studied anything — what you need is a genuine business idea and a written plan to back it up. You’d come to Keela for somewhere between three and six months. The EU provides a monthly contribution toward your living costs — currently around €850 for Portugal
The EU contributes toward your living costs, though you’ll likely need to top it up yourself. Applications go through an approved intermediary organisation in your country rather than directly to us.
Confusingly this is called the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs (EYE) program but its open to all ages
Funding option 2
Currently or recently studied at university
If you’re enrolled at a university or have graduated within the last twelve months, your international office can fund a placement here through Erasmus+. The grant is held and arranged by your institution, not by us — you apply through them, and we handle the hosting once they’re on board. Placements at Keela fit a wide range of degrees: agriculture and agronomy, environmental science, ecology and biology, sustainable development, geography and land management, forestry, architecture and landscape design, food systems, tourism and hospitality management, and education or social sciences where the practical component involves community and land-based work.
The stay usually counts toward your credits or fulfils a required internship module. If you’re in your final year, start now: the recent-graduate route stays open for a year after you finish, but the application has to begin while you’re still enrolled.
This is called the KA131 – Student Mobility for Traineeships
Funding Option 3
Currently or recently studying a vocational course
Vocational learners, apprentices and trainees are funded through the same EU programme, arranged by your training provider rather than a university. This route suits a lot of the trades and disciplines we actually work in day to day: professional cookery and culinary arts, horticulture and market gardening, agriculture and animal husbandry, carpentry and joinery, construction and natural building, landscaping and groundskeeping, forestry and arboriculture, hospitality and accommodation services, and renewable energy or sustainable technology.
If you’re training as a chef, you’d work with produce from the field to the kitchen and see the whole chain that most kitchens never touch. If you’re in horticulture or agriculture, you get a working regenerative system rather than a textbook one. As with university, you stay eligible for up to twelve months after completing your course, provided the paperwork starts before you finish. Ask your course tutor or the placements coordinator at your college.
This is called ErasmusPro or Long-term learning mobility of VET learners
Video of an internship at Keela
Here’s what a stay at Keela actually looks like.
Permaculture Design Course Portugal
Your host and mentor
Laurence Manchee
PDC Lead Teacher
Co-founder of Keela Permaculture Farm. Laurence is certified by the Permaculture Association to teach certified PDCs. An author in Permaculture Magazine and teacher of Agroforestry, Permaculture Design and Natural Building Courses. Laurence will be the lead teacher on all courses. Laurence has lived a permaculture life at Keela since 2016. He is a farmer, shepherd, gardener, builder and homesteader.
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