EIL Explore

“My global perspective has been broadened by this programme and my understanding of other cultures and traditions has changed dramatically. EIL Explore has instilled in me the passion for doing what I can to make an impact in the lives of others and to go out and make a positive change in the world around me.” (Katie McArdle, Youth Activist Winner)

EIL Explore funds overseas intercultural learning adventures which challenge participants to become global citizens.

EIL Explore is a programme that supports participants with an interest in global issues to travel abroad for the purpose of volunteering, cultural immersion, or language education through a variety of awards. Operating for over 25 years, 2025 will offer funds of over 130,000 Euros set aside to sponsor up to 30 Explorers.

Awardees use their experience overseas to learn more about the global community in a supported environment that challenges them to grow personally. The vision is that upon their return to Ireland, Explorers will have grown as individuals and will use this wonderful learning experience to be agents for change in their local community advocating for a more globally just society.

EIL Explore is a programme of EIL Intercultural Learning, an Irish not-for-profit organisation based in Cork which provides intercultural learning opportunities through study abroad, volunteer abroad, language training, group educational programmes, and other cultural immersion activities for about 2,000 people each year.

Which One Is for me

Whether it’s eco-tourism in Ecuador or a high school in Europe, EIL Explore offer a variety of diverse experiences throughout the world for participants to travel, learn, and change — both personally and within their community.

Awards

EIL Explore Awards are funded travel opportunities for people who are interested in the personal challenge of becoming a global citizen, while exploring and immersing themselves in world cultures. On their return, all participants are required to complete an Action at Home Project that reflects and shares their learning with their community.

See the lists of Explore Awards below to learn more about what options are available to you. With a wide range of ages and themes, there is an EIL Explore award for everybody!

What do we look for?

A person who is curious about other cultures, tolerant of differences and is flexible and open to engage with new and at times challenging situations.

A person who is willing to engage with EIL upon their return to Ireland, to share their experience, and to learn with others.

A person who is seeking a different and new opportunity that can provide open mindedness, global awareness, self reflection and self improvement.

Where will you go this summer?

The possibilities are endless and the opportunities eminence where will you go this summer?

Applications Are Now CLOSED for Explore 2025

Applications for Explore 2025 are now CLOSED!

Don’t want to miss out on Explore 2026? Subscribe to our email list to receive an email when we open applications for Explore 2026.

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Under 18?

We have a number of awards to engage with the global community, to develop more of an understanding of global issues and become immersed in another culture. Whether it’s attending the Governor’s Institute of Vermont as a Youth Activist for two weeks or being culturally immersed in Japan for four weeks, the awards will open new and exciting opportunities for you.

Under 18

Over 18?

Interested in developing your knowledge of the UN Sustainable Development Goals? There are a variety of volunteering and cultural immersion opportunities for people over 18 which engage with social issues such as Gender Equality, Education and Wildlife Conservation. Explore has opportunities from volunteering in community projects in Mexico to volunteering teaching English to children in Vietnam.

Over 18?

Hear from past participants!

Each individual has their own stories to tell. Whether you’re thinking about going on a Youth Activist Programme in Vermont or to Vietnam with our Global Awareness Programme, there’s someone who’s been there. Past participants tell us a bit about what they enjoyed, some had challenges, but everyone had a life changing experience.

Blogs and Stories

The Application - Tips, Process, and more

The aim of EIL Explore is to support people who have a history of voluntary involvement in their school, college or their community. EIL Explore awards are for people who have demonstrated or who believe they can demonstrate leadership potential and people who would not ordinarily be able to avail of such travel opportunities due to financial restrictions.

Find out more

About EIL Explore

“Eight weeks have vanished in the blink of an eye but the lessons I have learned here will last a lifetime……The generosity and kindness of the people in Ecuador never fails to astound me. The patience my family showed me as they repeated everything once, twice or as many times as I needed to understand and feel understood was amazing.” Aoife

EIL Explore presents participants with the significant challenge of living and learning in a new or foreign environment, and then sharing that challenge with their own community.

Formerly known as the EIL Travel Awards, the programme was rebranded in 2015 as EIL Explore to celebrate its 20th anniversary. Established by EIL Intercultural Learning in Cork, Ireland, the awards programme has grown over the past two decades from a single cultural immersion programme in Japan, to over 30 awards worldwide in 2015. Past participants include Web Summit co-founder Daire Hickey, influencer/model Roz Purcell, and CNN Reporter Donie O’Sullivan, as well as a number of other community leaders. A number of past participants have also gone on to become EIL Board members, committee members and even key staff members like Adam Peerbux, Aileen Linehan and Siobhán Hughes.

EIL Explore is for people who have demonstrated or who believe they can demonstrate leadership potential and people who would not ordinarily be able to avail of such travel opportunities for social or economic reasons. Most participants will volunteer, some will share Irish culture while learning the culture of their hosts and others will experience and learn about youth activism.

The EIL Explore programme is funded by EIL Intercultural Learning.

Based on principles of experiential learning (learning by doing), EIL programmes are designed to provide tools to survive and thrive in another culture or in a different language, to foster personal development, to build communication and leadership skills, and to be active citizens in an interdependent world.

In short: The aim of EIL Intercultural Learning is to enrich lives and to inspire global citizenship.

In 2014 EIL Intercultural Learning celebrated 50 years in Ireland & 2023 will celebrate 28 years of the EIL Explore (formerly known as the EIL Travel Awards).

Our Partners

A strategic aim of EIL Explore is to partner with other like-minded organisation in different sectors to strengthen the opportunities for participants and to link the awards closer to the community.

Foróige is the leading youth organisation in Ireland and has been working with young people since 1952. Their vision is an Ireland that believes in every young person. Their purpose is to enable young people to involve themselves consciously and actively in their development and in the development of society. EIL Explore is proud partner for many years. Youth members take part in a two-week cultural group exchange with participants in Hong Kong every summer. Foroige work closely with EIL Explore to recruit participants, prepare them for their adventure and facilitate the reciprocal exchange. In 2016, 10 Irish participants and 3 leaders travelled to Hong Kong and hosted the Chinese participants on their return.

Access UCC has partnered up with Explore in 2023. The goal of Access UCC, an inclusive and collaborative unit, is to increase opportunities for underrepresented groups to attend third-level education. Sharing the vision of supporting students who would not ordinarily be able to avail of opportunities such as travelling and volunteering abroad, EIL Explore is delighted that Access UCC have agreed to fund additional Explore Awards open to UCC students who are supported by the PLUS, Mature and QQI programmes as part of their undergraduate programmes in UCC.

Cork Life Centre is a voluntary organisation which provides an alternative learning environment to young people who find themselves outside the mainstream education system. 2019 was the first year of the partnership between EIL and the Cork Life Centre. As part of the International Summer School Award, 2 students from the Cork Life Centre travel to Denmark to take part in the summer school.

YMCA Irelandis a voluntary organisation that works with children, young people, families and the community, with particular regard to those who are disadvantaged and disaffected. EIL has had great champions and communications with the YMCA staff and service users and a partnership was established that gives opportunity to the young, passionate activists that YMCA has been engaging an opportunity to participate on an international programme like the Youth Activist award.

PPLI – Post Primary Languages Ireland is a unit providing expertise and support for foreign languages education in Ireland. Its focus is on enhancing and broadening the opportunities available to students for learning foreign languages relevant to Ireland’s future cultural, social and economic needs. PPLI has responsibility for implementing key actions in Languages Connect – Ireland’s Strategy for Foreign Languages in Education 2017-2026. Through our partnership with Languages Connect, we’re happy to be able to offer additional scholarships for our 3 months Study Abroad Programme in Europe each year.

Comhlámh Code of Good Practice

EIL Intercultural Learning holds comprehensive compliance to the Comhlámh Code of Good Practice. Comhlámh’s Code of Good Practice is a set of standards for Irish Volunteer Sending Agencies facilitating international placements. The Code is based on a vision of volunteers working in solidarity for a just, equitable and sustainable world. It promotes responsible and responsive volunteering to ensure a positive impact for the overseas project and community, the volunteer and the sending agency.

The Code promotes development education, which enables people to more deeply understand the world around them and to address the root causes of inequality and poverty.

Every Volunteer Sending Agency, which is party to the Code of Good Practice, commits to the implementation of the Code’s five values that underpin the work of international volunteer programmes. These are solidarity, respect, social justice, ecological sustainability and integrity.

Full details of the Code are here

About Comhlámh:

Comhlámh is a member organisation that works to mobilise for an equitable and sustainable world. As the Irish association of development workers and volunteers, Comhlámh promotes responsible international volunteering and development work. We support people in their journey of working for social justice. We work with returned volunteers, partner organisations and member groups to foster just, inclusive societies, through progressive grassroots activism in Ireland and internationally.

More details of Comhlámh work can be found here