Our hands-on methodology · Erasmus+ & European Solidarity Corps
Drones as an educational tool.
A small caged drone — or a free simulator on a laptop the school already owns — turns flight into one of the most engaging teaching tools we know. Participants build, wire, repair, tune and pilot: digital skills, engineering and teamwork wrapped in something that feels like play. This is how our method works, and how to bring it into a project or take part yourself.
One controller. Every programme.
These are European methods. They need nothing a village doesn’t already have.
You don’t need to know anything about drones. Nobody starts a session able to fly one. The method is built so a facilitator can run it without a background in aviation — and so a participant can arrive having never held a controller.
Screen-first, safe, inclusive — and it fits everywhere.
The reason the same activity works for a school class, an adult group, a vocational mobility or an international youth exchange comes down to a few simple numbers.
The method
From a screen to the sky — and a transferable skill set.
Participants run a complete, real cycle with their own hands — fly the simulator, build and wire, tune, fly the mission, review, repair — and where it fits, compete as a team. Because the loop from crash to fix to re-flight takes minutes, not weeks, a group closes many full cycles inside a single workshop or mobility, learning from every one. It is learning by doing, with a result you can watch fly.
A method built on recognised standards — not rules we invented. Drone soccer is FAI class F9A, and our full drone-sport ecosystem lives on our Sport page.
Why a drone teaches so much
A near-perfect learning tool, in four parts.
Free simulators run on the PCs a school already has, and one real controller flies the simulator and binds to real drones later. A group can train — and even compete online — before owning any aircraft.
The anchor discipline, drone soccer, is caged and indoor — collisions are the point of the game, not a hazard. No pilot licence, no airspace permit: a gym or large classroom is enough.
Participants build, wire, repair and tune their drones like a pit crew, then pilot them as a team. Applied physics, electronics and digital skills — absorbed through play, not slides.
A screen-first entry costs almost nothing and asks for no athletic prerequisites, so young people with fewer opportunities can join — and win — on genuinely equal footing.
The skills participants can gain
Mapped to the EU competence frameworks evaluators actually use.
This is what makes drones fundable, not just fun: a single project develops competences across the frameworks behind the whole Erasmus+ agenda — and speaks directly to the programme’s digital-transformation and inclusion priorities.
DigComp — Digital content creation. “To create and edit digital content in different formats, to express oneself through digital means.” Participants do not consume imagery; they capture it, process it and decide what it shows.
DigComp — Evaluating data and digital content. “To analyse, compare and critically evaluate the credibility and reliability of sources of data, information and digital content.” An aerial image is evidence only once somebody has argued about what it actually proves.
DigComp — Solving technical problems. “To identify technical problems when operating devices and using digital environments, and to solve them.” Wind, battery, signal, a failed calibration: the troubleshooting is real, and it happens in front of everyone.
ESCO: unmanned air systems. Key Competence: Digital competence — from the Council Recommendation on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning, the framework behind Youthpass. Participants in our activities can receive a Youthpass recording these competences.
We do not certify pilots, and we do not pretend to. Participants under 16 take observation, data and ground roles.
Operate real hardware and software end to end — simulator settings, firmware and radio binding, batteries and flight data — then create and share content about what you fly, responsibly and safely.
Building, wiring, repairing and tuning a small drone is applied physics, electronics and maths — the EU key competence in science, technology and engineering, learned like a pit crew.
Learners can plan a club or a tournament end to end — budget the equipment tiers, assign the roles, promote the event and run it — turning an idea into action under real constraints.
Crash, diagnose, repair, re-fly. The short loop builds frustration tolerance and calm under pressure; flying as a team of three builds communication, trust and shared responsibility.
Outcomes describe what participants can gain, and depend on how the activity is run. EVEC hosts and facilitates as a partner NGO — activities lead to a certificate of participation / Youthpass-style recognition of non-formal learning, not a formal qualification, and not a drone pilot licence or certificate of competency. Any flying of real drones follows a simulator-first, safety-first approach — indoors with caged or ducted drones wherever possible — and always within EU (EASA) and national drone rules.
Where it’s heading
The method, wired into a real initiative.
In development · An EVEC Sport initiative
A youth drone-sport ecosystem, built from Athens
Drones are already part of our STEM toolkit — and we’re now launching a youth drone-sport ecosystem: simulator-first training any school can start, safe indoor drone-soccer clubs on the FAI F9A rulebook, and a planned path toward cross-border competition, with the first European Drone Soccer Championship set for 2026. We’re building it with partners — not claiming leagues we haven’t started.
For institutions & partners
Bring the method into an Erasmus+ project.
You bring the learners and the theme; we bring tested hosting in Athens and the screen-to-sky method. Here are example projects across the Erasmus+ fields to spark ideas — when one fits, start the conversation through our Erasmus+ hub.
Youth
Squad in a Week
Young people from two countries train on simulators at home, then meet for one short mobility to build their drones and fly their first caged team matches.
School Education
The zero-travel league
Partner schools each stand up a simulator-first drone club on existing PCs and meet in online matches — then co-write the shared classroom playbook.
Adult Education
Late take-off
Digital confidence for adult learners through simulator flying, drone-building basics and the rules of the sky — proof it’s never too late to learn tech.
VET
The repair bench
Hands-on electronics for an incoming VET group — soldering, wiring, diagnostics and tuning on real small drones. Skills that transfer far beyond the hobby.
Sport
Drone soccer, properly
Start a caged, indoor drone-soccer club on the FAI F9A rulebook — the anchor of the youth drone-sport ecosystem we’re building from Athens.
Horizon Europe
Engagement partner
EVEC as your consortium’s non-research delivery partner — turning drone and digital research into hands-on demonstration and public engagement in Athens.
For people
Or get your own hands on the sticks.
Coming to do it yourself, rather than running it with your own group? There are four ways in: as a funded European Solidarity Corps volunteer for 2–12 months, as an intern through your university, through local volunteering if you are already in Athens, or remotely through online volunteering — helping turn the method into materials other people can pick up and run.
Not an organisation? You can still work with drones directly — as an intern, a local or online volunteer, or a fully EU-funded ESC volunteer. Every route ends with a certificate of participation and a reference. Find the one that fits through our Get Involved hub.
Internship
Flight-club assistant
Help run simulator sessions and STEM workshops for Athens youth — set up the kit, coach first flights, keep the fleet flying — and leave with a portfolio.
Local volunteering
The ground crew
Help set up nets and gates, charge and label batteries, marshal matches and welcome newcomers at our Athens youth sessions. No experience needed; flexible and unpaid.
Online volunteering
Mission control
No drone needed — help from anywhere: how-to guides, translations and subtitles, match graphics and the social channel.
ESC
An ESC year in Athens
2–12 EU-funded months helping run our youth activities, with drones in the STEM toolkit — accommodation, food, ~€420/mo, travel, insurance and a mentor covered.
Simulator-first
Four levels, one pathway — from a laptop to the podium.
We don’t start with expensive racing drones. We start on a screen, move into a safe indoor team sport, and let the talented few climb toward competition — every level built on recognised international standards.
Level 0 · Start here
Simulators
Free simulators on the PCs you already have, plus a few real controllers. Train pilots and run zero-travel online matches against partner groups.
Level 1 · Gateway
Tiny-whoop, indoors
Palm-sized ducted drones flown safely indoors — the gateway from the screen to real FPV flying, with all-in-one starter kits for a class.
Level 2 · School base
Drone soccer
Caged, indoor, full-contact team sport for a school gym — collisions are the game, not the hazard. Played to the FAI class F9A rulebook.
Level 3 · Advanced
FPV racing & freestyle
The competitive flagship — goggles-on racing through gates (FAI F9U / MultiGP) for the few who climb the whole ladder.
Spend on controllers first — they’re the durable asset participants keep, and they carry across every level. Equipment figures are indicative; we cost each setup with you against current EU prices.
Want the whole picture — the ecosystem, the funding routes and the partner plan? It all lives on our drone-sport page.
Explore EVEC drone sport →Let’s take off
What would you look at?
A drone is only as interesting as the thing it is pointed at — and that changes completely depending on where you are standing.
- Coastal erosion and how a shoreline has moved
- Illegal dumping in ravines, riverbeds and back roads
- Fire-risk mapping, and regrowth in the years after a burn
- Flood plains, drainage and where water actually goes
- Crop health, field boundaries, abandoned land
- Archaeological and heritage sites, photographed properly for once
- Urban tree cover, green space, and which neighbourhoods have none
- Rooftops, and which of them face the right way
The technical part is the same everywhere. The flying takes a week to learn badly and a month to learn well, wherever you are.
The question worth answering is local — and in most places it is one that somebody already argues about at council meetings.
A hundred metres up.
Standing in a field tells you about that field. A hundred metres up tells you about the region — which parcels were cut and when, roughly how much is lying in them, and whether there is any way to reach it.
Which becomes interesting the moment somebody needs to know how much of something a landscape actually holds, and whether it would be worth going to collect.
Run it somewhere that isn’t Athens.
We want to establish a European network around these methods, and we’re looking for organisations to establish it with us — not to join something finished. It doesn’t have a name yet. The founding organisations should decide that together.
You don’t need any background in drones. The materials are built so a facilitator can run them without one.
We give — the method free; a walkthrough before your first cycle; a pilot in Athens under our accreditation if you want one; co-authorship of whatever comes out of your pilot; and a say in what the network becomes.
We ask — run it once, with one group, and tell us honestly what happened, including what didn’t work.
And if something occurred to you while you were reading this — tell us that instead. Some of the best projects we have been part of started as somebody else’s idea, and we would rather join yours than talk you into ours.
No fee, no contract, no exclusivity.
EVEC Athens — OID E10172681 · PIC 909448430 · Erasmus+ Youth accredited (2023-1-EL02-KA150-YOU-000188397) · ESC Quality Label (2023-1-EL02-ESC50-QLA-000195138).
Methods by Blagoj Ristov, political scientist specialising in youth policy through non-formal education, developing them since 2025 and delivering them through EVEC’s accreditations during hosted mobilities in Athens.
erasmus@evec.org.gr — we reply within 2 working days.
Two ways forward
For institutions
Erasmus+ partnerships
Every Key Action and field we partner on — start a project with us.
Go to the hub →For people
Get Involved
Internship, volunteering or a funded ESC placement — find your way in.
Go to the hub →Go deeper
EVEC drone sport
The full ecosystem we’re building: drone soccer, the funding routes and the partner plan.
Go to the page →
