The 5 main problems to mobility in Europe are stated below together with suggestions on methods of dismantling these. The 5 obstacles are selected from a catalogue of nearly 400(!), which have been identified and ranked after extensively consultations with stakeholders, experts, actors, and not least young people themselves. The 5 obstacles which have been taken on board in the study are:      1. Legal and administrative obstacles  The issue of legal and administrative obstacles to mobility is one which has been well investigated in an EU-context. A major study was carried out under the Petra programme (1991-1995) and was later updated and included in the 1996 Green Paper "Education, training, research: The obstacles to transanational mobility". The Green Paper identified the lack of a clearly defined social and legal status of (young) people on placements abroad as the major obstacle to mobility in a VET-context. The three main problems are enumerated under the following three headings: residence; health, safety and liability at the workplace; and availability of information.     2. Quality "Quality" is an exclusive concept. In the perspective of Mobility, it would be correct to talk about mobility as a process rather than a product- a process which will hopefully lead to a quality product. It is possible to point to three major benefits accruing from an increased quality conciousness with regard to mobility: Firstly, is the incentive to improve skills acquisition in mobility projects; secondly, there is a strong connection between quality and quantity. Quality is key to involving more (young) people in mobility activities; thirdly, many of the skills acquired during a stay abroad are not of a kind that lend themselves to direct measurement. A full quality system for mobility should ideally encompass three dimensions: 1) Defining quality: describing what quality is (establishing quality criteria) 2) Quality awareness: creating an awareness of quality among actors and stakeholders 3) Quality assurance: facilitating quality at a hands-on level by applying operational versions of quality criteria to individual projects.     3. Sustainable strategies  The lack of sustainable strategies is mentioned in the evaluation of the first phase of the Leonardo de Vinci programme (1995-2000) as one of the major weaknesses of the programme. Projects are organised on an ad hoc basis by idealistic individuals, rather than as a concerted effort by teams of actors in a long-term and sustainable perspective. The 2000-evaluation speaks of a "lack of strategy at all levels, from project to the overall programme". In the context of mobility, this translates into four levels, namely: EU, sectoral, national and institutional level. For each of these levels, clear transparant stratgeies are needed.       4. Support mechanisms Once a strategy is formulated, it needs to be implemented at an operational level. At this operational level, the different actors involved face different challenges. Individual apprentices have not much freedom to choose; they are often dependent on the school or group stages. Information on mobility matters is scattered and fragmented; a recent survey shows that 87% of the pupils find the information about placements provided by their schools insuffiscient. Finding placements in companies is difficult; not many companies show their vacancies for interns clearly.    5. Communities of practic and awareness The practice of transnational mobility has grown exponentially since the humble beginning, but the overall quality of the mobility projects does not seem to have increased pari passu with the increased quantity. One of the explanantions might be that practitioners have not formed so called "communities of practice".  Through our participation in COPs we help define what passes as "knowledge" within that field and to relay this through our interaction with others.  One of the problems with transnational mobility lies with the lack of intercation between actors in the field. Knowledge is personal rather than embedded in the community - it "belongs" to a singel person and it is not passed on and shared.    In almost all reports, interviews and surveys, one recommendation keeps popping up: we need more information and increased awareness on the benefits of mobility. The essential elements of successful dissemination of projects are: content, networking and communication.  Another way of looking at communication is to consider 'placements abroad' as an innovation. When accelerating the diffusion of an innovation, we need to adhere the following five principles of successful innovations: relative advantage, complexity (limited), observability, compatibility and triability.