"Kitchen of the Future - Future of the Kitchen" is a Strategic School Partnership project that brings together three VET institutions from Gelsenkirchen (Germany), Newcastle (England) and Felgueiras (Portugal).Our project is innovative, because we will deliver usable and useful kitchen concepts employing individual and group strategies to foster a food culture that employs new ways to produce, share and enjoy food that is organic, healthy, profitable and fun. The collaboration will explore new trends and food practices – growing, cooking, eating – and make them available to the public to support the well-being of people and the environment. This topic is of extreme importance for consumers and industry. In fact, healthy and sustainable food is gaining more and more attention from consumers and industry. Anticipating new trends and exchanging knowledge in multi-national teams have to become an essential part of vocational training and therefore need to be boosted. The three priorities of our project are:- to promote an open and innovative education, training and youth work, embedded in the digital era: students will learn new work techniques, gain knowledge on the culture and traditions and trends in our partner countries and compare gastronomy, hospitality and food industry in the different cultural settings. Moreover, they will organize their own learning processes using digital media and participating in blended mobilities of virtual and physical assignments;-to provide transparency and recognition of skills and qualifications to facilitate learning, employability and labour mobility:students will improve their portfolio on the basis of internationally recognized standards (ECVET). They are enabled to make use of their participation in this project for their future work life in multi-national teams or settings. Especially in the field of hospitality, international mobility and intercultural competence are assets which raise the students' chances of employment and to be upwardly mobile;-to promote entrepreneurship education and social entrepreneurship among young people:students will be enabled to put ideas into practice and to develop kitchen concepts through social enterprises, tackling challenges and problems identified within their communities. Our participating learners will work on various topics they need in order to develop a concept of a modern restaurant in mixed groups. They will support each other, benefit from the exchange of knowledge and experience of students from different European countries. Finally, they will present their product of their team work to be assessed by a jury consisting of future bank accountants. This process underlines the social aspects of entrepreneurship as well as the economical ones as they will get a feedback by the future bank accountants whether their concept is approved of and they would get an authorization of a loan by a bank in real life. The project covers all aspects of a modern approach to vocational training, especially in the sector of hospitality, including socio-economic aspects as well as European awareness, responsibilities and personal development of the participants.
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