Are you thirsty? As-tu soif ? Being thirsty is being alive. It also is being curious. It is being in progress. The students are building up their vocational skills as they are learning and getting to know who they really are. The school plays an essential role in the training of students, of young European citizens who will become professionals. The international relationships enrich the school program as the young are becoming who they want to be. When experiencing an international mobility, the student acquires unequaled skills and knowledge. Water is a source of life. As a natural element, it shapes marine and terrestrial landscapes. It is essential in gastronomy. In different countries in Europe, its use differ, as what is at stake considering its exploitation, its abundance or scarcity. The objective of the school partnership is to study and use this element, water, and the resources associated to it in order to strengthen vocational skills linked to gastronomy and tourism. The school partnership project addresses students in catering and tourism sections in Europe. It aims at intertwining the vocational skills of the students and have them discover different aspects of the culture of each associated country thanks to water. Each country has, as a matter of fact, cultural particularities linked to traditions and local resources. What matters is quenching thirst, as the title of the project invites us to, literally, but it also deals with quenching thirst for knowledge, encounters, sharing. It is about learning together and from each other and about enhancing intercultural and international relationships as well as the practice of foreign languages. Five schools are involved in the project, including two from France. The coordinating school is French and has , as other schools, gained experience from past European projects. The schools gathered for this project make a brand new team, because, even though three partner schools have already worked together, during past project, two new partners have joined in: Italy and Slovenia. The wide range of geographical diversity is a richness for this project as this will enable to encompass the issues linked to water in gastronomy, tourism, culture, and, above all, the project will be an extraordinary opportunity to take into account the ecological dimension of such a necessary resource at the European scale. Water is an essential element making it possible to involve many school subjects and different contexts. The vocational skills linked to catering and tourism will be put into practice during each international gathering. The objective is the acquisition of new skills thanks to the sharing of practice. The project also aims at making it easier for students to travel abroad for training periods, each partner school wanting to give the opportunity for students to perform international internships, relying on the accompaniment of colleagues from partner schools. The project is scheduled for a two-year-span, including at least two mobilities with students per year. Each partner country will contribute to report on the experience spent during vocational workshops, in catering as well as in tourism. The relation between water and the visited sites will be explained to report back within each school. Professionals will intervene in each country so that to explain the use of water and its impact on tourism. The students and the pedagogical teams of each partner school will be the target audience. The activities led by each school before the mobilities will prepare the students an imply then in the project. What is at stake here is to introduce some aspects of one's area having a relation with water. The potential long term benefit of the project is first and foremost due to the friendship network of young European citizens that it will create. They will also share vocational skills. This project is created on the basis of a mutual exchange. The network created between international schools is of prime importance for the implementation of exchanges in the long term enhancing the vocational skills of students. The chosen theme is at the heart of contemporary issues linked to the necessary awareness of the preservation of ecosystems. It addresses present and future generations.
Are you Thirsty? The chosen theme, water, is at the heart of contemporary issues. It is linked to the awareness of the preservation of ecosystems. It is aimed at present and future generations. The project finally lasted from September 2018 to February 2021. This unexpected lenght of the project is unfortunately directly linked to a context of global sanitary crisis which interrupted the smooth running of the planned calendar and made it impossible to organise the last two mobilities, in Sicily and Slovenia. Each delegation was preparing for the trip to Sicily when the announcement of a confinement finally cut short the planned travels in March 2020. The courses resumed, at a distance, and it took some time for the partners to adapt to the situation and to find out how to redefine the objectives of the project without travelling but by maintaining the objectives of the partnership. Some students were not able to seize the opportunity they had been given to discover a foreign country. Younger students took over the task of participating in distance learning activities, discovering Sicily and Slovenia. Other students who were still in school and who had already participated in the first phases of the project were happy to meet their classmates behind the screens. Each of the two distance encounters lasted five days. The diversity of the geographical situations enhanced a very broad vision of the issues linked to water and its use in gastronomy, tourism and, above all, taking into account the ecological dimension of an indispensable resource. The project began with the mobility in France, in Brittany, with the village of Saint-Pierre de Quiberon as a rallying point. The discovery of oyster culture and oyster tasting was a memorable moment for many participants. In Germany, the students cycled from the centre of Munster to a European nature reserve. The delegations discovered many species of birds that have found refuge there. In addition, the port of Duisburg and its river tour provided a wealth of information on the links between water and the economy. The professional skills related to the hotel and tourism industry were practised in each school during the international meetings. The aim was to acquire new skills through the sharing of practices. In Slovakia, a gala reception was held on a boat sailing on Lake Namestovo to an island housing historic buildings, the only remains of a village otherwise sunk under the artificial lake. It was a moment of extraordinary intensity. In France, a culinary workshop with seaweed and herbs from the coast was organised, to the delight of all. In Germany, culinary workshops highlighted local resources. In Italy, the sharing of recipes with sardines emphasised the gastronomic diversity of the area. In Slovenia, the experience of a sea bream recipe in a salt crust broadcast live and at distance was another highlight of the partnership on sharing professional skills. The project was also intended to highlight the interventions of professionals. In Slovenia, a fish farmer presented his fish farm and a biology specialist introduced the regional aquatic environment near Izola. Students presented the distribution of fresh water in Slovenia. A photo competition highlighting water as an element was organised for all partner countries. A multilingual dictionary was created. A book retracing the stages of the project and its results was disseminated. The project also aimed to facilitate the mobility of students for internship periods abroad, as each partner school wished to provide the opportunity for international internships for the students by being able to count on the follow-up of colleagues from the partner schools. Due to the health crisis, the partner schools were unable to implement placements. Teachers and students improved their IT-skills a lot by working online with new tools like Jitsi, Zoom, Canva, Quizziz, Kahoot .. Finally everybody had the chance to practise and improve their English skills. The network between schools has enabled long-term exchanges of trust and confidence, promoting international openness with a view to improving the professional integration of young people through the acquisition of skills. In this period of pandemic, students from partner schools taking part in training in the hotel and tourism sectors are directly impacted and need to be supported by all educational communities. This project helps them. The first of the potential long-term benefits of such a project is the building of a network of friendship between young Europeans sharing professional and linguistic skills as well as cultural knowledge forging European citizenship. A new project is validated for the next two years with the same international team that has proven its reliability. The new theme deals with trees in different contexts, its use and preservation.