H.E.A.L.T.H.Y. D.I.E.T. - teacHing and Empowering AbiLiTY of stuDents In prEparing plaTes” was designed starting from the consideration that the responsibility of school doesn’t limit itself to educate responsible citizens: it should be able to help students enter the labor market too . According to this reason high schools in hotel management and food and wine need to afford the increasing demand of gluten free, biological,vegetarian and vegan food by costumers. A study held by the Center for Research on Celiac Disease (CFRC) of the University of Boston (USA) has shown that patients with celiac disease in Europe correspond to 1% of the population and they have increased by 5 times in the last 25 years. However, this is still an increasing number. The people who, instead, have chosen to follow a vegan diet for ethical reasons are on average 3%. The dissemination of these realities, for one side has widened the demand for new graduates that are able to cook foods that can satisfy some specific customers and on the other side it opened the doors for the establishment of new entrepreneurial activities (being a catering piece that is not entirely deeply-rooted in the catering). H.E.A.L.T.H.Y. D.I.E.T. has set as a goal both the achievement of results on the participants and on the schools. The training objectives of the project will be therefore : - improvement of the English language (it is estimated that the students, having to work in groups with peers of different nationalities, also using tracks and texts written in English, will improve their language skills by 40%. 25 % of participants will pass from a knowledge equal to A2 to one equal to B1, 10% from B1 to B2, and finally a 5 % from B2 to C1; - development of transverse skills through work in multicultural groups with particular attention to the ability of the student to enter a communicative network and to organize their own work; - development of entrepreneurial skills through participation in the simulation of businesses and appropriate reflections on the space that a catering activity can build up by introducing gluten-free, biological, vegetarian and vegan products in the menus; - improvement of knowledge concerning the preparation of traditional dishes and those ones belonging to the gastronomic cultures of the countries that are involved in the project. The objectives identified by the project for school Institution correspond to the increasing of Training Offer through the implementation of the use of non-formal teaching methodologies and the creation of courses focused on the new needs of consumers to whom catering needs to adapt. In this way it intends to lay the foundations to make the training offered to learners more and more in line with the demands coming from the labor market. To achieve these objectives H.E.A.L.T.H.Y. D.I.E.T. has provided the implementation of educational activities to be carried in partnership, cooperating remotely and in the course of 4 mobilities that will take place in Italy, Latvia and Croatia and France involving in each of them 24 students (of which 12 coming from the host institution and 4 from each of the other 3 schools) with an age range between 15 and 18 years old. At European level collaboration will be represented by: the collaboration teacher that will establish the activities to be carried out at distance and that will be the joint preparation of the teaching material, through which 4 preparatory classes will be held (each school will realize them alone but using the common didactic material) and 2 virtual mobilities, in which students will be able to get to know the peers of other countries and to analyze the project themes. The activities carried out with the classroom and virtual meetings will find their maximum development in physical mobilities, in which the disciplinary areas chosen by the project will be dealt with the use of non-formal teaching methodologies and exploiting the educational power of the "Peer education". The project for the beneficiaries of the mobilities will positively impact on participants because of having the possibility to know other cultures, to improve transverse and disciplinary technicians skills and to increase at the same time their potentiality of being employed at the end of studies. On the other hand, the institutes will be able to benefit from the produced educational material and the skills that will be acquired by the teachers that are involved in the realization of the project. In the medium and long term for the partnership the project could turn out to be the start of new collaborations in the transnational field for the realization of an orientation activity in the labor market abroad too.
"H.E.A.L.T.H.Y. D.I.E.T. - teacHing and Empowering AbiLiTY of stuDents In prEparing plaTes "was designed in the belief that the world of education should not limit itself to educating responsible citizens, but must also prepare and guide them to the labor market. For professional Institutes with a Hospitality and Food and Wine address, it was important to deal with a sector that is witnessing constant growth, namely that of gluten-free, organic and vegetarian and vegan food. A study by the Center for Research on Celiac Disease (CFRC) of the University of Boston (USA), in fact, has shown that patients with celiac disease in Europe correspond to 1% of the population and in the last 25 years they have increased by 5 times, and are constantly increasing. On the other hand, people who have chosen to follow a vegan diet for ethical reasons averaged 3%. The spread of these realities, on the one hand, has widened the demand for new graduates able to cook food that can satisfy this specific clientele and, on the other hand, has paved the way for the emergence of new entrepreneurial activities (being in any case of a catering segment still not fully rooted in catering). H.E.A.L.T.H.Y. D.I.E.T. has foreseen, within 34 months of implementation starting from 01/09/2018 and until 30/06/2021, the achievement of the following training objectives: - improvement of the English language (25% of students, working in groups with peers of different nationalities, also using tracks and texts written in English, were able to practice and improve their expressive skills); - development of transversal skills through work in multicultural groups with particular results in the participants' ability to integrate into a communicative network and self-organize their work; - development of entrepreneurial skills through participation in the simulation of businesses and appropriate reflections on the space that a restaurant business can carve out, introducing gluten-free, organic, vegetarian and vegan products into the menus; - improvement of knowledge concerning the preparation of traditional dishes belonging to the gastronomic cultures of the countries involved in the project. The project also aimed at improving and expanding the Training Offer through the implementation of the use of non-formal teaching methodologies and the creation of courses focused on the new needs of consumers to whom catering needs to adapt. In doing so, H.E.A.L.T.H.Y. D.I.E.T. it intended to lay the foundations to make the training offered to learners increasingly in line with the demands coming from the labor market. To achieve these objectives, H.E.A.L.T.H.Y. D.I.E.T. provided for the realization of didactic activities carried out in partnership, cooperating at a distance and during 3 mobilities lasting 5 days (plus 2 travel days) which took place in Italy, Croatia and France, involving 18 students in each of them ( of which 6 selected by the host Institute and 6 from each partner Institute) aged between 15 and 18 and from the third and fourth grades of each participating Institute. The collaboration in the European context has resulted, for distance activities, in the joint preparation of the teaching material, through which 3 preparatory meetings were held, in which the students began to get to know their peers from other countries and to analyze the project themes. . The activities carried out with the classroom meetings and in virtual mode have found their maximum development in physical mobility, in which the disciplinary areas chosen by the project have been addressed through the use of non-formal teaching methodologies and able to exploit the power educational of "peer education". The project for the beneficiaries of the mobility has given the opportunity to learn about other cultures, improve transversal and technical-disciplinary skills and thus increase their employment potential once school is over. The participating schools, on the other hand, benefited from the didactic material produced and from the skills that the teachers involved in the project will indirectly acquire. In the medium-long term, the “H.E.A.L.T.H.Y. D.I.E.T. " for the adhering partnership has translated into the start of new collaborations in the transnational field, also for the creation of alternation courses between school and work and other Erasmus + projects abroad.