Three high schools in catering and hospitalities , three countries linked to a common thread: gastronomy and European cultural heritage that were decreed earlier , a mobility problem and deleterious school climate. They find that the match between education and employability needs to be improved. Partners who want to participate in other European countries practices, systems and different administrative and educational organization. We examined our difficulties to understand and apprehend the professional world, to find the motivation for their education and their professional training. They also have difficulties to project themselves into a professional mobility outside their region. The project is committed to develop the social, professional and linguistic skills of our students in the field of catering, especially for our most vulnerable and disadvantaged learners. The project also aims to help students to communicate in English and develop the practice of oral language. We seek to identify the obstacles to a positive insertion in the professional environment to promote social inclusion through contact with other cultures and other know-how related to gastronomy and hotels in general. We have also planned to develop remediation tools after observing other practices and methods. Beyond the main objective, we also want to address new skills, communication skills (intercultural, linguistic, digital) and finally promote autonomy and self-confidence. The 3 educational institutions are involved in the project with different issues and working methods. Engaged learners, aged 15 to 18, are all students in the hotel and restaurant sector. 24 pupils per educational institution are involved for the entire project and 12 pupils in each school for mobility. The teaching teams are composed of 5 to 7 people per high school, an administrative and financial team and a steering team in charge of teaching and administrative work composed of 3-4 people. The planned activities will be coordinated through eTwinning, and institutions will work on a common gastronomy project that will allow teams and students to get to know each other. Activities related to the kitchen and service specialties ( in each establishment) will be carried out in each school, as well as activities related to the culture of each of the partners. English will be practiced through activities such as tutorials on professional practices, the production of newsletters, virtual exchanges. In terms of communication and diffusion, the project and the productions will be disseminated through Twinspace, the website created for the project, at information meetings, forums, open day, publication of articles in the press local and official education sites. A coordinator team has been set up in each establishment with a principal interlocutor. Since France is the coordinator of the project, the French interlocutor set up from the beginning regular electronic exchanges to build the project in a collaboration way. These exchanges were reinforced by video-conferences in order to plan the mobilities and activities. Throughout the project each institution has specific responsibilities related to the activities: Italy manages Twinspace, Slovakia the newsletters and France as coordinator ensures that the schedules of activities is respected, and manages the website created for the project. In order to measure the success of the project we will use indicators. That will be compare at the entrance to the training and at the end of the project. For the dropout, we will rely on changes in enrollment between the first year and the last, and the number of sanctions and exclusions. Involvement and success in teaching will be assessed using language placement tests, professional practice or teaching sessions, graduation (through success rate) and prosecution study. The students going abroad for internships or for a job will be compared with current rates. An online questionnaire will be submitted to the entrants on the interest of the project and their desires for mobility. We expect a drop in dropout, better social inclusion, increased skills, validation of language skills via the Europass passport. In the long term the partners will be able to collaborate in order to perpetuate exchanges between institutions through new Erasmus + or eTwinning projects, to obtain the eTwinning quality label, and to spread the European dimension of each establishment.
Three catering and hospitality schools, three countries linked by a common thread: gastronomy and the European cultural heritage, a mobility problem and a poor school climate. The three partners involved in this project have noted that the match between education and employability needs to be improved. In order to guarantee better employability, it is therefore necessary to improve the capacity for professional integration in order to reduce social exclusion.the level of education of young people is a discriminatory element in mobility, as is the lack of knowledge of foreign languages. We wanted to find concrete solutions, based on the practices and methods of each of us around a common theme, "catering". This sector responds to a strong professional demand which requires not only purely professional skills but also social skills, an ability to adapt (autonomy, interpersonal skills), effective mobility and a command of foreign languages. This project aims to develop the social, professional and linguistic skills of our students in the catering industry, particularly for our most vulnerable and disadvantaged learners. We sought to identify the barriers to positive integration into the workplace in order to promote social inclusion through contact with other cultures and skills related to gastronomy and the hotel industry in general. Beyond the main objective, we wanted to address communication skills (intercultural, linguistic, digital) in order to promote autonomy and self-confidence among the most disadvantaged students. The three schools involved in the project had different issues and working methods. The three schools involved in the project had different issues and working methods. The learners involved, aged between 15 and 18, are all students in the tourism sector. 24 students per school were involved for the whole project and 12 students in each school for the mobility. The pedagogical teams are composed of 5-7 people per school, an administrative and financial team and a steering team in charge of the pedagogical and administrative work composed of 3-4 people. In terms of dissemination, some of the activities carried out can be seen on eTwinning and on the schools' websites, which allowed our pupils to get to know each other and the different cultures of the partners. Other activities were set up for communication through articles, interviews in the local press, actions to promote the schools (open doors, forums) and to promote our schools, sections and pupils. The planned activities were partly carried out and promoted on the eTwinning platform, but with the health crisis, our partners were without classes for several months. The communication between the project actors was complicated and naturally moved to non-institutional communication networks (Facebook, Messenger etc.) All participants used English during all phases of the project. Activities related to the specialities of cooking and service, linked to the culture of each of the partners were carried out in preparation for the mobilities, during the mobilities and at the end of them. English was constantly used through activities such as tutorials on professional practices, a presentation through an animated character (VOKI), the creation of newsletters, virtual exchanges... The good management by the coordinating country ensured that the schedule of activities was respected, thanks to the regular support of the partners. Thanks to the indicators (language test, internship periods in foreign countries, mobility, training of teachers to teach in another language) the project was beneficial. We have noticed an increased interest in European languages and culture and our pupils are more easily able to project themselves. The constraints of prolonging the project due to the health crisis were heavy, but in the end we were able to motivate our pupils over the long term and thus encourage interaction between different levels of classes, and integrate a greater number of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, and limit school drop-out. The project will allow us to perpetuate the actions on European openness, to widen the range of partners and to value teachers who have become experts in project management.