Aimed objectives: O1 – Ensuring 4 internships according to the local development curriculum, with a duration of 3 weeks in 2 flows for 30 students (10th Grade – Tourism (8) and Gastronomy (8), 11th Grade – Tourism (6) and Gastronomy (8)) at relevant economic agents in Granada, Spain; O2 – Transfering the learning outcomes to other students, Services profile/Tourism and Gastronomy, from CEVM or other similar VET schools, through organising specific demonstrative/dissemination activities by all the 30 beneficiary students; O3 – Valorisation of the beneficiaries’ acquired professional experience within a local Entrepreneurship Fair and other specific activities by initiating virtual firms which illustrate good-practice examples from the Spanish Hospitality industry; O4 – Consolidating the European dimension in VET in CEVM by integrating the good practices in the contents of VET subjects. Considering the international dimension inherent to Tourism and Gastronomy, we chose Spain as a work placement for the internships, a European state with an extremely competitive Tourism industry (12,1 million foreign tourists in 2019 in Granada - Andalusia) and a rich and varied gastronomic culture.
The mission of `Virgil Madgearu` Economic College (CEVM) is to offer its students quality initial VET adjusted to the global socio-economic realities of the labour market. Through the Erasmus+ Programme, CEVM set as a goal to extend the School-Economic Agent partnership beyond the national borders. Thus, CEVM addressed multiple needs: the improvement of the results of the initial VET through high-quality internships for rapid insertion into the global labour market, and a better correlation of the competences built along the study years with those required by the employees; the encouragement of the entrepreneurial initiative. The ‘Improvement of professional training in Tourism and Alimentation through European internships – IMPROVET’ Project aimed at the professionalisation of the VET graduate in Tourism and Gastronomy through high-quality internships, globally recognised, endowing him/her with the competences required by the employee (professional, transversal, interpersonal). Another goal was the internalisation of VET so that the graduate could maximise the chances for integration into the world labour market, valorise his/her entrepreneurial potential and minimise the risk of social exclusion (‘No child left behind’).