The project aims to achieve the following objectives: O1: to promote and support the development in the two identified target groups (VET teachers and VET students) on green skills in the food and cooking field. Skills related to save on energy consumption, to reduce waste of raw material and to use organic, quality-labeled, zero-mile and local product. O2: to include participants with fewer opportunities due to gender, age, and socioeconomic status to reduce the risk of social exclusion and offer a vocational alternative. O3: to improve soft skills in design and management of complex projects and provide a European dimension to the three participating organizations, two of which are submitting an Erasmus+ proposal for the first time. O4: to support awareness-raising on environmental challenges and climate change by developing skills and competences in waste-free cooking, O5: to train VET educators and develop a spillover effect, as the educators themselves will train a number of students who will in turn be cookers and transfer the new techniques to others.
The project is an opportunity to improve the skills of the whole partnership in the field of sustainable food, food waste and food preservation that will enable to become more competitive and more attractive in the labor market that increasingly demands green skills. To this end, the International Labor Organization (ILO) of the United Nations has estimated a net job growth of 18 million by 2030 coming from the environmental transition. The project can be part of the educational offerings of both VET institutions in Romania and Italy, which are oriented to support the awareness of the use of resources in a circular and anti-waste perspective. The project allows to train future catering and canteen system operators who are promoters of modern, sustainable and healthy food styles. The project fits with the goals set out in the European Green deal strategy, in the Agency European 2030 in which 17 concrete SDGs goals for sustainable development have been included.