With the project, we wanted to achieve primarily 3 main goals - improving professional and soft skills (organizational, communication, environmental, and other) of the students involved by enabling direct contact with foreign students and teachers. Furthermore, strengthening the language competences of the students involved and finally finding a new partner in a gastronomically attractive environment with the promise of long-term cooperation. In addition to the above, we also wanted to make the field of study more attractive for applicants and students, to obtain information on minimizing food waste and to introduce new gained knowledge into the daily practice of our school. At the same time, we wanted to gain experience in project administration focused on international cooperation and to join the network of schools using the Erasmus+ program. It was also important for us to allow pupils with limited opportunities (with health problems, social and cultural differences, with economic obstacles and pupils who are at risk of school failure) to travel abroad and we wanted to broaden students' horizons in the field of digital technologies (within the participants involved - pupils and persons responsible for project implementation).
Stredni skola technicka a gastronomicka Blansko is a non-profit organization that specializes in providing educational programs in the fields of electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and gastronomy. Although we already had experience with foreign activities of students in technical fields, we still lacked a project focused specifically on gastronomy. We believe that, especially for services and hospitality, gaining foreign experience is necessary for the further professional growth and development of our students, and that is why we decided to implement a project called "Discovering regional Italian gastronomy". The project enabled us not only to increase the professional and language competences of our pupils, but also to establish cooperation with italian school called IP Crotto Caurga (located in Chiavenna), which is an attractive partner for our organization in the field of gastronomy and with which we expect further cooperation in the future.