By implementing this project, we wanted to strengthen the overall quality of gastronomy education in the participating VET schools and make it more practical, modern and future-oriented. We aimed to improve the general and vocational English competences of culinary teachers, strengthen their ability to use CLIL in teaching, and increase their knowledge of sustainability, green thinking and food waste reduction in the culinary field. Through this, we wanted to help teachers provide better support to students and make learning more relevant to the needs of the European labour market. Another important objective was to create practical digital results for long-term use in schools, including a multilingual dictionary, digital learning materials and one online platform bringing these resources together. The project also aimed to support closer cooperation between partner schools and to provide useful multilingual support for Ukrainian students in the Baltics and their integration into training programmes.
We applied for this project because all partner VET schools had identified the same needs in culinary education. Students and graduates often had good vocational skills, but weak general and vocational English, which limited their professional communication, access to international learning resources, and participation in wider professional opportunities. The same challenge affected teachers, reducing their access to professional development and their ability to support students’ language development. At the same time, the partners saw a clear need to strengthen sustainability, green thinking and food waste reduction in gastronomy education, as these topics were becoming increasingly important in the food industry. Another shared need was for a practical teaching approach that could combine gastronomy, English and sustainability in one learning process, which led to the choice of CLIL. The project also addressed the lack of suitable digital teaching materials and multilingual support tools for the sector, including support for Ukrainian students in the Baltics and their integration into training programmes.