"The ALB.A Project was born and was implemented in a dual context:1) the NATIONAL NETWORK OF TOURISM AND CATERING SCHOOLS (RENAIA), of which the 13 schools involved are members, including the Lead Partner, ISIS ""STRINGHER"", which also holds the Presidency of the Network and which represents the most important association, at national level, of the training offer in the tourism and catering sector;2) the STRATEGIC PLAN OF TOURISM 2017-2022 (PST) of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage which aims to increase the attractiveness and competitiveness of the TOURISM SECTOR, supporting the development of the hospitality tourism through the improvement of the quality of the services offered and promoting economic prosperity and social sustainability through the growth of the tourism professions and the creation of new job opportunities.In line with these strategies and objectives, ALB.A Project offered to 130 STUDENTS (of which 28 with special needs) in initial vocational training attending fourth classes and to 79 RECENT GRADUATES of the 13 Tourism and Catering Schools involved, including the Lead Partner, the opportunity to carry out a professional mobility experience lasting, respectively, 1 month and 4 months (ERASMUSPro mobility) in 6 European countries: Malta, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, United Kingdom. These were, in particular, participants who were still attending or had just completed (for no more than one year) an education and vocational path in the tourism sector and who carried out the relevant professional figures during the international mobility experience.ALB.A Project offered, therefore, the young participants an internship experience in foreign companies in their field of study that provided them the opportunity to compare their language skills and acquire specific job skills. The project aimed, in particular, at reconciling the learning outcomes achieved in the education and vocational path with the needs of the labor market in the tourism sector and at enhancing the knowledge of development strategies adopted in the tourism field in other European countries, using the internship experience as a pivotal component of the training path.The general objectives pursued and achieved by the Project are:- the promotion of lifelong learning as a right to develop and update own skills in formal, non-formal and informal learning contexts;- the transparency of learning outcomes and the adherence of training to the needs of companies and professions, facilitating the meeting between supply and demand for work and increasing the competitiveness of the production system;- the usability of qualifications at national and EU level in order to facilitate geographical and professional mobility also with a view to the internationalization of companies and professions.Furthermore, international mobility allowed participants to develop important transversal skills such as: spirit of initiative, ability to adapt and ability to relate and interact in cultural contexts different from their own.Finally, the transparency of learning outcomes in the tourism sector was achieved through the ECVET system and the establishment of a partnership capable of working together on the units of the learning outcomes and the methods of evaluation and validation of the skills acquired by the participants to the international mobility.The following are the impacts achieved:- development of the specialized skills of the target groups involved (209 participants among students attending fourth classes and recent graduates);- creation of innovative training models and tools;- dissemination of results and training models among subjects in the tourism sector and the professional training;- provision of results and training models for VET schools, institutions and professionals in the local/regional territories concerned.The Project can be, therefore, considered exemplary, integrable within the strategic development of each partner of the Consortium, as well as transferable outside, to other organisations, for several reasons:- it created a WORK BASED LEARNING model with a system of actions aimed at specific training, but also at the global growth of each participant. It envisaged the continuous and active involvement of all the figures of the project staff and the supervision by the trainers and company mentors; accompanying and tutoring interventions; teaching methodologies based on involvement, participation, high integration between theory and practice, the development of practical skills that can be immediately used, the validation of acquired skills;- it provided for a system of intermediate and final checks which allowed to monitor the progress in terms of learning achieved by the participants, as well as to evaluate, transfer and validate them."

The present project deals with the implementation of internships of persons in initial vocational training in the following countries : Germany , Portugal, Italy, Sweden, Belgium and Luxembourg. The participants in this project attend the Carinthian Tourism School Warmbad Villach, which offers three types of schools : HLT (5 years), HLT for Equine Management Sector and a College (4 semesters ). The participants come from these schools. Gaining international experience is invaluable for young people and facilitates their later entry into the professional world. The aim of this project is to improve the independence, flexibility and the language skills of young people, to promote multilingualism, to add practical training and intercultural learning and to lead young people towards an open minded and European way of thinking. Through this training in a European context our students should be enabled to access the national or the European labour market after their training. This is a major contribution to fight youth unemployment in Europe. By implementing ECVET tools in the project the creditability of the stay abroad should be facilitated. Our project partners are both larger and smaller establishments in the hospitality and catering industry in the above mentioned countries. Our partner companies provide mentors for the students to introduce them to their new job environment. This ensures a favourable learning outcome during their stay abroad. It also leads to an international / European image of our school. Young people benefit a lifetime from skills and competences acquired in an internship abroad and they find it easier to get a job even when the economy is weak. The European network established by the project promotes mutual understanding and enables our school to react faster to new challenges on the labour market. The project increases the Internationalisation and Europeanisation of our insitute.

67 students of the Hertha Firnberg Schools for Business and Tourism in Vienna as well as 4 students of the HLW 19 and 4 students of the Tourismusschule Wien 21 took part in the project « Europe, here we come! » in summer 2017. The project is administrated by the « kulturzentrum Hertha Firnberg». There are 48 companies available as project partners in France, Spain, United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Greece, Malta and Belgium . Many companies already cooperated with the Hertha Firnberg Schools in the last years. Students complete a compulsory internship in upmarket hotels and restaurants in the course of their education. Internships in foreign countries are seen as highly significant at the Hertha Firnberg Schools, since they constitute an excellent preparation for the occupation-related practical as well as theoretical training, and the so-called « Vorprüfung zur Reife- und Diplomprüfung » (exam that is part of the actual school leaving exam/equivalent to A levels, but which is taken one year earlier, i.e. at the end of the fourth year). It is character-forming and helps students develop their linguistic as well as intercultural competence. The professional preparation of the interns for the internships abroad is done in the practical and theoretical occupation-related courses. The teachers have all gained international experience in the hospitality industry. Pupils are trained in restaurant service as well as in the kitchen to be prepared to work in upmarket hotels and restaurants, not to forget the training at the reception desk, which is also part of the curriculum. The linguistic as well as intercultural competence are taught in the language courses as well as in the optional course for intercultural competence. Students practice simple every-day conversations and complex professional situations by doing role plays. They also get special support by native speaker teachers.In order to anchor the spirit of the idea of European mobility in our students’ as well as their parents’ heads, a yearly information evening took place at our school. The students and their parents got to know about the advantages of the Erasmus + programme and received necessary practical information in order to successfully participate in this programme. Additionally participants of last year’s project reported on their experiences. Further information has been available at our website. Even on our open-house days we informed about the possibility of doing an internship abroad and we also motivated other schools to participate. Undoubtedly, students having completed an internship abroad, have acquired a high level of linguistic, technical as well as personal competence. Thus the quality of the final practical and theoretical exams („Vorprüfung zur Reifeprüfung“ and „A-levels“)rises significantly. Without any doubt, many pupils who have stayed in a foreign country for a certain period of time show readiness to integrate Europe-wide mobility into their future career plans. This starts with studying abroad after finishing school and ends not seldom with an international career.We even integrated a co-operation with a partner school in order to give refugees the possibility to participate in OL S for refugees, for which 16 participants are registered.

"BACKGROUND The tourism industry is a key sector of the EU. It is, in fact, over 10% of EU GDP (including the linked industries) and employs 9.7 million people and 1.8 million companies. In our country, the industry has, as a whole, about 191.000 businesses and, on 31st December 2015, 886.000 employees, while in the two regions covered by the project (Sicily and Calabria), between 2015 and the third quarter of 2016, employment in the tourism sector has recorded an average increase compared to 2013-2014, by 3.8% in Sicily and 2.7% in Calabria. The data and projections show, however, on the one hand, the expansion of the sector and the tourist attractiveness of the two regions and, on the other hand, emphasize the need to provide trained young staff, highly qualified and able to respond positively to new and high competence requested by the local labor market. OBJECTIVES In line with the objectives of the EU 2020 Strategy and ET 2020, WORK AWAY offers young participants the opportunity to test and deepen their curricular competencies: professionalism in the specific sector of TOURISM, soft skills, cultural knowledge and language skills. These general objectives are pursued through a mobility experience which consists of an internship abroad of 1 month for 96 STUDENTS attending CLASSES IV and of 3 months for 80 newly graduated of the 8 participating VET Schools (Technical Institutes for Tourism and Hotel and Catering Schools). The project also promotes the exchange and transfer of good practices in VET by relating our VET system with the training and employment system to other European countries and contributes to the consolidation of the ECVET System. ACTIVITY 1. Transversal Activities: management and coordination; Dissemination and exploitation of results; Follow up; 2. Mobility Preparation: Plan of communication and cooperation; Recruitment and selection of participants; preparation of participants; Learning plan definition; 3. Mobility Realization: Internship in the company; Monitoring and tutoring; Project feedback and experience of mobility; Assessment, certification and validation of skills acquired. METHODOLOGY in 4 PHASES 1. MANAGEMENT PLAN AND MONITORING: the project is coordinated by IIS ""Moncada"" in close collaboration with other 16 partners of the Consortium. The Plan is based on the EQAVET quality system and includes specification on: financial arrangements, timing, names of managers / representatives of each organization, responsibilities, roles and tasks, project phases with related milestones, risk management procedures. 2. PLAN OF LEARNING AND EVALUATION: the learning and evaluation plan contains specific references and commitments on transparency and recognition of competences in an ECVET-compatible framework. The documents are: Learning Agreement and Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The quality of the experience of mobility is controlled through regular evaluation questionnaires filled out by participants, mentors and tutors. 3. PLAN OF COMMUNICATION AND COOPERATION: it provides for the involvement of all participants in the partnership with effective tools and rules to maintain a high level of interest on the project. 4. STRATEGIC PLAN FOR DISSEMINATION AND EXPLOITATION: includes phases and methods to be adopted by all partners to disseminate and exploit the project and its results all over the duration and behond. EXPECTED RESULTS a. The development of highly specific and innovative skills in the tourism and catering sector; b. More competitive and greater employment opportunities in the labor market for the participants; c. The development and innovation of VET systems. IMPACT The project includes a significant impact on the VET Systems through: learning outcomes achievement of participants to mobility; skills acquired from the staff involved in the project; recognition of skills in an ECVET-compatible framework. It represents also an added value and development opportunity for the participating organizations, which will consolidate a new training segment to complete the technical and vocational education and answer the demand of enterprises of high professional skills. LONG-TERM BENEFITS In the long term, thanks to the dissemination tools developed and to the size and importance of the consortium, it is expected to have a multiplier effect both regionally, and at national and EU level and the orientation of public policies on the base of the results of the project, using in addition, as a standard model, all procedures and best practices developed within the Project."

"The LEO quali-TC Consortium has been existing since 2014, when, on the occasion of the launch of the ERASMUS+ KA1 LEO quali-TC MOBILITY project, the PLAN of INTERNATIONALIZATION and EU COOPERATION was formalized among the partners. The LEO quali-TC Consortium, in its new ""DIGITAL"" role, dedicated to innovation and digitalization of the catering sector, is integrated with 14 new schools in the TOURISM and CATERING sector and 22 new intermediary organizations, located in the territory of 13 Italian regions (North: Piedmont, Veneto, Liguria and Emilia Romagna; Center: Tuscany, Marche, Umbria and Lazio; South: Puglia, Molise, Basilicata, Calabria and Sicily). All highly competent and specific for the purpose of achieving the objectives of the project. Through the creation of a specific path of international mobility for STUDENTS in initial vocational training and JUST GRADUATED young people of the tourism and catering sector, LEO quali-TC&DIGITAL aims, therefore, to create professional figures with technical, creative and relational skills, able to innovate, in a digital key, the professional catering sector and have a greater impact on the final value of the products and services offered by the companies in the sector. Other objectives of the project are: - Strengthen and broaden the transversal competences of the participants and, among them, the knowledge of sectoral languages; -Qualify the training offer through international mobility paths, in order to make it as functional as possible to meet the real needs expressed by the companies; -Qualify students through an international practical internship that makes them more competitive and employable on the local and EU labor market and, in line with the EU AGENDA 2020, strengthen the alternating school and work learning paths as concrete occasions of training and growth; - Making participants able to manage their own preparation and investing it in the creation of innovative activities in the catering sector; -Promote the comparison and transfer of good training practices, linking our VET system with the training and working system of other EU companies. These objectives, in line with the ET2020 STRATEGY, are pursued through a mobility experience in ES, PT, FR, DE, UK and MT of 1 MONTH for 120 students (classes IV) and of 4 MONTHS (within the framework of the ERASMUSPRO Initiative) ) for 80 just graduated young people of the 20 VET schools involved. In summary, the activities envisaged by the project are: 1. Cross-cutting activities: Management; Dissemination and exploitation of results; Follow up; 2. Mobility preparation: Communication and cooperation plan; Selection and preparation of participants; Definition of learning plan; 3. Mobility: Internship in the company; Monitoring; Evaluation of traineeships and projects; transparency of the LOs. From the methodological point of view the project includes: - continuous and active involvement of all project staff figures; accompaniment, tutoring and monitoring interventions; teaching methodologies based on involvement, participation, the high integration between theory and practice, the development of practical skills that can be immediately spent, the validation of acquired skills; - a system of mid-term and final checks to monitor progress in learning achieved by the participants, as well as to evaluate, certify, transfer and validate them in an ECVET-compatible framework; - the preparation of a final report focused on the identification of the effective functioning of the activities and the elements that can be reproduced, transferred and integrated within the Consortium and in other contexts. For the participants the main results expected from the realization of the project concern not only its usability in the employment market, but also its positive influences on the development of human potential through its formal, informal and non-formal learning moments. Finally, it is expected the consolidation of a network of EU stakeholders who can transfer good practices and innovative training models in the tourism and catering sectors, which will allow future collaborations and updating and use of project results on a wider scale. These, therefore, the expected impacts: AT THE END OF THE PROJECT: -development of the specialized skills of the target groups involved (200 young people between students and new graduated); -realization of models and training tools of innovative value. IN THE MIDDLE TERM: - dissemination of the results and training models between the subjects of the relevant macro-sector and of vocational training; - provision of results and training models for institutions and professionals of local / regional territories; IN A LONG TERM: - orientation of the policies of the public partners involved based on the results of the project; - use of procedures and tools developed as a standard model."