The Catering Mobility project was founded 14 years ago with the purpose of giving students the possibility to gather experience abroad after they have finished their studies. More precisely, these experiences have always been internships in the food and nutrition sector. Students from the 'kitchen and service' and the bakery and butcher programs are able to apply for these internships. The 'Chase-Network' started 22 years ago with England, France and Sweden. The Network has since expanded to include 16 partners, 13 different countries and our school has been an active member for 13 years.Every exchange runs for a period of 5 months. Students are guided and assisted by one of the partnerschools. Every country selects, sends and receives students (except Iceland, they only receive). During the first month of their stay, students get acquainted with their hosts and the country. A very thorugh language course is combined with cultural excursions, company visits and practical lessons in the hosting school.At all times during their stay, students are assisted and guided by one of the local coordinators or teachers. After the first month follows a 4 month internship in one of the companies, hotels or restaurants selected by the hosting school. During this period the students remain in close contact with their hosts and their own school. For many of them this is their first long stay abroad and the contact with a known partner works both motivating and reassuring. The very important personal contact between the schools is equally important as it allows for quick and easy communication (in case any problems arise).Beside the long term project we will start a short term project. The students themselves are the requesting party . Some of them would like to do their practical work-placement abroad during their last school-year. For this project we work together with our partner of Sweden and we have contact with 2 new partners (Germany and Denmark)The ERASMUS+ programm gives our students the opportunity to experience a working environment abroad, as well on a material, emotional, intellectual as ability level. Most of our students do not possess the financial means for these kind of programs.It is the perfect way to introduce them to an independent life as adult and a unique experience 'European Passport' will complement their diploma when they start looking for work.

Ester Mosessons Culinary School (gymnasium) is a member of two partnerships in Europe within mobility for students and staff exchange. One is CHASE (Consortium of Hospitality and Accomodation Schools in Europe), with15 partner schools and one placement organisation), where Merike Merelaid, the school´s coordintor, is the chairwoman. CHASE celebrates its 24th anniversary this year. The other network is for Food Producers such as bakery and butchery schools with whom the cooperation has developed for more than 15 years.In the project the students become more confident with better self-esteem, language and culture knowledge, and higher professional skills. It is an eye-opener for them, when they discover Europe - and the world - as a potential labour market. Through their own networks their possibilities of employment in Europe increases. They become more attractive on the home labour market as well, owing to new ideas and knowledge they have received. The staff/management (16 teachers, and 10 staff/management) will increase language and culture knowledge, and their own professional skills through the project. When they meet the partners and discuss pedagogics, transparency and equivalent assessment of the students´ placement periods through ECVET and learning agreement, they can prepare our own students better and when receiving students and staff, as well, from our partner organisations in Europe. Their professional skills increase through new influences and ideas they receive in the project and their language skills improve when teaching in English. They become more interested in other cultures and other languages, besides English, as well. They apply more for further education and training in Europe and show greater interest to teach at our partner schools in English. Our management will implement ECVET and the common documents we use within the project in our school, which will improve the quality of our education and the cooperation with the partners in Europe.Another objective is to continue the long-term work in our school and in the project with sustainablity within food, beverage, health, life-style, ethnic, social and gender equality, ethics, which they study in the school environment, in society and at the placements in receiving countries. The aim of our school is to implement sustainability even to a higher degree in our organisation and with our European partners, to improve the quality of our education and in the project, which will generate more effective results.Our own placements will be involved and receive information and learn about the objectives of the project from students and staff/management at our education course for supervisors and at placement visits.The 44 students within CHASE will be offered a lingusitic and culture preparation through lessons/lectures. Sustainability in another school and industry in Europe will be discussed and studied, in theory and at practical lessons, for months, before departure in September. At the partner organisations they are firstly offered one month´s preparation of the country´s food, language and culture in theoretical and practical lessons together with students from the host school. Thereafter they practise for 4-months in the kitchen/service at hotels/restaurants of high quality chosen by the receiving organisation. During the prepartion month in the host country they are prepared to study and discuss sustainability at the placements and in society and they are offered excursions and study visits to suit the themes of the project.The preparation of the 36 bakery/confectionery and butchery students commences in August when they begin their 3rd year and continues until they leave in spring between February and May. During the month in the host country the students will receive between 3-7 days of preparations in food, culture and sustainability during theoretical and practical lessons integrated with other students from the host school, before beginning their practice at the placements for at least 3 weeks. The placements are high quality bakeries and butcheries to fit each student´s level. The school will receive higher status and an international profile thanks to the project. Students from other municipalities will apply to our school, as well. The students are more confident and interested in working in Europe and the world after graduation. They have discovered a labour market outside of Sweden and can use their own networks in the receiving countries. They are more attractive to the Swedish labour market, as well, thanks to better self-esteem, better language and culture knowledge of Europe and higher professional skills.

The Catering Mobility in Europe project was a pilot project focusing on a growing need in the hospitality sector in Glasgow and more widely in Scotland to change their staff from seeing the sector as somewhere to work short-term or on a casual basis, to seeing it as an exciting career to grow into and progress. The sector is growing rapidly and needs to keep and grow the staff it can get. Catering Mobility in Europe has tested a model of creating a group of ambassadors in the sector who are students, apprentices, graduates within a year or staff doing vocational qualifications. We focused on people willing to take a leap out of their comfort zones and see a new side of the hospitality sector that will propel them forwards in their careers. This leap will had at its heart a 5 month mobility in Amsterdam (2 people), Tenerife (2 people), Gothenburg (1) or Helsinki (1) to first gain cultural and local food knowledge alongside further language lessons over 4 weeks at hotel and restaurant schools and then do a four month placement in a 3-5 star hotel from October to February, including over the busy holiday season. The learning they gained covered soft skills, cultural awareness and adaptability, and serving or cooking experience specific to the host country. The project tested Scottish access to the Consortium of Hospitality and Accommodation Schools in Europe (CHASE) network's well-established model of hospitality learning in Europe and allowed the participants to make friends and share their experience with fellow learners from several other CHASE partners' countries. This has given them learning support and connections with young people from many European countries, in addition to the host country and establish them as citizens of Europe.While the participants are learning and working, many have written blogs and social media posts about their experiences and insights which will be shared on our Facebook page to be seen by our network of partners, as well as specifically passed on to partners who identified their learners as candidates to participate in the project. While writing these blogs on cultural differences, local seasonings and the links to culture and the tourism sights, they have been acting as ambassadors for Scotland to their host countries and sharing their experiences with the sector back home, taking a step up in their career ambitions. In addition, they shared social media posts on their own networks about their experiences and all they’re learnedWhile the participants have been gaining a passion for the hospitality and sharing it widely with their new discoveries, the consortium partners in Scotland have been learning about catering mobilities and making contacts in other countries. Before the project, Light on the Path were already well-established hosts of shorter European placements and sending unemployed people on placements, but Catering Mobility in Europe has given them experience of hospitality and longer placements, while establishing many new partnerships through new hospitality placements both with CHASE partners and other vocational schools who have sent many hospitality interns since this project started. In addition, some of the CHASE partners are now sending additional students in other fields, further broadening our European work. Marriott Hotels was very active in staff development before the project, but this project was a gateway to hosting a wide range of Erasmus+ students from different countries and enrich their staff’s experience. They have also been able to offer the Erasmus+ opportunity to their staff, and found that there could potentially be an interest in shorter placements but that many staff have other commitments, and it is hard for managers to release them for very long. The receiving partners in Sweden, Finland, Netherlands and Tenerife have had the opportunity to get to know Scottish hospitality learners and to send their own students to Scotland with their own projects.As the project has tested a wide range of marketing and recruitment routes, we have spread news of Erasmus+ opportunities and have many new contacts in the sector. Through Marriott’s contacts, we have also been able to start working with Springboard, which allowed us to work with unemployed trainees who were more available for long placements and also had fewer opportunities, giving the Erasmus+ mobility an even bigger impact on their lives and future prospects. This raised many challenges so that we could learn for future projects and create tools to help more disadvantaged learners to be more resilient during European mobilities. We were also able to test 2-3 month placements for less experienced learners, and we have new partners willing to collaborate on future projects. Having tested this model, we have a learned a lot to apply to future projects, gained new partners and grown our capacity, and created a website with blogs to show working abroad with Erasmus+ can be like.

RTRIT development strategy is based on the EU's planning documents and main objectives of the sustainable development links to strengthening the European dimension. International cooperation, mobility and good practices, ensures knowledge of the educational institution maximum compliance with the requirements of the labor market, makes a positive and lasting impact on the participants and the organizations involved.Project „Europe as an opportunity” strategic objective is to improve the quality and attractiveness of vocational education and training by strengthening of the European dimension.19 partner organizations were chosen from vocational school associations AEHT and CHASE, as well as from new partnerships within project preparation period. Organizations were chosen taking into account expected quality of cooperation and project implementation and the achievement of the objectives of this project.Following actions will be carried out within the project: - 20 VET learners traineeships in vocational institutes abroad, long term activity (155 days) – final year students will do their qualification training and will be evaluated by ECVET principles. - 62 VET learners traineeships in vocational institutes abroad (35 and 23 days), will study and train abroad to be evaluated by ECVET principles and to use the knowledge gained in introducing module education system. - 10 VET learners traineeships in vocational institutes abroad (16 days) of students with social risk factors or with learning difficulties.Achievement of the objectives of the project and meeting participant’s needs is beneficial for all - project participants, educational institutions, students, staff, organization and the industry and to society as a whole. The result for participants is the improvement of professional skills, new knowledge, and development of personality. In the level of the educational institution international cooperation mean introduction of European processes in the school, success with new study applicants, raising the prestige of school and attraction of vocational education as whole. Being largest vocational education institution in Latvia RTRIT educates future specialists for the Latvian and the European labor market, thus improving the quality of the training in RTRIT is a national value.

Ester Mosessons gymnasium belongs to two large networks in Europe, one is CHASE, (Consortium of Hospitality and Accomodation Schools in Europe, with 19 organisations), which celebrated its 25th anniversary in Budapest in nov. 2015 and our school´s coordinator Merike Merelaid is Chairwoman. The other network is for bakery and butchery schools in Europe, where we have cooperated for more than 15 years. 14 teachers and 10 staff participate in the project, length: one week.Our participants receive a higher degree of intercultural competences in the project by broadening their persepective and understanding for various cultures and languages, which makes them better citizens, who understand the migration situation better. They deepen their knowledge and critical thinking when meeting various cultures and migrants at the host school and learn how they are integrated in the organisations. The project helps the participants to understand the difficulties, that might occur for migrants to adapt to a new country, but highlights also problems, that can occur for our students to adapt to a new culture and work culture at placements. The project presents a European Labour market to the students to prevent unemployment among youngsters, where one, in spite of background, has a chance for employment. In the project we communicate in English, which improves and deepens the language competences of the participants. Meeting another language and culture increases understanding and tolerance for other cultures, also at home. The interest to learn other languages, except English, increases among the participants. The students compare their culture with their host country, which makes them more aware of pros and cons between the countries. They study equality, gender equality, migration, integration, etnicity and religion, in their host country, which increases their critical thinking in a positive way along with understanding migrants in Europe, and other cultures back home.The students mature and become more responsible. They develop their professional skills, which make them better employees both at home and in Europe. They create their own networks meeting young people in the host school and at the placements.Our teachers and staff increase their professional skills, as well, through job-shadowing and in pedagogical discussions with European colleagues. They teach students at the host schools and try their own pedagogical methods on them, and receive new insipration from European colleagues in the teaching field. One part of the pedagogical discussions will include food and beverage labels and their contents, and how to teach students to avoid the greatest hazards. One of the objectives in the project is quality assurance of the ECVET work, which began in the last Erasmus project; the use of MoU and Learning Agreeement in a more efficient way to increase transparency more between the organisations also when assessing students, despite the different schoolsystems. It is important to involve management in the discussions in Europe, how to increase competences for staff in ECVET. When the students (26) in hospitality have been chosen in May, the 2nd school year, they will receive language, culture and food culture preparation, both in practice and theory , in our school for several months before leaving for their host country in Sept. During their placement in the host countries, the practical and theoretical preparations continue during an induction month in the host organisation followed by a 4-month long placement in quality hotels/restaurants chosen by the host organisation. During the induction month the students receive language, culture and food culture preparation, both in theory and practice, including learning about the labels on foods and beverages and the hazards they are exposed to. They participate in excursions and study visits connected with the themes of the project.30 bakery and butchery students are prepared from Sept, year 3 until they leave for their placements during different times in spring from Febr- May. During one month´s placement in Europe they receive a few days-one week´s preparation at the host school in food, culture and about food and beverage labels integrated with students from the host school followed by at least 3 weeks´ high quality placement periods.Ester Mosessons receives higher status and a more distinct International profile through the project, which results in, students from other regions and from all over Sweden apply rto attend our school. Our own placements become involved and are very positive to learn more about ECVET and the objectives in the project.