The Improving Skills project was promoted by EFTA - School of Professional Training in Tourism of Aveiro, Lda., Constituted in 2006 and currently the only school in the region dedicated exclusively to the areas of Tourism and Leisure and Hospitality and Catering. EFTA promotes a professional and academic qualification of excellence and stands out today as a Vocational Training School of reference.With this new project, EFTA pursued its clear objectives in the educational project and strategic plan of internationalization and training / employability, tourism and leisure dynamism and organizational learning.The participants of this project were 16 trainees for 11-week Curricular Internship and 6 newly graduates for a 14-week Professional Internship from EFTA Level 4 vocational training courses in the areas of Tourism, Catering and Hospitality. The mobility period included the sending of 4 companions (1 per flow of participants) for 4 days.The 5-day shadowing program allowed 6 faculty members to be sent with peer training and bridge-building missions with which EFTA schools can engage in dialogue and exchanges on a permanent basis .The countries of destination were: Austria, United Kingdom, Italy, Luxembourg and Spain.In terms of certification all participants received the EFTA Certificate, Certificate of Internship and Europass-Mobility CertificateThe main NEEDS of the target audience were: Creating opportunities for audiences with problematic socio-economic situations Reversing trends in school drop-out and failure Strengthening social and personal skills Creating curiosity by knowing and contacting other peoples and cultures Improving mastery of languages and raising awareness of other languages Qualify and certify human resources in the tourism and leisure sectorThe general OBJECTIVES were:- STIMULATE TRAINERS TO BE INVOLVED IN THEIR OWN TRAINING- GUARANTEE A QUALITY TRAINING THAT GOES TO THE MEETING OF TRAINERS AND SOCIETY- CREATE COOPERATIVE NETWORKS THAT THINK / AGE ON TRAINING AND EMPLOYABILITYThe registered IMPACTS were:Students and alumni:- Continuation and completion of courses by the students (currently in the 12th year)- Former students in the labor market- Facilitator of integration in the national and international labor market- Reinforcement of the taste for the professional area through the learning of new techniques and knowledge in general- Recognition of the importance of constant technical and professional updating- Cultural interest fostered by multiple trips- Greater ease in contact with other cultures, greater openness, tolerance and acceptance of diversity- A greater taste for learning and, by sharing their experience, transmitting the same taste to other trainees / young people- Recognition of the internationalization experience as positive in the development of their personal and professional competences- Proficiency in a language other than the mother tongue- Development of skills in the interpersonal relationshipStaff:- Increased pedagogical competence of the faculty and more motivation to invest in the level of quality and excellence- Increased work capacity and increased involvement in the dynamization of school activities- Greater sense of belonging to the EFTA community- Increased ability to work in teams (face-to-face and distance) and in interdisciplinary and intercultural environments- Greater evaluative capacity on the work developed- Contact with practices and trends of tourism and leisure at European and international level who have practical effects in the classroom, with students- Improving language skills- Greater proximity to other cultures, greater ability to tolerate acceptanceEducational Community:- Motivation and enthusiasm for participation in future mobility programs- Cultural curiosity- Ability to work at intercultural level- Domain of the instruments and mechanisms used with the ERSMUS +- Recognition of the competences and capital gains of the teaching and non-teaching staff in international project management- Impact on strengthening self-esteem, by recognizing impacts on work done- Development of skills in the interpersonal relationshipSchool Community:- Contribution to the strategy put forward in the EFTA European Development Plan and consequently to the removal of identified needs- Teachers learn to trust their students- Reducing dropout rates- Creation of new dynamics in school management

The Professional School of Vouzela was founded almost 25 years ago and its exclusively dedicated to the education and vocational training of young people.The lack of skilled labour in the Hospitality business in the region and the high percentage of dropout students, without preparation for life and for the labour market, was the reason behind the creation of thus Vocational School, which currently has 297 students spread across the several training courses.EP Vouzela, in a joint work of its staff and students, ensures the fulfilment of a growth strategy that strives for excellence, integration into the local, regional, national and European market. More than allow the school’s development in only one direction - the internationalization, this project and the knowledge that results from it, will build a two-way street, from local to international and vice versa.The EUROVOUZELA II project is structured to give continuity to the internationalization process started last year and has as OBJECTIVES:1- PREPARING STUDENTS FOR the ACTIVE LIFE - TRANSITION FROM THE ACADEMIC LIFE TO THE LABOUR MARKET2 - IMPROVING THE EP’S EDUCATIONAL OFFERE IN A SUSTAINABLE WAY, FIGHTING THE SCHOOL DROPOUT AND WITHDRAWAL THROUGH MOTIVATION AND ATTRACTIVENESS3 – CLOSENESS OF THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY TO THE EUROPEAN REALITY - BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS AND INTERNATIONAL SYNERGIESThe needs of the EP Vouzela are necessarily those of their students:• High numbers of DROPOUTS / WITHDRAWALS AND SCHOOL FAILURE• WEAK LANGUAGE SKILLS, even at the English level• LITTLE EXPERIENCE OF STUDENTS IN WORK CONTEXT • COMMUNICATION in INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS, as well as the so-called soft-skills• POOR OR LITTLE CIVIC PARTICIPATION. The feeling of belonging to Europe and the defence of Human Rights are a distant reality• DESENSIZATION/ LOW AWARENESS OF THE EUROPEAN REALITY• DESERTIFICATION• LACK OF LIFE GOALSThe mobility plan and cooperation for the academic year 2015/2016 is developed on two axes:(1) MOBILITY OF SCHOOL STAFF to a new context – Finland, in order to learn new procedures and practices, as this is a country well known for its political and educational distinct practices.(2) MOBILITY OF STUDENTS extending the territory of the students’ curricular internships to Greece, Italy and the Czech Republic, because we feel that a wider range of destinations can be more fruitful.The participants will be 20 trainees – from the 11th and 12th years of vocational training courses (level IV): Industrial Maintenance Technician - Electromechanical; Industrial Maintenance Technician - Automotive Mechatronics; Mechatronics Technician; Restaurant Kitchen-Pastry Technician; Restaurant-Food&Beverage Technician; Secretariat Technician; Trade Technician.The destination countries are selected according with the fact that these are references in the professional areas of the participants:- United Kingdom, Czech Republic and Germany for the areas of Industrial Maintenance, Electromechanics, Mechatronics and Automotive Mechatronics;- Spain and France in the areas of Trade and Secretariat;- Greece and Italy for the areas of Kitchen / Pastry, Restaurant/Bar.The student mobility periods in Group 1 countries will last 9 weeks and students who will go to the group of countries Group 2 will make 10 week program (1 week language course + 9 week internship).As for the job shadowing activities of the teachers, they will last for 1 week.The mobility of students will be certified through the delivery of the EUROPASS MOBILITY Certificate, INTERNSHIP CERTIFICATE, LANGUAGE COURSE CERTIFICATE, PROMOTER’S CERTIFICATE and ECVET; the teachers will receive a PROGRAM STATEMENT.The expected RESULTS and IMPACTS on the students and the school community are:- STUDENTS WITH STRENGTHENED QUALITY CVs THAT WILL ALLOW THEM TO MORE EASILY JOIN THE LABOUT MARKET (NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL) AFTER THE END OF THE COURSES;- BEST EDUCATIONAL OFFER AND THEREFORE LOWER LEVELS OF SCHOOL DROPOUT/ WITHDRAWAL;- STRATEGIC INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS CONSOLIDATED BY EP VOUZELA, AS WELL AS THE REGION AND THE ENTREPRENEURS THAT EMPLOY THE STUDENTS.At the Regional / Local level, the continuity of the development of the project will contribute to:• The sustainable development of the Region• The qualification of Human Resources of the Region • Higher levels of entrepreneurship• Closeness of the Region to the European sphereAt the European and International level, this project will contribute to:• Achieve the goals in the European 2020 Strategy in the fields of education, innovation and development.• Increase the number of European mobilities, duly certified and accredited.• The qualification of Human Resources, able to work in other countries.• Boost the cooperation between vocational training institutions and companies, which will facilitate the access to the European labour market.• The increase in the number of international partnerships and contacts.

Through this project, EFTA sent 12 students with 4 chaperones, 6 former students, 4 staff members to carry out training programs, distributed as follows:- 12 students from the courses of Tourism, Restaurant-Bar and Kitchen-Pastry - these mobilities had the duration of 98 days and took place from May 28 to September 2, 2017- 6 former students of the Tourism, Bar and Restaurant courses - these mobilities lasted for 98 days in the case of Italy and 99 days in the case of Austria and ran from 13 September to 19/20 December 2017- 2 staff for Sweden - lasting 7 days, from 15 to 21 October 2017- 2 staff for Belgium - lasting 7 days, from 11 to 17 March 2018- With the mobility of the students were sent 4 accompanying teachers who remained in the destinations 7 daysThe GENERAL OBJECTIVES of the project were:1 STIMULATE TRAINERS TO BE INVOLVED IN THEIR OWN TRAINING2 GUARANTEE A QUALITY TRAINING THAT GOES TO THE MEETING OF TRAINERS AND SOCIETY3 CREATING COOPERATIVE NETWORKS THAT THINK / AGE ON TRAINING AND EMPLOYABILITYThe impacts achieved with this project were:Students and Alumni- Greater probability of integration into the labor market after the end of the course / mobility - the alumni who participated are currently employed within their training areas- Bet without fear on new horizons, with better labor prospects, especially at international level- A renewed taste for contact with other cultures and nationalities, therefore, they have more competence in intercultural contact- They currently have a greater taste for learning, for sharing their experience and for transmitting that same taste to others- Recognition of the need for constant technical and professional updating (continuous training)- Recognition of the internationalization experience as positive in the development of their personal and professional competencesStaff- Increased pedagogical competence on the part of the teaching staff- Increased work capacity by increasing their active involvement in school dynamism- Greater proximity to the EFTA mission, values and identity- Increased ability to work in teams (face-to-face and distance) and in interdisciplinary and intercultural environments- Adoption of habits of continuous evaluation and systematic review of procedures and training contents- Use of mobility and globalization as instruments to convey sensitivity to languages and interculturalityEFTA- Reaffirmation of EFTA values: quality, transparency, mobility, equal opportunities, diversity, citizenship- Greater capacity to respond to the needs of the county and region- Updating of pedagogical methods and techniques for improving training references- Improvement in the process of improved school and professional guidance- More competent and up-to-date teachers capable of motivating trainees- Reducing dropout rates- More efficient school management- Establishment of a wider network of contacts at European level- New international partnerships between EFTA and tourism and leisure organizations- Validation of ECVETs established for this program- Europeanization of EFTA, contributing to its promotion as a national and international referenceInternational Partners- Consolidation of the network at European and regional level- Improvement of vocational guidance skills and recognition and certification of skills,- Improvement of language skills at technical level in English- Knowledge of new working methods and techniquesAll project activities were carried out and fulfilled in full, with high quality and with visible results for the participants and organizations involved. Once again, the quality of programs developed by EFTA and which have already been the subject of a good practice award is again confirmed.All activities were duly certified through the Europass Mobility, EFTA host entity certificate and certificate.

This project aims to enhance employability of young graduated via a training period in Europe.This training period has been composed of 2 stages :A first period of preparation in France including workshops' preparation before the training stage in companies. These workshops has been leaded by Welcoma, the Mission Locale (youth job center) and the Department for young people of the city of Amiens. The participants has also been benefited from a linguistic preparation via the Linguistic Service of the European Commission.Then, the second part of the project has been the 6 week training period in Ireland, in Spain and in Malta providing an internship in an Irish or Spanish or Maltese company.The mobility's flows has been organized as follow : Eight participants has done a 6 week internship in Ireland, one in Spain and 3 other in Malta.This project aimed less young post graduated of less than one year, in priority aged from 18 to 25 years old.The groups has been composed of students with different backgrounds. Indeed, the programme will be open to levels of study from II to V (with a priority given to level IV and V ).This diversity has given an asset to the groups which brings young people together with same objectives :-To train themselves to a European level enabling them to acquire strong skills to get a motivating job.-To become independent and discover another reality : some of them live again with their parents, sometimes in difficult areas of the city that they barely leave.The steering committee has been composed of different professionals of mobility in France and abroad. They are specialised in enhancing the employability of young people and in animation. The partners working on this project want to open themselves to Europe being active in the European area of education and training.They rely on complementary roles of each partner in order to ensure a smooth run of the programme :Welcoma is a non profit association aiming to develop international exchanges of young people, promoting training activities, mobility, socio professional integration and taking part to European programmes. The association already participated in various mobility, especially through the Leonardo Mobility programme, as a promoter sending partner and intermediary partner.Welcoma developed a wide-ranging network of European partners, of tools and skills in management of European mobility projects.We relied on a large networks of partners in Europe to send the young participants. These intermediary partners are responsible for providing suitable internships to the trainees, and to ensure their follow-up.The project is leaded in cooperation with the Mission Locale (Job center for young people) and the Youth Department of the city of Amiens FRANCE.The intermediary partners have been an effective relay contributing to a smooth run of the participants' stay, ensuring their integration, a suitable internship, accommodation and follow-up in Ireland in Spain and in Malta. We had to add a new intermediary partner from Malta to the project. Ou Irish partner couldn't provide for 3 of our participants an internship linked to their sector of activity (ecology, tourism and multimedia sector). Since the Maltese partner could offer this opportunity we have decided to include them in the project which has had very positive impacts on the project, especially for the participants.Unfortunately we only sent one participant in Spain since we didn't receive much applications for this destination.The participants benefited from a strong support from different structures. The different partners gave to them a reinforced mentorship and an important logistical support. This way, they could focus on their professional, linguistic and cultural objectives.It appears that sometimes it could have been difficult for some participants to be followed by different structures, so we tried to explain as much as possible the role of each partner of the project.We can say that he results of the structure have been very positives. All the participants could improve their English level; especially oral, and could gain a significative professional experience in an English speaking country. The benefits, from a personal point of view, has also been very important. The large majority of the participanst has never been abroad before : this experience allowed them to gain a better self-confidence and opened new perspectives on a national and on an international level, something they weren't considering before.

EFTA - Escola de Formação Profissional em Turismo de Aveiro, Lda. is a private secondary school founded in 2006, specialized in the area of tourism and leisure. Since 2013 she has been involved in several European projects and has successfully implemented 5 LdV / Erasmus + projects with a total of 100 mobilities. This new project pursues the objectives of the educational project and strategic plan: EFTA internationalization strategy, students' training and employability, tourism and leisure dynamism, and human and organizational learning. Likewise, it will continue to be implemented using good practices recognized by the National Agency during the year 2016. Participants attend Professional Courses (Level 4), are between 16 and 21 years old and reside mostly in Aveiro. They come from families with low / medium socioeconomic backgrounds, with unemployment or precarious work in the household, which increases the risk of dropping out of school. The general objectives are: - Encourage students to get involved in their own training - Ensure quality training that meets the needs of students and society - Creating cooperative networks of thought / action on training and employability - To know and participate in a global Europe, beyond the neighbor countries In relation to the specific objectives we highlight: Students and recent graduates: - Provide them with an international internship - Support the development of transversal competences that favor the labor insertion - Support the training specialization of graduates - Enhancing young people's contact with the world of international work - Make mobility a motivating element in relation to school and studies - Raise awareness to a wide range of career opportunities - Contributing to European citizenship Teachers and non-teachers - Ensure a more up-to-date faculty capable of introducing new pedagogical practices - Establish partnerships with European schools in the area of tourism and leisure - To know more deeply the training references applied in a European context - To allow the exchange of experience and good practices among European trainers on training and educational principles - To know, to implement, new specific practices in regular contact with the outside - Enable more effective school management - Bring the EFTA school context closer to the European reality - Improve the capacity of vocational accompaniment of students and their integration in the labor market The planned activities are: - 8 students to carry out 14-week internships in Tourism, Restaurant / Bar and Cooking / Pastry courses and 4 accompanying persons - 4 new graduates to carry out 14-week internships in: Cooking / Pastry, Restaurant / Bar, Tourism - 2 teachers in shadowing job: technical area and socio-cultural area - 2 non-teaching staff on shadowing job: head of administrative services and psychologist DESTINATIONS - Austria - Spain - Italy - Greece - Slovenia - Czech Republic - Finland (staff) - Denmark (staff) Participants will receive the following certificates: - EFTA certificate - Certificate of internship - Europass mobility document In relation to the impacts we can highlight the following: Students and Recent-graduatez - Integration in the labor market - Betting on new horizons, with better perspectives and motivation - Greater competence in intercultural contact - Promotion of continuous training - Internationalization as an enriching experience Impacts on staff - Greater pedagogical competence and ability to work - Greater proximity to the EFTA mission, values and identity - Increased ability to work in teams and in interdisciplinary and intercultural environments - More motivation to invest in quality and excellence - Adoption of habits of continuous assessment and systematic review of procedures and training content - Exploring the realities, practices and trends of tourism and leisure at European and international level for the classroom - Use of mobility and globalization as tools to convey sensitivity to languages and interculturality Impacts on EFTA - Reaffirmation of EFTA values - Greater capacity to respond to the needs of the county and region - Updating of pedagogical methods and techniques for improving training references - Improved school and professional orientation process - More competent and up-to-date teachers capable of motivating students - Reducing dropout rates - More efficient school management - Establishment of a wider network of contacts at European level - New international partnerships between EFTA and tourism and leisure organizations - Validation of ECVETs established for this program - Europeanization of EFTA, contributing to its promotion