The background to the project we are seeking funds for is our established cooperation with a number of companies in Italy and the UK. City of Växjö is an expansive, but relatively small municipality with much focus on long term and sustainable European Partnerships. We want the project to be a part of this expansive and cooperative approach. Support can also befound in goals for our local school board our school's branding strategy, which point out international cooperation as a way forward to strengthen our students' competitiveness and attractiveness for future work and increase in quality of the education. EU's objective of increasing the mobility of more students on the vocational side, and to ensure that the professional development of professionals raise the quality of teaching are also catered for by our project. Our project would with EU support develop a valuable cooperation into an excellent long-term collaboration.The hospitality industry is an ever-expanding sector. We as an educational institution need to have a European outlook in order to adapt both our students' professional skills and develop our training to suit the international reality that many of our students will face after graduation. Previous experiences of international cooperation have been that students' professional skills and professional pride as well as their personal development with language training and cultural exchange have improved and strengthened both those directly involved and other students. Experiences and impulses from collaborations with Europe allow us to ensure that the training is, and constantly develop to be, relevant even in an international perspective.Students from the Hotel and Tourism-programme (hotel/conference) and the Restaurant /food programme (kitchen/serving and restaurant pastry) are selected on criteria related to academic achievement, involvement and interest and language studies. Students should also have good attendance and be good ambassadors for the school and their program. Students are prepared for their internship abroad in terms of both language and practical issues. This is done by teachers and through students who previously have made their internship abroad. We also intend to utilize the language support available in the OLS.For two years, we hope to send a total of 30 students on internship for 8 weeks each to our four partners. By meeting with concept and comprehensive solutions available at our partner hotels, students can develop and practically apply their theoretical and basic skills in an international and sophisticated environment. They get through their internship a comprehensive experience of the objectives of Work Placement Education. On the restaurants included in the project students meet meal services of the highest quality.Through well-designed documents relating to monitoring and evaluation and mapping of placements and internships, as well as log books, we constantly monitor students' development. We also o visit internships for evaluation with students and tutors. In addition, we hope to add job shadowing to develop cooperation and quality of both internships and education in general. We plan for a total of 3 staff exchanges within the project.Students are expected after the completion of the work placement to plan and implement a theme day where they present their experiences and inform other students about what practice abroad has given them; partly as an evaluation of international internship and partly as a promotion to other students. Recognition of foreign work placements will also be made at our annual supervisor meeting where students talk about their experiences for our local work placement partners. We hope that our annual supervisor meeting may also include international work places. We make a first attempt this spring and hope to develop this into an annual activity where international industry contacts are included in the development of education and the evaluation and planning of work placements. It might also be possible for international partners to come to us and participate in teaching and maybe in the long run for exchanges between local and international business partners.Language skills are followed up through language tool OLS. Europass will be used to document the international practice and supplement students' resumes. The students' diplomas are supplemented with information about their internship and we intend to statistically monitor how and where they are employed in six months after graduation.The job shadowing and visits with our business partners will be disseminated and picked up by the organization in the daily work through presentations in the school's work teams and through a final report

We have used our already established co-operations with a number of companies in Italy and Great Britain. We have also added a new partner during this project - a hotel group with three large hotels in Gran Canaria, Spain. Through these co-operation businesses, we have had the opportunity to send 37 students on mobility projects over the two year period. The students have come from two of our programmes; The Restaurant and Catering Programme and The Hotel and Tourism Programme. At these highly professional workplaces, the students have been able to undertake work placement training, thus gaining valuable experience on the personal as well as on the professional levels. The background can be traced to the internationalisation goals set up by our municipality as well as the aim from the European Union of offering more vocational students the opportunity of international impulses and thereby forwarding the mobility of this category of students.We can see that the co-operation abilities and self-reliance that are the main gains of the project also lead to a heightened professional skill level, a sense of security and professional pride. Also the linguistic abilities and the understanding of different cultural and work related cultural aspects have been strengthened. This goes for participants and indirectly for other students and staff as well as people from local work placement suppliers through the dissemination activities undertaken. On a local level it has also been important from the competence provision point of view. This because mobility students tend to stay within their professional fields and the skills and experiences that they bring are an asset in local businesses.The students on the two programmes involved have been chosen through an application process where criteria concerning study results, commitment, interest and language studies have been highlighted. The selected student should also be good ambassadors for the school and their programme. The students were prepared for the international traineeships both linguistically and via their work-related subjects. They have studied the course English 6 and apart from shorter periods of traineeships on the local levels during year 2, they also worked in the school restaurant and conference facilities as well as partook in projects in the form of travel arrangements and events. We would like to point out the activities made using former Erasmus students in preparatory meetings aimed at the students which were highly appreciated. We also held preparatory meetings with guardians and students in connection with each mobility period. We can ascertain now that the contact with the multifaceted concept and comprehensive solutions at our partner hotels and restaurants have made it possible for the students to develop and apply their theoretical and basic skills in an international and professional environment. We have had the opportunity to offer a wider variety of goals from the study field of Work Placement Education. This was especially true for the students within the study branch of Tourism at the Hotel and Tourism Programme who could exercise their training in courses related to Events and Arrangements which gave them a more comprehensive Work Placement Education than would have been possible at local Work Placement providers.The project has been followed through well-designed documentation for evaluation, development and surveying of traineeships and workplaces. We also used a shared digital log to continually follow up on the mobility for the students. The visits at the workplaces and the initial meetings with supervisors have made it possible to develop and refine the quality of our documentation in concord with the workplaces. Thus we have modified our learner agreements throughout the period and made it more suited for the different workplaces and the learning that can be achieved there. The meetings also ensured that we could give extra support to students in need of that by preparing and making the workplaces aware of how to handle them. This led to successful traineeships.After the mobility periods, the students have held a number of presentations. It is a part of the yearly plan for the project that they should hold presentations for younger students as well as tutors to start the application process, thus stimulating further mobilities in the subsequent year. The examination projects that are mandatory for upper secondary students have also to a large extent been focused on Erasmus and the mobility experiences. At meetings with the local trainee supervisors the project has been in focus and this is also true of network gatherings, programme counsel meetings and visits at comprehensive schools. At open house day, the Mobility project was one of the focal points of marketing and exemplifying quality commitment. In addition, the tests and surveys through OLS and Mobility Tool were also carried out.

"The RENADRION Project was born and was implemented in a dual context:1) the NATIONAL NETWORK OF TOURISM AND CATERING SCHOOLS (RENAIA) of which the 15 VET schools involved are members, including the Leading Organisation, IPSSEOA ""CORNARO"", which also holds the Presidency and which represents the most representative associational reality, at national level, of the educational offer in the tourism and catering sector;2) the EUSAIR EUROPEAN STRATEGY (2014-2020), which aims to increase the attractiveness and competitiveness of tourism in the ADRIATIC-IONIAN MACROREGION, supporting the development of coastal, maritime and inland tourism, by improving the quality of tourism services and promoting sustainable economic and social prosperity through the growth of professions and the creation of new jobs.In line with these strategies and objectives, RENADRION has therefore offered 120 STUDENTS (of whom 16 with special needs and 15 with fewer socio-economic opportunities) in initial vocational training in the fourth classes and 90 RECENT GRADUATES (of which 12 with fewer socio-economic opportunities) of the 15 TOURISM AND CATERING SCHOOLS involved, the opportunity to carry out a European mobility experience lasting, respectively, 4 weeks and 3 months. In particular, they were participants attending an education and training course (target students) and newly graduated (new graduates) in the tourism services sector and who carried out the relevant professional figure abroad.RENADRION has therefore offered young participants an experience in companies in their field of studies and the opportunity to confront themselves with the linguistic skills possessed and the acquisition of specific job skills. The experience has combined, in particular, the learning outcomes achieved in the educational path with the needs of the labor market in the field of tourism promotion and management and has strengthened the knowledge of development strategies adopted in other contexts in the tourism sector, using the internship experience as a fundamental part of the educatioin and training path.Among the general objectives achieved by the project we can list:- The promotion of lifelong learning as a person's right to increase and update their skills, abilities and knowledge in learning formal, non formal and informal contexts;- The transparency of learning outcomes and the adherence of the training path to the needs of companies and professions in order to facilitate the encounter between labor demand and supply and increase the productivity and 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 internationalization of companies and professions.The RENADRION mobility experience also developed the transversal skills of the participants, such as the spirit of initiative, the ability to adapt and the ability to relate to and interact with cultural contexts different from one's own.The transparency of learning outcomes in the tourism sector was guaranteed, finally, through the ECVET system and the establishment of a partnership able to work jointly on the units of learning outcomes and the methods of assessment, validation and recognition of skills acquired abroad by participants.These, therefore, the impacts achieved:- Development of skills of the target groups involved (210 young people among students and recent graduates);- Creation of models and training tools of innovative value;- Dissemination of results and training models among the stakeholders of the tourism sector and the VET system;- Making available results and training models for institutions and professionals in local, regional and national territories.The project can therefore be considered exemplary, which can be integrated into the strategic development of each Consortium partner, as well as being transferable outside it, for different aspects:- It created a WBL model with a system of actions aimed at specific training, but also at the global growth of the person. It saw the continuous and active involvement of all the project staff and supervision by the trainers and company mentors; accompanying and tutoring interventions; teaching methods based on involvement, participation, high integration between theory and practice, development of immediately usable practical skills, validation of acquired skills;- It has implemented a system of ongoing and final evaluations, allowing to monitor progress in terms of learning outcomes achieved by the participants, as well as to evaluate, validate and certify them."

"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 INTERNATIONALIZATION STRATEGY for the three-year period 2018-2020 of Molise Regional Authority had as its main purpose to facilitate the development and innovation of the regional human capital, supporting the international mobility of people (in particular young students, recent VET school graduates, newly qualified), in a way to positively contribute to the employability of citizens and to strengthen the internationalization processes of the Molise economy (in particular, in the tourism field).In line with these priorities and with the implementation of the first phase of activities envisaged in the INTERNATIONALIZATION PLAN, the Molise Regional Authority - through the international mobility action envisaged by the PROMOL project - offered to 75 students from secondary schools in the tourism sector and/or inserted in VET courses (of which 10 students with special needs, i.e. specific developmental disorders, such as language deficits, non-verbal skills, attention and hyperactivity) and to 75 new high school/newly qualified, the opportunity to create a professionalizing mobility experience in the UK, FR, ES, PT, DE and MT.Participants were following or had just completed (for not more than one year) an education and training course in the TOURISM or CATERING sector and have carried out an international mobility experience of 1 MONTH (STUDENTS) and 3 MONTHS (RECENT GRADUATES / NEWLY QUALIFIED).The latter have therefore achieved a long-term ErasmusPro mobility (envisaged as a new implementation action in the 2018-2020 INTERNATIONALIZATION STRATEGY) which has made them more aware of their potential and future career choices - both as new hires in local tourism companies and as potential freelancers and entrepreneurs - so as to pursue a successful professional career and improve their integration into society, becoming active citizens both locally and internationally.The realization of ErasmusPro mobilities also aimed at responding to the professional needs of TOURISM ENTERPRISES of Molise region, which are looking for young people with long-term international experience, thanks to which they have been able to develop not only professional skills in the sector but also adequate linguistic knowledge, transversal skills and key competences that allow them to adapt quickly within a rapidly changing labor market and to be resilient, as well as to cope with situations of complexity and uncertainty, such as those we are experiencing in this historical moment.The PROMOL project envisaged an international internship experience in companies in the tourism and cultural industry to acquire knowledge and skills in the professional area and compare the different professional techniques and support activities for insertion into the foreign hosting context aimed at a linguistic, sectoral and cultural study of the territory.In the case of underage students and students with special needs, the Molise Region has provided at least one accompanying person per destination stream to facilitate socio-cultural and corporate integration.In line with the quality procedures defined in the VET Mobility Charter, the implementation of the mobilities carried out thanks to the PROMOL project included: advertising a call for participation with clear and transparent selection criteria / procedures; selection of the 150 participants; pre-departure training, drafting and signing of the Learning Agreement, monitoring and tutoring on site (host partners and accompanying persons/teachers) and at a distance (Molise Region); evaluation, validation and recognition of learning outcomes, dissemination and project follow-up.The results achieved thanks to the realization of the project were:- raising the personal and professional skills of the participants;- the promotion of key competences related to the real exercise of active citizenship;- the introduction of innovative training methods to complement existing practices and the improvement of the regional training offer, thanks to the comparison with other VET systems present at EU level;- the relaunch of the regional tourism sector, thanks to the possibility for local businesses to recruit 150 young people with international experience capable of bringing new vigor and innovation to the sector.Furthermore, the project was planned and implemented in a priority European context such as the ECVET system and has contributed, in particular, at creating a European space for lifelong learning in the sector of the cultural industry and the promotion and management of tourism.The Molise Region, through the realization of the PROMOL project and the implementation of the INTERNATIONALIZATION STRATEGY 2018-2020, has therefore renewed its impetus towards the internationalization of institutional relations and European cooperation.