"The Erasmus + KA1 Vocational Education and Training- learner and staff mobility project ""International Experience to reach Quality"" involved 50 Vilnius Tourism and Commerce School IVT students- 39 from restaurant and hotel department and 11 from trade and business department, 7 vocational teachers and 1 administration representative. They improved professional and socio-cultural competences, gained experience working in international team. The restaurant chef from the UK provided practical training for pupils and teachers at the school. Receiving partners contributed to accoomplishment of project objectives by extensive experience in organizing and implementing international activities. Most of them are our long-term mobility project partners: Zealand Business College, Denmark, Berufsbildende Schulen Burgdorf, Germany, Riga Technical School of Tourism and Creative Industry, Latvia, CEFPPA Adrien Zeller, France, New Service, Italy, Meridian Business School Ltd, UK. New partners - MKC City College Larnaca, Cyprus, PAN TAVA LTD, UK and Fundacio Inform, Spain. The restaurant and hotel department students went to one month mobility internships in Italy, the United Kingdom, Denmark, France and Cyprus. During the internship, the participants got new international theoretical knowledge and practical skills in the preparation of products, semi-finished products, thermal processing of products and semi-finished products, dining, serving, quality assessment, learned to work with the latest kitchen, restaurant and bar equipment, inventory, tools, and the latest technology, had the opportunity to work with such products as fish, seafood, chocolate, marzipan, practically familiarized with wine tasting, wine pairing. Students small business organizers and logistics expeditors had one month internship in the United Kingdom and Germany. They practiced in commercial businesses and logistics companies. Students have acquired international practical skills in sales, advertising, customer service, learned to use the latest equipment and logistics IT programs, participated in warehousing operations (documentation, marking, warehousing planning), practically filled international shipping documents, according to EU conventions and law worked in warehouses and offices. Together with the students, during the first week of mobility there was an accompanying person or a vocational teacher who participated in the mobility in the same host partner organizations. They ensured safe access to the internship places, the integration of participants into the new social and professional environment, and ensured better contact with the host organization. The teachers of the restaurant and hotel sector took 12 days of training in foreign companies in France and Latvia, where they improved their international competences by participating in the work process in restaurants. 2 teachers from trade and business department and administration representative had staff training visits in Germany and Spain in order to take good practices from European VET staff in order to properly prepare specialists for the labor market, improve the quality of teaching, organization of practice and the attractiveness of professions. The culinary teacher went to a teaching/ training visit in Latvia, and at our school practical culinary and confectionery sessions were conducted by a restaurant chef from the United Kingdom. All participants acquired and improved socio-cultural and linguistic competences: they gained experience in working in the international team, improved their foreign language skills in professional activities, gained confidence in their professional skills, increased their motivation to seek professional excellence, and improved their social skills, autonomy and responsibility. The acquired international competences will help them to integrate more easily into the EU labor market. All participants received Eropass Mobility Documents, Danish and German participants- also ECVET certificates. The participants shared their experience with other students and teachers during lessons and meetings. At the end of all traineeships, in May we organized a final dissemination event, during which the participants of the project shared their experiences and impressions, invited the guests to taste international dishes learned during the traineeship. The event was attended by the school community, representatives of social partners-businesses, gymnasia, progymnasium, and school alumni."

Our school aims to establish a solid cooperation with European Vocational organizations. This will raise the image of our School, promote staff competence, improve students' learning, help students to understand and come closer to a European multicultural environment and improve students' employability. As stated in school's development plan one of the main goals is the encouragement of all educators to be involved in European mobility programmes. Furthermore, taking part in such programme will give students a great opportunity to develop their personality, self-esteem, competence and skills. The participants are educators and students. The management administration of our school, having in mind the need for further personal and professional development of the educators, staff and students of the school, has decided that 2 members of the administration, 10 educators and 39 students should take advantage of the benefits that Erasmus+ Programme offers. The participants will be students attending a catering course in Culinary Arts, computer engineering and students attending Apply Arts. The students of the Catering department, during their second year in school, they must undergo a practical training in hotel and catering establishments for 20 weeks, a prerequisite for obtaining their school certificate. The same applies to the students of the Computer engineering and Apply Arts. On their 3rd year, they have to undergo a practical training of 180 hours. All teaching and administration staff have work experience within their fields. Especially, the instructors of the Hotel and Catering department work closely with the industry since, during the training program of the students (20 weeks training period), which is compulsory work experience, the educators inspect and evaluate their students. The educators and the students of the Hotel and Catering have participated in similar projects and the results were very beneficial and enjoyable to all. This mobility project consists of three main activities: Activity A1 Flow 1: 13 students from the Hotel and Catering department will attend a two week period training in hotels and restaurants in Riga Latvia, in the area of service and cooking. Our analytical curriculum includes International Cuisine, so this exercise will be part of it. Flow 2 : 13 students from the Computer and network department will attend 2 weeks working placements(internship) in computer business in Madrid, Spain. Our analytical curriculum includes a practical training, so this will be part of it. Flow 3 :13 students from the Apply Arts department will attend 2 weeks working placements(internship) in computer business in Viborg, Denmark . Flow 4 : 4 students from Civil Engineering and Architecture department will attend 2 weeks working placements in drywall and insulation issues Activity A2 Flow1 : 4 teachers from Civil Engineering and Architecture and Carpentry - Furniture Design department. The training is about drywall and insulation issues . Note that the program will be operated parallel with two other technical schools from Cyprus (B Technical School Limassol and Paphos Technical School) and in total students sixteen (16 ) and(14) teachers will be meet at Thessaloniki. Our Institution will carry out the management of the project, as explained in section F of this application. Our school will work closely with our partners in order to set up the learning agreements, concerning the procedures that both partners will follow and set up the standards for meeting the desired learning outcomes of the project. Furthermore, in cooperation with our partner organizations . As it is previously mentioned, one of the main objectives of this project for our school is to establish a solid cooperation with European Institutions in the field of VET. Upon meeting the objectives of this project an important result would be the improvement of qualification of teaching personnel as well as the establishment of processes regarding validation of experience gained during learning (for students) and teaching (for educators) periods in another country. Students, by improving their language skills, will improve their learning performance; upgrading students’ awareness of the European Union values and European Mobility projects will eventually upgrade the students' inter-cultural awareness and finally increase their self-esteem and employability. Educators and administration staff would, in the future, support the promotion of such mobility actions; upgrading their competences in teaching and training. All the above aim, at the end of day, to assist students to accomplish their smooth induction in the professional and social life, their competition for a place in the Tertiary Educational Institutions in Cyprus or abroad, their share in the lifelong Education and training, so as to be able to view and implement innovations in a fast changing world.

Accredited projects for mobility of learners and staff are implemented by organisations holding an Erasmus accreditation. Each accredited project represents a step in the implementation of the organisation's long-term Erasmus Plan.

<< Background >>The important motivation is that we want our students to be prepared for 2030 when they will be adults. We wantto make them to think about the world and conditions which they will live in. We hope they will be prepared to helpwith the problems of Europe and the whole world and will try to achieve a better and more sustainable future forall. LTCN lacks a motivational school environment which could lead to better results and low drop out figures. thewide majority of our students comes from disadvantaged groups: religious and ethnic minorities - Gypsies, 411commuters (their residence is in the countryside), parents leaving the country in order to work in foreign countries, becoming unwanted emigrants and rarely sending money to their almost abandoned children, orphans or infoster families, students with special educational needs. Our students lack knowledge when they come in theninth grade and they lack the motivation to gain it. The direct causes of are the ABSENCE of some appealingextra curricular activities, student involvement in social causes and modern teaching strategies, the inexistentexchange of good practices between local schools, the high number of students in a class and missing generalknowledge which leads to no student participation in classes which seem boring, tiring. Thus, students tend toskip a lot, migrate to other high schools or to other classes, have bad academic results and can't attend auniversity course . The target group of the project is represented by the students who are in grades in which thedisadvantaged are by far the majority and by their teachers. Parents don t get involved in their children's schoollife and pay no attention to their school progress. LTCN is not appealing to eighth graders as Alexandria has avery competitive school market and we lack visibility due to the inexistent results or few extra-curricular activities.Fewer students mean less teaching staff. The most important school document- Institutional Development Plan,states that LTCN's mission is to educate teenagers in the spirit of respect, fundamental human rights andfreedoms, dignity, tolerance and free exchange of ideas; to cultivate sensitivity to human issues, to civic moralvalues, to respect for nature and the environment, to train students as keepers f the traditions and culture of themember countries of the European Union, by continuing and diversifying the European projects carried out in theschool. Moreover, the Strategic Plan aims at creating a new curriculum, innovative extra-curricular activities whichcould involve students, their families, authorities, community, collaboration with other schools on both nationaland international levels. We have a real need, found partners in difficulty and believe that this project should befunded as It will enable all the participants to explore, understand, describe and compare lifestyles acrossEurope, increase awareness, common preoccupations, European citizenship<< Objectives >>The need of LTCN gives the general objective of the project-the presence of a motivational environment whichcould meet the needs of the disadvantaged students prevent bad school results and drop out. The direct causesoffer the specific objectives: -acquisition of new competences to apply improved curriculum in the teachingprocess by 30 teachers from the high schools involved in the project in order to improve their abilities tocommunicate, innovate and collaborate, to develop the students’ personal, social and professional abilities untilthe 20th month of the project; -acquisition of new competences to promote in-depth collaborative work in lessonsand extracurricular activities and to create, develop and exercise competences such as solving problems, takingresponsibility for finishing tasks and finding solutions by 200 students from the 6 high schools by the end of the22th month of the project; developing understanding of multitude of different cultural differences held withinEurope, from international - local - small groups - individual and recognition of differences&unifying elements inthe context of the unique development of each country and the common development of Europe by 600 studentsfrom all the 6 school partners until the end of the project. The objective are linked to the priorities selected as webelieve that all participants will get knowledge, abilities and skills which could help them to get interesting jobsand better life. Moreover, the students joining in projects are motivated to finish education or continue it becausesome students leave schools without proper education. Results: CULTURAL educate the parents,pupils,public tolive and ensure active participation to changing their communities; use cultural varieties by music,folkdance,traditional costume,food,life style for charity work to introduce our culture to different cultures; createawareness of European culture diversity,find the similarities or differences about the cultures,break theprejudices,barriers of the people against different cultures,life styles,set a warm dialogue among cultures byvolunteering; provide cultural integration of minorities&reduce the cultural conflicts; ENVIRONMENTAL promoteand help to save the nature,encourage the people to do recycling, make people sensible to the environment;draw public attention to natural,environmental problems, develop love-respect for the street animals;EDUCATIONAL increase the learning levels of the pupils with low basic skills with the help of their peervolunteers to prevent them from leaving school, improve the school curriculum, educate local people aboutcultural, social, environmental problems, encourage people to do sports for a healthy life, proper nutrition andstay away from bad habits.Project outputs leaflets, newsletters, study materials, project logo, questionnaires,reports, presentations, web&FB pages, articles in local press, exhibitions, photo gallery, school noticeboards,seminar<< Implementation >>We have written for this project 3 different plans : an implementation plan, a dissemination plan a sustainabilityplan. Combined they include all the project's LTTs and additional activities. Before a LTT we will: study the goals,prepare our point of view, describe the actual state of the problem according to conditions of each region andcountry. The hosted school will prepare the program according to the topic for the learning activity concerning thegoals - eTwinning activity follows. During LTTs all contributions of partner schools will be presented by students;discussion will follow. The next task will be to prepare the output from the activity where the activity will bedescribed, all school contributions will be presented and compared and finally the conclusion will be shown. Eachoutput will have a general part – specifying the goals and the second part in which the suggestions and solutionswill be described. Each of the participating schools will process an output with emphasis on theschool/area&country. The outputs will be photo documentations from the activities and workshops, power pointpresentations, word documents. The very important output will be untainable-experience, new skills, languageand personal development of all participants. Schools will contact experts and institutions in their areas andtherefore there is potential for the transfer of unique ideas. These outputs will be dealt with in advance of relevantlearning activities and interactive way. Participating schools could use external experts, lectures, workshops,exhibitions, sightseeing tours and excursions during learning activities. Based on feedback from these events theoutputs will be processed to their final form. We want to show participating pupils and other users of createdoutputs that the development of individual countries is vital part of Europe. They can be known by funny andinteractive way to contribute understanding and development of cooperation between European nations.Participants will learn to think about better world and life conditions for all people without any discrimination.During the time between the activities - the teachers will use the materials from the activities during their lessons,we will: organise project days and open days for public, introduce the project at parents’ meetings, present theproject to local community as well the wider public in the form of project web, newspaper articles, meetings etc.This project is complementary because it develops our knowledge of European countries, their development,problems, their culture and history. It develops the ability of teachers and students to communicate in differentlanguages, mainly in English and be able to behave and cope with different situations. New technologies andcurriculum will be used to make this knowledge visible to wider community via social networking andpresentations. We plan to teach each other - teachers-students-experts-public good plactices<< Results >>According to the objectives of the project, within the 2-year implementation, the following will be successfully achieved:1reduction of the level of ESL by 15% (found in at least 50% Ss coming from disadvantaged groups in all the 5 participating schools2. Social inclusion is the key priority and 30%-50% of the Ss coming from disadvantaged groups were primarily targeted in the PM sessions and PL activities on project level.Assessment was carried out in relation to the way the project functioned, the process between outcomes and initial objectives, and how these outcomeswere achieved, but also it gave special emphasis to how the participants developed competences from formal and non-formal spaces.1. Conformity of Activities:Through continuous and constant organization of LTTs and local workshops, the level of ESL in partner schools was reduced by 15% and consequentlyincluded Ss coming from disadvantaged groups. This figure was measured through regular reports in each school. The tools used were: student progresstests, level of participation measurement, documents analysis, questionnaires and group discussions.2. Products and Results DeliveredThe products and results delivered on behalf of the project are:-80 student progress tests in at least 5 different school subjects were applied at the beginning of two school years. All of them revealed constant progressin learning of the Ss assessed. All Ss participated in the project activities.-1 questionnaire /country was used to find out more about the views and experiences of users, the wider community, Ss, Ts, etc. It emphasised new skillsobtained by Ss as a result of their involvement into the project activities: improved knowledge; increased understanding of school environment; proactiveparticipation in decision making.-2 group discussions/project were organised in order to focus on social inclusion of Ss coming from disadvantaged groups, concerning the followingissues: to what extent our project objectives have been met; what progress our project has made; the extent to which our targets have been met; that achange we are interested in is happening.3.Added-value and Impact of the ProjectThe project led to broader perspectives, which include: increased involvement in converting project results to active instruments for change; increasedcommitment in reduction of negative social stereotypes; increased involvement in organisational strategic planning, including: helping set organisationalstrategic options for achieving the objectives concerning sustainable development of school human resources; developing portfolios of projects to achievethese strategic objectives.The partner schools have now new curricula as many teachers know and adopt innovative teaching techniques on regularbasis.4.Successful Partnerships or PracticesOur partnership served to strengthen, support, and even transform individual partners, resulting in improved educational quality, more efficient use ofresources, and better alignment of goals and curricula. The project was more successful at improving Ss’ homework completion, homework effort,positive behavior, and initiative. It also helped to gain access to and recruit groups of Ss in need of support services, fostering better alignment ofprogramming to support a shared vision for learning(dissemination events, interactive workshops, PM sessions and simulations).4. By organizing dissemination events the quality of education and the European dimension of the schools will be greatly increased. The participating Ts, direct beneficiaries, developed personal and professional skills through the experience exchange during LTTs and during local activities with the Ss.The selected Ts will share their experience input by organizing the dissemination events and active workshops. 100 Ts will improve personal and professionalabilities.5. An international network of resources centers and helpdesk will be created with schools interested in developin

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the reality of the education sector and has highlithened the need to transform the existing training systems to meet the current challenges. Just like all other education institutions, VET providers are facing the necessity to reinvent their learning environments so that digitalisation expands and complements the education process. Shifting from school-based education to learning via online platforms and the need for digital content have revealed not only the shortage of the digital technology at schools but also a significant lack of digital skills of teachers and trainers. Even before the COVID-19 crisis teachers in many countries reported the need for ICT training (OECD, 2019).The e-VET project seeks to establish a transnational partnership focusing on the needs of VET providers in view of the digital transformation of the education sector. The project partners will research and analyse the existing digital training solutions, methodologies and techniques for distance learning in order to identify the ones that are easily adaptable and transferrable to different VET training programmes. All the findings will be compiled in the Guidelines for Delivering Remote Teaching in VET.The project contributes to the Covid-19 situation by improving VET teachers’ digital competences not only to use the most up-to edge technologies but also encouraging them to be creators of the digital content which meets the best educational and pedagogical requirements. The project partnership seeks to create the so-called soft results - development of digital skills and guidelines, which could become a valuable resource of educational institution and in the long run ensuring quality and inclusive teaching and learning in various situations, e.g. remote learning due to various reasons such as quarantine, sickness, Erasmus mobility, revision, apprenticeship.The project forms a Strategic Partnership to support digital education in the EU aiming at:-Improving teachers’ digital competences to empower them not only to use various ready-made digital resources in remote and hybrid teaching but also to encourage them to be creators of digital content of vocational curricular by providing a practical training on using various apps, software and learning environments.-Developing the guidelines that will facilitate provision of remote/hybrid training for VET providers.-Implementing short-term transnational training activities for trainers of VET institutions who will be able to use the acquired knowledge and skills for the development of digital content and implementation of remote/hybrid training.-Establishing preconditions for the creation of international virtual learning environment and development of the joint VET programme among the partner organizations.Main target groups addessed:- VET teachers and trainers;- VET students;- VET providers;- Stakeholders (employers, associations, chambers).