Food for Thought 2.0 – The Upskilling of VET Catering & Hospitality Learners in Sustainable Food Production and Cuisine Practices Erasmus Project

Project Title

Food for Thought 2.0 – The Upskilling of VET Catering & Hospitality Learners in Sustainable Food Production and Cuisine Practices

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Environment and climate change; Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal); New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

Food for Thought 2.0 – The Upskilling of VET Catering & Hospitality Learners in Sustainable Food Production and Cuisine Practices project focuses specifically on further strengthening key competencies in VET and supporting the uptake of innovative approaches & digital technologies. It focuses on raising awareness of food related environmental and climate-change challenges & the development of future-oriented VET curricula that better meet the needs of individuals and industry. The emphasis is on teaching sustainable food production & cuisine practices in an interactive and participatory manner to VET learners (15-18 years) and the development of innovative, age appropriate teaching and assessment technology tools to engage learners and thereby, meet contemporary sectorial requirements in the catering & hospitality industry. The significant focus on innovative practices and engaging content means a key priority of this project is the use of innovative and immersive teaching and assessment tools to ensure content regarding sustainable food production and cuisine practices is engaging to learners of 15-18 who are digital natives. The project will involve the development, piloting and use of a range of interactive tools for teaching & assessment in the VET catering & hospitality sector which will be made available as open educational resources with online trainer guidelines. Food for Thought 2.0 proposes to engage with learners that are relatable, such as animations, vlogs & social media. This dynamic learning environment & creation of appropriate, immersive & innovative digital tools will motivate & strengthen the learners’ competences in the area of sustainable food practices to promote education & behaviour change as demanded by the EU labour market and strengthen their future employability prospects in the sector.
OBJECTIVES
1. To undertake an industry needs analysis in 4 partner countries to identify content gaps and preferred innovative technology-led teaching and learning mediums.
2. To enhance the labour market relevance of catering & hospitality VET by utilising an immersive, technology-led, innovative teaching medium and encourage more informed and upskilled learners with a broader focus on sustainable food practices in food production and cuisine practices.
3. To strengthen key competencies of learners and trainers across 4EU countries through the delivery of Food for Thought 2.0
4. To deliver modern, relative, learner driven & immersive delivery methods for learners across Europe building capacity in the next generation catering & hospitality staff as well as generating more ‘green & sustainable’ informed managers & consumers
PARTNERSHIP consists of 4 partners. The lead partner is St. Angela’s College, Sligo, (STACS) (P1) a College of the National University of Ireland, Galway who have extensive experience in teacher education; food education and Home Economics. South West College (SWC) (P2) is one of the largest vocational and technical Colleges in the UK & offer courses in catering & hospitality. Workforce Development Trust People 1st International (WDT) (P3) is not-for-profit organisation helping both public and private organisations cultivate their ultimate workforce. WDT develops and quality assures industry relevant skills solutions in the UK and internationally across apprenticeships, work-based learning and technical vocational education, as well as providing a consultancy service internationally to support countries in developing sustainable skills models. Alexandre Dumas (ADC) (P4) is the biggest hospitality school in France and among the most reputed. The VET establishment has approx. 180 members of staff and welcomes 1,100 students from basic training NVQ2 to further or higher education NVQ5 annually.
METHODOLOGY This project is meticulously planned for 7 work packages & 3 intellectual outputs: IO1: A systematic needs analysis to inform refinement of the learning objectives of the Food for Thought 2.0 training course; IO2: co-creation of a Food for Thought 2.0 training course and learning units utilising engaging, immersive technology led content formats for students studying catering and hospitality in the VET sector (15-18 years). IO3: the development of an online toolkit containing all of the Food for Thought 2.0 course.
RESULTS & IMPACTS
Project outputs will be the Food for Thought 2.0 course will be made freely available as OERs in English & French on the online platform providing trainers with the necessary guidelines & material to incorporate these key areas into VET promoting the overall project outcomes and ensuring an impact beyond the duration of the project. The project impact will have a broad reach among many groups including: VET students as future catering & hospitality sector employees; increased employability prospects; VET trainers; participant organisations; sectorial partners and representatives; & increased public awareness of sustainable food production

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 298998 Eur

Project Coordinator

St. Angela’s College & Country: IE

Project Partners

• SOUTH WEST COLLEGE
• THE WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT TRUST LIMITED
• Lycée des métiers de l’hôtellerie et du tourisme Alexandre Dumas