EUROPEAN MENU Erasmus Project

Project Title

EUROPEAN MENU

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 : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development); Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education

Project Summary

The “European Menu” project, as part of the Erasmus + projects, is a partnership aimed at cooperation and exchange of good practices between partner schools. It was initially planned to involve three institutes: the “Ignazio and Vincenzo Florio” Hospitality Institute in Erice in Italy, the Turisticko-Ugostiteljska Skola Antona Stifanica Institute in Porec in Croatia and the Enseñanza Secundaria La Rosaleda Institute in Malaga in Spain, but it was actually carried out between the Erice Institute in Italy and the Malaga Institute in Spain, as the Croatian school withdrew from the project at an early stage. The schools involved are vocational hospitality institutes with considerable experience in Erasmus + projects sharing the same needs and priorities:
– Developing relevant and high quality skills and competences.
– Developing institutional partnerships to support the establishment and implementation of an internationalization strategy in VET.
The project consisted in organizing and carrying out a Food Festival in the medieval town of Erice to discover the cultural and culinary diversities and similarities of the partner countries and to enrich teaching techniques and methodologies, but due to the Covid 19 pandemic and despite the requested and obtained extension of the project up to 36 months (ending on 31st August 2020) it was not possible to carry out the last two mobilities, including the final event.
To implement the project, a kick-off meeting between coordinators in Spain and two physical mobilities with students were organized (in the first 10 students and 4 Italian teachers went to Spain and in the second 10 students and 4 Spanish teachers came to Italy) to carry out learning and training activities in order to achieve the set objectives:
– enabling students and teachers to discover and learn new teaching / learning strategies;
– experiencing new methods and professional techniques in food, wine and hotel management in the tourism industry;
– enhancing and promoting the resources of the local area;
– strengthening the soft skills;
– improving intercultural and linguistic skills (target language of the project: English);
– encouraging students to undertake study, training and specialization courses ,also abroad, to enrich their professional profile or start their own business;
– promoting social inclusion giving equal opportunities to everyone.
The partnership offered a new and stimulating environment in which students put their skills and knowledge into practice by analyzing the similarities and differences in educational, cultural and professional contexts of the two countries involved.
The partners met themselves through emails, social media and common fast messaging applications to communicate, collaborate, share materials during the different stages of preparation, implementation and follow-up of the project. In particular, a website and a dedicated Instagram page, entitled “European Menu”, were created in order to disseminate and share the outputs of the project.
During the project many activities were carried out:
– Workshops in the school labs to present local dishes, wines and typical recipes in order to compare the different ingredients, techniques and methodological approaches.
– Guided tours in the main heritage sites, organized by the students of the Hospitality and Tourism department.
– Video-recipe recordings to share with the partners.
At the end of the project, a final online meeting with teachers was organized to share impressions, comments, ideas and results obtained.
It was agreed that the objectives outlined have been fully achieved and represent a good basis for obtaining long-term benefits.
In fact, the students had the opportunity:
– to meet with other young Europeans,
– to improve their linguistic, intercultural and professional skills,
– to engage in learning by doing activities.
Having worked on diversified activities and in different contexts, they have acquired greater awareness of their potential and will be able to develop new and multipurpose skills that will be important for employability and social mobility, also thinking about building a future in the European direction.

Project Website

http://sites.google.com/view/europeanmenuproject/home?authuser=0

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 42278,8 Eur

Project Coordinator

Istituto Professionale Servizi per l’enogastronomia e l’ospitalità alberghiera & Country: IT

Project Partners

• Instituto Enseñanza Secundaria La Rosaleda
• Turisticko-ugostiteljska skola Antona Stifanica Porec