York College is the main provider of Vocational Education Training in York and North Yorkshire, Business Finance. Hospitality & Tourism form the major economy for York and its surroundings and there is a large demand for skilled workforce to meet the needs of local SMEs. York College was involved is setting up a new International Hospitality and Tourism Academy in partnership with the City of York and York Minster. The plan was to introduce the new Academy in 2016. One objective was to internationalise the VET through modernising the curriculum towards a European model and/or looking at new pedagogies that would support the development of a workforce ready to meet the needs of the business, hospitality and tourism sector of the City of York and North Yorkshire. To achieve this we planned to equip the delivery team with the tools and knowledge required through a programme of CPD to acquire additional awareness of European Hospitality, Business and Tourism operations, pedagogies and cultural awareness. We aimed to do this by working in partnership with York Hoteliers, as advisory organisation, to develop partenrship between education and employment by developing post secondary or tertiary qualifications in line with EQF to match skills shortage in York and North Yorkshire. We aimed to align our VET portfolio to local, regional and national economical development strategies. To aid us achieving our aim we worked with our partners in Seville, a city with similar economic challenges to York, to explore and share best practices and learn how local VET organisations meet the skills and workforce demand and challenges in engaging young people to enter the sector. The project will had the following objectives: a) to develop new innovative curricula / education methods and development of short courses to meet sector skills shortage; b) develop entrepreneurial learning and education; c) develop robust career guidance for youth unemployed to tackle unemployment and labour market issues. The transnational programme aimed to embed and develop entrepreneurial learning and education through this project by exploring and analysing how our European counterpart shape and modeled their VET in a city with similar economy and skills requirement to York. The city of Sevilla provided us with such a platform to learn from and share good practices. Another aim of the project was to produce innovative training courses and materials by exploring VET with our European partners, through job shadowing, and focusing on developing new approaches and training for York College, local SMEs and sector requirements for training and development needs and our North Yorkshire partners’ schools. The project allowed our development and understanding of labour market issues with youth (in a similar city to us) and how our European counterpart manage it to provide a more comprehensive and robust career guidance to help engage young people into VET, thus reducing youth unemployment. The participants were 15 staff employed by York College within the Business, Hospitality & Tourism department working as assessors or tutors in delivering vocational education training within the department. The participants are responsible for planning , delivering and assessing the portfolio of provisions to meet vocational education needs within the local, regional and national sector. Their participation enabled them to gain/acquire high quality skills and knowledge. Participants, and the college, will be able to plan high quality VET provisions to meet the need of our stakeholders and to reinforce the capacities and international scope of York College. Those taking place will be colleagues that are involved in planning, delivering and managing VET provisions in the following fields: Business Administration, Business Studies, Business Economics, Business Finance &; Accounting, Professional Cookery, Professional Patisserie and Confectionery, Hospitality Multi-skilled Services, Food & Beverage Service, Hospitality Leadership and Management, Customer Care, Event Planning, Apprenticeships in Hospitality, Apprenticeships in Accounting & Apprenticeship in Business. We managed to explore new innovative and entrepreneurial approach in planning and delivering VET provisions across the sector. We were able to modernise and innovate our current portfolio of provisions for 2015-16 and we are planning to continue to innovate for 2016-17. On the long term the creation of the International Hospitality & Tourism Academy will help York and North Yorkshire towards fulfilling the skills shortage. The project supported the innovation and improvements in VET in Business, Hospitality & Tourism and it contributed to increase the quality and attractiveness of VET provisions as well as adding European added value to our training, resulting in increased recruitment, retention and success rate for the College and its stakeholders.