The Bougainville vocational school is a public institution found in Nantes that receives students from all over the Loire area. It offers professional qualifications in catering, client hospitality and upholstery maintenance. The pupils are young people from relatively difficult backgrounds (41%), who have had difficulties in the broader educational system, particularly in modern languages. The pupils have had not the opportunity to work abroad, and very few have visited outside of France at all. The group would consist of twenty pupils in their final year of study in dining room service and marketing. For many years, our aim has been to give pupils the opportunity to train abroad. The principle goal of our project is to strengthen and develop the international aspect of the school by participating in European schemes. Such involvement in international student exchanges enriches their cultural appreciation and aids their professional development. Discovery of the world will give them the opportunity to gain confidence in their training. Furthermore, the geographical location of the school, distant as it is from any borders, alienates it from international exchanges. For this reason the school associates itself as much as possible with all the European projects and English modules for professional diploma level catering, marketing and hotel service have been offered here since 2010. From a professional point of view: - The content of our training services, devised to facilitate professional mobility, adheres to the demands and expectations of the industry’s high standards. In order to prepare our pupils well, we have asked our partners to act as though out pupils are in real professional situations; in short, to participate fully in the life of the hotel establishment, allowing them to experience different professional contexts in which they will exercise their specialized techniques and learn new skills. The main benefit, however, will be in teaching the pupils how to tackle the language barrier and develop their sense of, and proficiency in, adaptability and self-reliance. From a cultural and pedagogical point of view: - A period spent training abroad will give them opportunities to discover a great deal thanks to the possibility of three touristic outings organized by our European partners, prepared beforehand in France. We have been working with our European partners for many years and so our teaching staff is very familiar with the professional coaches and the companies that look after the pupils. Regular updates are required on the work program and progress of the pupils. The pupils write a European CV and send it to their recipient organizations. A mobility contract is established and signed by various relevant parties (the school, the partner organization and the pupil). Evaluation tables will be translated and explained to the supervisors by the pupils in order to facilitate the work and maintain a correspondence between the objectives and pupil's progress. The school expects such an endeavor to be of great value to the participants, the school itself and the region… Valuable to the participants in developing their: - Professional knowledge and aptitude. - Communication (especially regarding foreign languages and the easing of international exchange) - Cultural awareness not included in the vocational training Valuable to the school: - By identifying us as having a background with an international component. Valuable for the local profession well as on a regional and national scale : - The school will be identified by hotel companies as an enriching source for their establishment and their employers The purpose, for the Bougainville vocational school, is to pursue and augment partnerships with French and European organisations in order to better our work and offer our students ‘professional futures’, with innovative, ‘internationally-minded’ training that will assist their transition from initial education to employability.