Zespół Szkół Gastronomicznych i Handlowych ( Secondary Culinary and Trade Schools) in Bielsko-Biała is the applicant in the project. This is the school with 70 years of tradition. Students get qualifications in 4-year technical school and 3–year vocational school, both types specialising in food industry. Bielsko-Biała and its surroundings are famous for a lot of tourist attractions. Many of its citizens are native Italians who are employed in Fiat Auto Poland Company. The school is open to international cooperation. We have taken part and successfully completed a few European Union projects so far. Our partner in the project is Sistema Turismo, which promotes, organizes and manages the process of gaining work experience and educational programmes. The main task of this organisation is to provide work experience, which will foster vocational and personal skills of programme participants. Rimini and its surroundings is the main town where work placements will take place.Sistema Turismo has a large experience in organising work placements and traineeship under Leonardo da Vinci and Erasmus programmes. The institution has already co-operated with Polish schools involved in above-mentioned programmes. Our school together with the Sistema Turismo Company have worked out work placement programme and established all details concerning students’ stay in Italy.The 17-year-old students attending the second form of 4-year technical culinary school are the beneficiaries of the project. They attend daily classes to get qualifications of a food and culinary service technician. Two groups of students - each group consisting of 18 people - will take part in work placements. The first group is planned to go to Italy in April 2017 and the other group in October 2017. Participants live in Bielsko- Biała and its surroundings. The students commuting to our school from neighbouring areas find their professional start difficult because of high unemployment in the area and low level of economic activity of citizens. The students achieve good school results and possess theoretical knowledge of vocational subjects but they lack vocational experience. The vocational training, we are applying for, will be their first contact with employers. They have communicative English skills. The students suffer from the lack of vocational and social contacts, which limits their chances on the job market, mainly with regards to mobility and communicating with other nations. Before our students’ departure we are planning English language preparation (15 hours), Italian language (20 hours), Italian culture and tradition preparation (5 hours), together with psychological training (2 hours). Students will take part in four-week work placements in eating places, the training will be held in English. Meetings with experts, interesting people from the area along with tourist and culture trips will be organised during the training. Moreover, the visit will be held during the training to monitor work placements.Students will be asked to fill in surveys to evaluate their progress before and after the work placements. Students’ practical skills will also be assessed before and after the training. Additionally, each student will fill in a student’s record book and prepare the presentation showing the course of his or her work placement. To sum up the project, participants will be asked to make an Italian dish, drawn by each student at random. The project and its results will be distributed in local press, on the school website, at educational fairs and other meetings mentioned in the project. When writing the project we have aimed at the following:-to expand students’ practical competences, to make them acquainted with traditional products typical of Italian cuisine and difficult to find in Poland-to provide students with better opportunities to get additional skills by training abroad, to support vocational cooperation in order to improve education results-to learn the methods and techniques of preparing and distributing Italian dishes and beverages,-to learn the methods and techniques of making and serving desserts and traditional bakery goods from Italian cuisine,-to better language skills, vocational vocabulary in particular-to learn about Italian culture and Italian eating habits-to obtain by students name certificates: Europass CV- Mobility, Europass –Language Passport-to raise the school prestige and consequently increase the number of students who will attend the school in the future-to reduce the number of people who suffer from poverty and social exclusion in the area by increasing our students’ competitiveness on the local job market-to gain experience in managing and financing European Union projects by people responsible for the projectThe people managing the project will make every effort to assure high standards of project implementation so that it could bringexpected results.