This project involves the students of the vocational secondary school "Wallner" and our partners from Germany and France. It addresses two main issues: - Tracking European and world trends in tourism and hospitality so that we can teach our students those trends and introduced them our region - Improve tourism and hospitality in our region Once students graduate from the Wallner school, they are educated and trained to work in the tourism and hospitality industry. Because the industry brings the most revenue to this region, tourism & hospitality vocations are very important and the quality of every worker has to be high in order to maintain (and improve) the level of service and guest satisfaction. It has come to our attention that, when using the usual education and training methods, many vocational school graduates do not sufficiently satisfy the needs of the industry. As a result, many are unemployed, some work but their guests are not content, and some have to make additional efforts to keep up with the work. The main problems causing this are: - students have narrow outlooks, don't understand the needs of international guests and how to service them - students don't have the necessary language skills to be of service - students don't have the knowledge of international gastronomy trends For this reason, we will attempt to deal with this problems through our mobility project. The students will undergo training in countries from which a great number of tourists arrive to this region, and countries that are the leaders in European and world trends in tourism and hospitality. The students will be enabled to identify tourists in different segments, such as luxury holidaymakers, senior excursionists, youth travelers or family vacationists. The optimum amount of time spent in European training is 3 weeks for every student trainee (so they are not absent from too much regular school lessons). The 1st group will train in October 2015, the 2nd in October 2016 (exact dates can vary due to travel arrangements etc.) During this time, the trainees will undergo vocational training in tourist and hospitality establishments. Every week the trainee will assist his/her mentor with a different responsibility, depending on what the teacher and mentor agree is most useful for every particular student and depending on the possibilities at a specific potential working place. For example, a cooking student can have these assignments: - 1st week - he/she will be focused on hygiene basics & kitchen orientation; preparation of various types of breakfast and hors d’ouvres, - 2nd week - the focus will be on lunch, brunch and dessert: preparation and serving, - 3rd week will be reserved for dinner: foods and matching wines. The type of meals will depend on the host’s local traditions (e.g. in Germany, popular desserts are pastries, in France, meringue-based; in Île-de-France, one finds many international foods but in other regions the chefs either use much fruit and cheeses while cooking, or mushrooms and liqueur etc.) and the establishment’s classification (3*,4* or 5*). The outcome will be increased understanding of European tourists' needs (primarily from the said countries) in terms of language understanding and general recognition, and learning how to deal with those needs The students have mandatory training which they need to complete before graduating. It’s usually done in the area where they reside. The European training will be very beneficial as the trainees will be able to have first-hand experience in European hospitality. The skills acquired through this project will increase the students' employment chances and help them discover the importance of European mobility. The training will be officially recognized by the school upon their return and the experience will be noted in their Europass Mobility Certificate. The partners will also benefit from the project. As they see what the trainees are capable of, they will get a new perspective on Croatian students' potential, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of their vocational education and training system. The partners can learn from the advantages and discuss with our school what they find lacking in our VET system.