A. CONTEXT The Italian accommodation system is leader in Europe for quality and dimension. Tourism sector has always been and still it is a solid engine for the economic recovery of European Union. Therefore, it is important, in this period of crisis, to invest in the education and training of young people who want to grow professionally in tourism sector. In order to increase sector competitiveness, is it essential to ensure a better correspondence between demand and offer of competences in labour market. B. OBJECTIVES 70 young Italians will qualify their competences with a 2 months training in a sector enterprise in Germany, Greece, Malta, Portugal, United Kingdom, Spain. The project will: - transfer participants knowledge for working in the sectors: tourism, hotel and restaurant industry; - fulfil participants gap between hands-on training and future professional/university experience, by offering knowledge, experiential and language tools for continuing a career or university studies; - offer participants the chance to be more competitiveness in the labour market, increasing: technical competences, experiential and soft skills; - improve participants’ knowledge of foreign languages. C. NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS Italian students (age 18/21) enrolled in tourism VET (EQF Level 2, basic knowledge of the sector) or newly graduated (less than 1 year) (EQF Level 3), residents in Abruzzo, Puglia and Toscana. Study sections: accommodation service (tourist hosting and booking), restaurant services (enogastronomy and restaurant service), tourism professionals (commercial services). D. DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES Activities are divided into 3 Macro-phases: 1. Mobilities preparation: a. Partnership coordination; b. Enrolment and selection of participants; c. Participants preparation; d. Management and organisation support to the whole project 2. Mobilities implementation: a. Transnational training mobilities: 8 weeks: Mobilities will take place during summer in order to avoid interfering with participants’ school commitments and classes. The duration has been decided in collaboration with VET partners, who have indicated the period as appropriate for: developing training plan in hosting enterprises; participants’ achievement of technical, professional knowledge, skills and competences as well as soft skills. b. Monitoring and tutoring; c. Training experience evaluation; d. Acquired competences evaluation 3. Cross-sectional activities: a. Administrative and financial evaluation; b. Dissemination and follow-up. E. METHODOLOGY Mercury will manage and coordinate the project. Training plan in hosting enterprises will be organised in accordance with ECVET procedure: Units of Learning Outcomes (ULOs), with their activities and Learning Outcomes (LOs) (knowledge, skills and competences). Mercury has prepared the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which has been signed by all transnational partners. In line with MoU, ECVET-LAs will be elaborated. At the end of 2 months training, hosting enterprises will evaluate the LOs achievement through examination. Final evaluation will follow. Registers will show the number of daily hours training. They will be daily signed by tutor and trainee. Once having reports, applicant will start procedures for having Europass Mobility Certificates validated by Erasmus + National Agency. Before departure, participants will attend the Online Linguistic Support tool. Participants moving to Greece and Portugal will attend language and culture tuition at destination. Each 14 days tutors and trainees will fulfil monitoring questionnaires. OpenCom will realise a Web Platform for direct access (through username and password) to administrative documents, reports and monitoring questionnaires. F. SHORT DESCRIPTION OF RESULTS Leaning outcomes will be expressed in terms of knowledge, skills and competences. 70 students, who have carried out at leat 80% of training and have succeeded the final exam, will receive the Europass Mobility Certificate, where LOs will be validated. G. IMPACT The project will involve: - 7 tourism VETs in 3 Italian regions (Abruzzo, Puglia, Toscana); - 70 students and/or newly graduated (less than 1 year); - 13 transnational partners in 6 European countries (DE, EL, MT, PT, UK, ES); - disadvantaged students participation will be enhanced (1 person per VET). H. LONG TERM BENEFITS Expected project impact will be: local, regional, national and European: - young people employability in tourism sector will be enhanced; - Italian and European tourism service, quality and competitiveness will be enhanced, thanks to the creation of European and national networks. Dissemination plan will enlarge project impact, improving its sustainability and highlighting European added value. It will be coordinated by the partner OpenCom: non profit organisation, specialised in social communication.