1. Context The vocational school Armand Carrel is a state school situated in the 19th district of Paris. As part of their Baccalauréat Professionnel (= BTEC) in Reception and Customer Relationships, we would like to send our European Dection students to England. 2. Profile of participants 24 students in year 12 (Baccalauréat Professionnel (=BTEC) in Reception and Customer Relationships), mostly girls, aged about 17, from underprivileged social classes and foreign extractions. They live in the 10th, 19th, 20th districts of Paris (high priority targets for city policy) where youth unemployment is very high. 3. Objectives - Improving their English level and the Baccalauréat results - Developing professional skills essential to their future jobs - Increasing the number of students in higher education - Improving their professional integration right after the Baccalauréat (BTEC) - Developing an open mindedness 4. The project management > The students’ preparation - Cultural and linguistic preparation given by both the English and the professional subject (Reception and Customer relationship) teachers: 5 hours a week from year 11 - Professional preparation given by the professional subject teachers: 12 hours a week from year 11. - Preparation of the stay itself: during the lessons, and there will also be two meetings with the parents to arrange the practical aspects. > The project’s preparation The project will be made by an intermediate organization: TestEnglish. A detailed agreement will be signed with this organization to guarantee the right development of our students’ staying abroad. A schedule will be established to make all the steps clear for all the participants and to follow up the development of the project. The role of TestEnglish is to propose names of companies and host families and to take care of the students on the spot, if needed. Indeed, during the training period this organization is manned 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The companies are chosen by the teachers and TestEnglish makes the companies sign an internship agreement and a document about the different tasks which can be given to the students. Host families are chosen according to the students’ specificities. The travel to London is organized by the teachers, and from the London train station to the host families by TestEnglish. Practical conditions are clearly defined and the responsibilities of each are specified in writing (insurances, visas, follow up of the students…) 5. Description of the activities Two teachers will travel with the group and stay several days to be sure that every student is well settled. The students will be dwelled by host families. As part of their Baccalauréat “Reception and Customer Relationships”, they will work as hosts in companies (with an internship agreement) The students will be followed up from France by the teachers through mails and phone calls and in London by two TestEnglish employees. Every Friday afternoon, within a language school, the students will share their experiences and create slide shows about their stay. These slide shows will help the teachers to follow the right development of the stay, then they will be assessed for the Europro and the Baccalauréat oral exam of the European section. The teachers will go back to Woking at the end of the stay for a joint assessment with the tutors according to the official evaluation scale. Then the teachers and all the students will travel back together to France. 6. Foreseen results and impact - Improving the Baccalauréat (BTEC) results: marks (especially in English), success rate, distinctions - Improving the professional skills to obtain a better continuation of studies rate or to facilitate the professional integration right after the baccalauréat (BTEC) - A greater participation to the priorities determined at several levels: school project, local education authority project (developing language skills to increase the openness to Europe), local, regional and national political directions (fight against youth unemployment, integration of minorities) 7. Potential long-term benefits - Better integration – especially professionally – for those people who are often victims of various discriminations (racial, religious, sexual and social), a really positive factor for their communities (their successes are inspiring and incentive examples) - Developing their open mindedness and a feeling of being an active part of the European Union