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ECHOS in Europe - Evaluating Catering and Hospitality Skills though ECVET
Start date: Aug 1, 2014, End date: Jul 31, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

One of the strategic choices of Helsinki Culinary School Perho is internationalization, which is put into practice for example by providing opportunities for work placements/on-the-job learning abroad. This action supports the school’s vision and strengthens and promotes sustainable development such as understanding and respecting multiculturalism and diversity. Internationality is a natural part of everyday school activities. Students' capacity for internationalization and international mobility is supported, which also promotes the rise of organization's level of know-how. Work placements abroad enable different kinds of learning environments and individual learning pathways for students. Incoming international students bring in know-how and increase the internationalization in the school. Organization’s strategy for internationalization includes finding new partnerships and increasing possibilities for international mobility to meet the students’ increasing interest and need for international experience. The curriculum team's task is to develop the international dimension of the curriculum and make reforms according to Ecvet, for example taking the learning points into account. The project is coordinated by Helsinki Culinary School Perho while Helsinki Vocational College is acting as a domestic partner. The project is carried out with the International CHASE Network, which consists of 18 hospitality and catering colleges around Europe. Most of the colleges act both as a sending and a receiving partner. The Network has been operating for over 20 years and represents a wide range of different language and cultural areas. From the gastronomic point of view, the colleges represent traditional European regional gastronomy. Gaining know-how and skills from the traditional European gastronomy strengthens the participants’ possibilities for employment and success in labor market. The participants of the project are primary and upper secondary based students, who study the Vocational Qualification in Hotel, Restaurant and Catering Services. The two-year project provides 40 students with the possibility of 4 and 5 months' exchange within the CHASE network colleges. The exchange consists of a 4 -week language and cultural training in the host college and of a work placement. During the exchange period the students learn skills needed in the internationalizing working life in addition to the professional skills. International work skills include different languages, networking and acting in a multicultural environment as well as different working cultures and customs. During the language and cultural training the participants study languages, some of which are rare or less-used, such as Hungarian, Turkish, Icelandic, Norwegian, Flemish and Latvian. The skills and learning outcomes acquired abroad are validated and recognized as part of the qualification. The project makes use of Europass Certificate Supplement, Europass CV and Europass Mobility Document. In the annual collaboration meeting The CHASE network agreed on a common project theme ECVET. Members of the network are in very different levels in terms of ECVET both in know-how and practical experience. Helsinki Culinary School Perho and Helsinki Vocational College have been co-operating to develop international mobility actions already for 6 years. The project aims to develop documents/material in English such as evaluation/assessment forms based on vocational program in hotel, restaurant and catering qualification and its Unit of learning outcomes. The material aims to describe the validation of the learning outcomes and specify the the assessment targets in on-the-job learning such as the knowledge , the skills and the competence of the student. The common Learning Agreement will be also developed.
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