Our project: By preparing, educating and ultimately accompanying participants, we wish to organize internships in England or Spain in commercial and hospitality establishments. Who will participate? Two classes of the same grade, each representing the two branches of our school: – One class of 30 business students representing our service branch - One class of 15 business students (getting specialized in two years instead of three) – One class of 24 students representing our Hotel and Restaurant Management (HRM) branch. By sending both sections to other European countries, this program will ensure cohesion among our students who will share a similar experience despite having chosen different career paths. Why this project? There tends to be a revival of nationalism in the wake of economic crises like that which affects the EU today. Our staff of teachers and professionals find it very important for young generations to feel a sense of belonging and loyalty to the European Union. A work placement in another country would allow a welcomed change in professional experience in addition to a reinforcement of their current skills. This paired with the students’ discovery and assimilation into new environments, languages and cultures, one would be hard-pressed to find a more concrete manner of achieving this desired sense of European citizenship. Many young adults view their placement in professional schools as a failure when compared with their classmates who continue onto regular high school. By proposing an internship abroad, our staff wishes to show our students that their education will leave them with a true potential for success which will allow them to begin shaping a future within their respective career. We want to hand our students the reins of their education by improving their linguistic skills and helping them build professional knowledge and know-how in an intra-European context. Our goal is to leave them with a newfound open-mindedness, a useful tool when encountering people of other cultures. It’s crucial to us that the educational objectives be fully realized. Indeed all processes of apprenticeship ought to result in autonomy ; in an establishment such as ours the mastery of professional techniques will allow an exchange of practices with other cultures. When will this project take place? Though they all have a shared goal, our students differ according to their studies. It’s for this reason that: – The internships of the business students will take place in June 2016. – The internships of the HRM students will take place at the beginning of the 3rd and final year (October/December 2016); it is absolutely imperative that they acquire solid technique and know-how before launching into their professional endeavors. In order to respect the critical points of each of their final exams, the business students will have a four-week internship in commercial establishments and the HRM students will have eight-week work placement in catering, according to their focus. What sorts of preparations will our participants undergo? – Language proficiency examinations – Linguistic reinforcement – Role-playing exercises – Essay-writing – Website updates – Themed events – Meetings with foreign professionals – Journalistic compositions – Open-house hosting – Job-fair visitations Some pertinent assets: – A tightly-knit team composed of professors of both general and professional subjects, members of a management committee and school administrators. – Strong experience in foreign exchange programs; 12 years of experience with HRM classes and 9 years of experience with business students, an annual exchange program with a Latvian school and numerous scholastic excursions abroad. – An ever-growing foreign network of professional partners who continually welcome our students in their establishments. – An innovative, cooperative approach to teaching. – A genuine concern to maintain a cohesive Europe paired with a deep conviction that professional success depends on such programs Requirements: We will need support from EU programs in the form of student grants.