This project aim is to integrate and develop new competencies in nutrition, food processing and production, cooking and pastry and catering sector, in order to match the need expressed by the local companies of a more qualified labour. The main objectives consist of: - Foster the attractiveness of VET. - Strengthen the liaison between VET professionals and working life in order to improve our pedagogical skills. - Development of vocational skills relevant to the labour market needs. - Incorporate common European tools to promote transparency and recognition of qualifications (Europass, ECVET). The beneficiaries of the project are 20 pupils aged 18 and above, and they will attend the last year of the VET school, and spend a placement of 1 month in Portugal. The activities that students should do during the traineeship are: - being acquainted with the work safety regulations; - being acquainted with the regulations obliging in the institution providing the apprenticeship; - being acquainted with workers' duties; - taking part in designing the menus; - being acquainted with financial documentation; - planning daily food production; - preparing the design of the restaurant (refectory) to receive guests; - preparing cutlery and crockery; - choosing the appropriate vessels, cutlery and crockery to various dishes, desserts, drinks - designing table settings; - serving the customers - giving advice, recommending, taking orders; - serving the dishes according to the procedures of the customer service; - calculating bills; - preparing catering events; - preparing dishes and drinks using adequate techniques; - summarising the apprenticeship. The 20 participants will be selected by the different class committees on the basis of common criteria. Before their departure, the beneficiaries will receive a pedagogical preparation. The pedagogical preparation will be designed in a orienteering module, which explains the aim of the placement and provide the participants with information on the labour market and the social frame of the host country. At their arrival in Portugal, they will attend a full-immersion course of Portuguese during the first days, after which they start their practical placement in the companies, which overall consist of traineeship in the area of hospitality, catering and waiter. The specifically placements contents and organisations will be decided by the sending school in cooperation with the intermediary and host organisations. The tutoring of the beneficiaries will be carried out at the same time by the hosting partners and the intermediary partner, and covered the whole duration of the placements. In terms of impact, first of all, the participants will acquire new professional skills and abilities in their professional area. Moreover, working in a foreign context will strongly develop their linguistic and social competencies. Secondly, on a personal level, the foreign experience is an important opportunity of comparison and growth; being in touch with people having different mentality, habits and way of life, bringing them to discover a wider and concreter sense of European Citizenship. The placements abroad enable the students to live within a net of relations, at work and in the social context, where they will have the opportunity to take up responsibilities, perform tasks in an independent way, empowering their self-confidence and as a consequence increase their self esteem. The challenge represented by the work and social environment will reinforce their communication, behavioural and relational skills. The students involved in the project will have the opportunity to test their professional choice and to become more aware of their own strengths and weaknesses. Working in a real and not fictions work environment allow them to acquire not only specific professional knowledge but also an overall view of the role and rules characterising the world of work. The use of the foreign language in authentic contexts where different language codes are required will actually empower the students’ language performance. Furthermore, the foreign language is no longer perceived as something fictitious but as a real communication means that proved to be necessary to live and work abroad.