BACKGROUND We want to take care and ensure that the competence of tourism and business students is up-to-date and corresponds to needs of companies. In order to achieve this, school and companies must do continuously mutual cooperation. This project corresponds to mission and vision of Helmi Business & Travel College: “Helmi provides skilled and open-minded professionals for attractive and innovative business fields” and “We are known of our verstatile and inspiring vocational pedagogy”. OBJECTIVES a) School perspective: to create education services with cooperation of foreign companies and schools in order to face the changing needs of business. To create a model how foreign companies can participate in planning of education. b) Company perspective: to improve the cooperation of school and travel and business companies to be more interactive so that companies can affect more the planning of education. Then companies will get also more skillful employees. c) Student perspective: to give students a possibility to perform their work placement in knowledgeable and innovative foreign company. To improve students’ professional skills and knowledge, language and cultural skills, entrepreneurial skills and readiness to continue their studies in higher education. d) Teacher perspective: to create models for teachers to plan and carry out education in more business and internationally oriented way. This improves also the level of professional skills of teachers. NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS The innovative and cooperation oriented partner companies are: Scancoming Spain; Guild Travel, England; Fasada Incoming, Spain/Portugal; Laventeli, France. The partner schools who offer tourism and business education are: Koning Willem I College, Holland; Collegi Badalones, Spain; RWS, Germany; Paragon Europe, Malta (company organizing interships). Activities: 60 second or third year tourism or business students carry out international work placement. 24 teachers or education developers participate in order to counsel and evaluate the students and have a meeting with employer in order to discuss about the curriculum and level of professional skills of students. DESCRIPTION OF MAIN ACTIVITIES After students have been accepted to do their work placement abroad, intercultural coaching will start in Helmi. During their work placement, guidance of student will be done by job instructor of the company. Evaluation of vocational skills will always be done by job instructor, student and guiding teacher. During the same trip with evaluation of vocational skills, guiding teacher interviews job instructor with his colleague concerning curriculum and level of professional skills of students, what kind of professional skills is needed in that business and how work placement should be arranged (e.g. length, evaluation procedures). Students participates this discussion partly. This kind of interview will be arranged also in partnerschools. Partners will also get a questionnaire about the same topic after the visit. After first year of project, evaluation discussion will take place in Helmi. Improvement actions will take place and models for second year of the project will be written. At the end of the project evaluation discussion (incl. results of questionnaires) will take place again. The final report will be written according to this evaluation discussion. Final report will include also action plan for coming years. RESULTS AND IMPACTS a) Helmi: With cooperation with foreign companies we can create education services which face the changing needs of business. Also we can create a model how foreign companies can participate in planning of education. This improves and ensures the quality of education. b) Partner companies and schools: After this project partner companies are more committed to cooperation, because they really can affect the improvement of education and this may ensure them more skillful employees. Partner schools will turn to ECVET-partners of Helmi. c) Students: Project enables 60 students to make their work placement in knowledgeable and innovative foreign company. It also improves students’ professional skills and knowledge, language and cultural skills, entrepreneurial skills, readiness to continue their studies in higher education and employment. d) Job instructors, education developers: Project improves the guiding skills, professional skills, language and cultural skills of job instructors and education developers. The development models of education will be improved and they become more structured. They will help teachers to plan and carry out education in more business and internationally oriented way. As a longer term benefit the dialogue between foreign companies and Finnish vocational schools and between foreign and Finnish vocational schools will be improved in planning of education. This will result to more up-to-date and business oriented education with improvement in quality of education.