-
Home
-
European Projects
-
SPICE UP YOUR PRACTICE
SPICE UP YOUR PRACTICE
Start date: Aug 1, 2014,
End date: Aug 1, 2015
PROJECT
FINISHED
The project helps students answer to the new challenges in their workplace requirements.
It is planned that students do their regular activities such as working at the front office desk, in restaurants and hotel kitchens under the supervision of their teachers and their hotel mentors. The teachers should meet all the hotel and restaurant workplaces.
The project involves 30 students (10 from each of the three educational programmes: chefs, waiters and front office clerks) and the supervision of four teachers. We are planing to perform mobility in twoo periods: Vienna: November 2014; Milano: June 2015.
Even though our school has experience in international cooperation and mobility of the students in the schools abroad, this is the first time we apply for this kind of mobility program. The principal goal of our application is to give our pupils a better insight into the way the hotel management works- this refers to the widely acknowledged world range of hotels. Besides, we want our students to gain first-hand experience that will enable them to specialize in their own field of studies.
Furthermore, we want to enable our students to gain experience and general knowledge about the culture of the destinations they are visiting. Here it is important to point out that Italy and Austria are not randomly chosen, but on purpose, since these are two neighbouring countries we share our history with, and countries from which many tourists come to Croatia every year. Italy and Austria are among 5 most important countries that support our tourist industry with the high percentage of their visits; there is a great number of tourists from Italy and Austria that come back to Croatia every year. This is the reason why we want our students, before even starting their professional careers, to get well acquanited with the culture of the countries from which our guests arrive, and also to get used to their habits and specific characteristics, in order to offer them the best possible service in future.
We plan to include students from different fields of studies in the hotel industry: chefs, waiters, receptionists and other people dealing with the hotel management, incorporating that way all the job positions in a hotel.
We believe that chefs will gain a positive experience from this project, through getting to know the 'culinary secrets and delights' of other countries, their role in the overall hotel industry, and the ways these systems are organised and arranged differently in different countries. As a result of this insight, they will be better equipped for their professional specialization.
We believe that waiters will also gain a great experience from this project, getting in touch with all the different approaches in communication with people from different countries, as well as getting acquanited with the organisational skills and services. They will also be given the opportunity to master their foreign language skills, which are very important for their job.
The same positive effect may be applied to receptionists and other other managing staff in the hotel, which would profit from this project, and would be able to incorporate the knowledge about the overall organisational system in their later professional careers.
To conclude, one of the the main advantages that our students will gain from this experience is the fact that they will learn how to put all this knowledge into practice, and one day, when they find themselves in the labour market, they will represent the competent young people qualified to compete for the desired job position. On the plus side, they will learn to respect other people and cultures, and that way be prepared to adapt easily to any situation.
As for the professors-mentors, they will also gain a great experience from this project, that will result applicable to their professional quality standards. The knowledge acquired by teachers would be used in the teaching process in the school.
Finally, we are inclined to believe that the overall tourist industry will also be able to profit from this experience, through the interaction of all the participants in this project, who will pass their knowledge and experience on other people, organisations and institutions.
The resaults will be presented in local medias and school. We belive this project will have great impact on teachers, students and school, because we will be more attractive to new students.