My Way to a Career in European Hospitality !

"<< Background >>Fundaţia pentru Educaţie şi Vocaţie has applied with the project „MyWaY to a Career in European Hospitality“ in order to provide career counseling and guidance for high school students who, although come from disadvantaged areas around the country, and want to continue their studies and build a career in European hospitality. Through this project, the target group had the opportunity to visit and understand the main activities that the hospitality field entails and experience what they study at school, as they are students from technological highschools and focus on tourism and hospitality profiles.Many teenagers are disoriented when it comes to choosing the right career path and often make a wrong choice following friend and family advice (usually due to lack of counseling/evaluation and mentorship). An important reason of the school dropout rate in Romanian universities consists of the lack of compatibility between the student’s profile and the chosen field of study. This situation is becoming even more acute when we talk about teenagers from vulnerable backgrounds and disadvantaged environments, which we have selected.<< Objectives >>The project aimed to give teenagers interested in a career in hospitality from vulnerable and disadvantaged environments the opportunity to discover different departments from the industry and understand this field of activity better. Through the implementation of this project, we managed to provide career guidance, share theoretical information, and cover some practical elements about the field of European Hospitality, alongside a brief overview of the Greek language, culture, and civilization. Improving participants’ English vocabulary and grammar English was also another mentionable goal, as in the mobility flow activity they discovered all the departments and their associated functions and responsibilities through discovering different accomodation structures and travel agencies.Regarding the achievements of the project:• career guidance and practical experience in the field of European hospitality to 10 Romanian teenagers from secondary schools;• improvement of many key competences such as fluent communication in English and raising digital, entrepreneurial and cultural awareness of 10 Romanian teenagers;•professional psychological evaluationand career guidance sessions for 30 Romanian teenagers.<< Implementation >>We managed to implement all the proposed activities:Activity 1 – Selection of candidates for the project Activity 2 – Workshop for 30 participants with international experts „Why to Choose a Career in European Hospitality?”- one-day workshop, in two sessions – 1. a presentation made by a Romanian and two international Greek experts; 2. a practical workshop consisting of: dedicated conversations, role plays, information about how to write a resume and a letter of intent in order to apply for a position in the hospitality industry, simulations of a job interview.Activity 3 – Professional counselling&vocational evaluation through individual sessions for 30 participantsActivity 4 – Preparation visit in Greece made by 2 members of the project’s teamActivity 5 – Linguistic preparation for 10 participants in the mobility flow in Greece – “English for Hospitality” CourseActivity 6 – Cultural & Linguistic preparation for 10 participants at the mobility flow in Greece – Introduction in Greek language, culture and civilization courseActivity 7 – Mobility flow for 10 participants in Greece – study visits and internship at Greek hospitality companiesActivity 8 – Dissemination events in 5 selected high schools from the target group<< Results >>•1 partnership with Ilfov School Inspectorate;•18 secondary schools (Ilfov) – target group (students from 10th and 11th grades);•30 participants selected;•1 Workshop for 30 participants with international and Romanian experts ""Why choose a Career in European Hospitality"";•30 participants that received individual career evaluation sessions and counselling;•1 preparatory visit of the Romanian management team (2 representatives) in Greece;•10 participants selected for the mobility flow in Greece for 7 days (study visits and internships at Greek hospitality companies);•10 participants and 10 diplomas for ""English for Hospitality"" Course - linguistic preparation - 20 hours;•10 participants and 10 diplomas at the Cultural & Linguistic preparation - Introduction in Greek language, culture and civilization course – 10 hours;•10 Youth Pass Mobility Certificates;•1 dedicated page of the project on www.fedevo.ro; •9 articles about different stages of the project;•2 posts/week on social media pages of FEDEVO;•1 travel diary during the mobility flow on FEDEVO FB•1 blog page made by the 10 participants•10 video tutorials on the YouTube channel of FEDEVO•5 dissemination meetings at 5 highschools from Ilfov county"