A new building block for nurturing young talent in the hospitality industry
International cooperation constantly requires new ideas, and sometimes the success of an idea makes it easier to develop it further.
In 2025–2026, as part of the Erasmus+ project TourX and the complementary HOGAnet4VET project, DEHOGA Brandenburg added the NextGen Hospitality Trophy to the traditional vocational skills competition organised as part of the Brandenburg Youth Championships, with the aim of boosting its appeal and encouraging greater participation.
But you can’t be constantly travelling to competitions during a training year. Before a competition comes the training for it.
The NextGen Hospitality Trophy, which we have established as a competition format with our colleagues in Italy, Spain and Austria, also offers ample scope to develop theoretical and practical preparatory training for the competitions across the various vocational profiles. And this takes place in an exciting environment that sparks curiosity to take part and fosters the ambition to demonstrate excellent professional performance.
From 25–29 May 2026, trainees and trainers from the “Hotel Paulinenhof”, the “Kur- und Wellnesshaus Spree-Balance” and the restaurant “Le Maison” in Potsdam were invited to take part in the 1st NextGen Hospitality Camp in Styria/Austria. Among them were several winners of this year’s regional youth championships.
Austrian hospitality once again made it possible to enjoy an attractive programme. This time, the Brandenburgers took part, for example, in the “Cooking Skills” course at the Bad Gleichenberg Tourism Schools and also had the opportunity to take hotel tours to look behind the scenes of everyday life in the restaurant and hotel and compare it with their own daily routines. Of course, a wine tasting of Styrian wines was once again part of the programme. It was a week full of new experiences that are well worth talking about.
For it was the unanimous opinion of all participants that Erasmus+ is an appealing programme element during their vocational education and training.
With fresh ideas, open minds, clear concepts and practical implementation, projects can give rise to something new.
… and this main result of all our activities should certainly not go to waste in the future!
