ENAIP Veneto and DEHOGA Brandenburg organised a workshop week around long-term mobilities for students in hotellery, gastronomy and tourism
There are many synonyms for individual teaching and learning, which can be found as keywords in many educational projects.
Peer to peer trainings, tandems, triangles or even the companions and bodies are different synonyms for efficient, individualised education and training. The effect that the different terms symbolise is obvious. It is the direct communication between teachers and learners that allows for detailed and extensive discussion on the topics that determine teaching and learning.
These peer-to-peer learning methods also determined the workshops that the TourX partners ENAIP Veneto and DEHOGA Brandenburg organised to discuss with Brandenburg stakeholders and TourX ambassadors the possibilities of long-term student exchanges as part of their internationalisation strategies.
Daniela Dal Zotto from the ENAIP Veneto mobility department, was a sought-after discussion partner for HR and training managers from the Brandenburg hospitality industry.
ENAIP Veneto and DEHOGA Brandenburg had agreed in April 2024, during a staff mobility of the Brandenburg colleagues to their colleagues from Veneto, to jointly develop new opportunities for long-term student internships in Brandenburg.
The task now was to align the organisational and technical framework conditions of the sending organisation with those of the host companies.
The peer-to-peer workshops during this workshop week also showed that the Brandenburg hotel and restaurant industry relies on individual support for its trainees and interns.
The ‘Seminarhotel Paulinenhof’ presented its experiences in integrating of new interns into the onboarding process, at the ‘Flair-Hotel Reuner’ special tandems of apprentices and interns work together.
At the ‘Kongresshotel Potsdam’, the focus is on group-dynamic processes between apprentices, interns and students and at the ‘Tourismusverband Seenland Oder-Spree’ the focus is also on teamwork.
The workshop at the ‘ESPLANADE Hotel & SPA’ quickly became a forum for mutual exchange of experiences and strengthened the common understanding of the need to closely interlink training and internships, because preparing for internships is more than just providing information about internship opportunities for trainees and students in other European countries.
Success must be jointly organised by the educational institution and the company providing the internship. Bilateral preparation requires knowledge of the mutual, multi-layered challenges that future interns will then have to overcome during their internship.
The idea of combining short study trips for learners and staff mobilities for teachers to prepare for long-term stays in companies was also discussed.
This results in an interesting, systematic process chain for developing long-term cooperation between VET providers and host companies.
ENAIP Veneto is already focusing on linking three-week short internships with three-month long-term internships to prepare students and give them the self-confidence they need to prepare for longer-term internships.
The discussion partners agreed that this approach reduces the inhibitions of young people entering the industry to gain new practical experience in Europe, because leaving home for another country is and remains a big step for young people.
A tandem needs two partners to ride. Even though the methodological tools discussed still have to prove themselves in practice this summer when the first ENAIP students complete their internships in Brandenburg, the workshop goals were definitely achieved.
The spillover effect of TourX was enhanced by this workshop week and the efforts that both TourX partners have invested in these workshops have paid off. Because: Quality requires knowledge and knowledge requires learning from each other.
Thanks for this opportunity!
