On 1 July 2025, DEHOGA Brandenburg welcomed five trainees and their accompanying teacher to the first Erasmus+ long-term internship programme in Brandenburg hotels.

The bilateral cooperation between the northern Italian educational organisation ENAIP Veneto was prepared over a period of almost two years as part of TourX and the complementary mobility HOGAVET project.  

It has been a long journey of joint preparation, which is now moving from the preparatory phase into practical work.

These five young students, aged between 18 and 20, had just successfully completed their final exams (EQF level 4) in ENAIP vocational schools located in Verona, Padua and Vicenza; two of them had obtained a diploma as a Culinary Technician, while the other three graduated as Tourism Services Technicians.

They were carefully selected to ensure the best possible match with the host companies in Brandenburg, based on their professional skills, language competence, and strong motivation to complete this experience successfully.

Over the next three months, the ENAIP students will work at the ESPLANADE Hotel & Resort, the Landgasthof Jüterbog and the regional tourism associations „Seenland Oder-Spree“ and „Fläming“, completing their four-year vocational training with this long-term internship.

Working, gaining practical experience and discovering Brandenburg, the state surrounding Berlin, are the focus of these internships. Work-based learning is the name of the methodological concept in which the member companies of DEHOGA Brandenburg are now taking on an important role in the further development of this European educational cooperation.

Work-based learning (WBL) is of central strategic importance in European vocational education and training, as it is considered a key element for the quality, practical relevance and labour market relevance of vocational education and training. In the context of the European education strategy, particularly within the framework of the European Education Area and the Agenda for Skills, WBL is at the heart of various initiatives and support programmes such as Erasmus+.

The Erasmus+ programme for vocational education and training (VET Learner Mobilities) increasingly promotes long-term internships (e.g. over 3 months, in some cases up to 12 months).

These so-called ‘Long-Term Mobility for VET Learners (VET long-term mobilities)’ serve specific strategic objectives:

• Projects involving long-term mobility aim to integrate this into the curriculum. The learning phases abroad are recognised and documented as an integral part of the training.
• The longer stays promote sustainable intercultural learning processes, language skills and social integration in a European context.
• The mobility programmes are increasingly linked to learning outcomes based on the ECVET/EQF approach to ensure recognition in the home country.

With the internships that have now started, we will be able to further develop the quality of our work and gradually bring our bilateral cooperation agreements to life.

The next three months will be a practical adventure for the interns and a new challenge for us in the European Erasmus+ programme. Above all, these internships can be an important practical building block for the further development of the mobility programmes planned for TourX in autumn this year.