The project application was worked out based on a thorough prior needs analysis.The stimulus for this project was provided by Primrose Publishing who extending its range of language software designed a computer program containing a huge repository of questions that guests ask at the hotel reception desk in seven languages, which is also available as a smartphone app. The project aims to address key issues in the accommodation and catering sector by providing hotel staff with a set of freely accessible resources to improve their language and intercultural skills thereby impressing their guests with the use of the guests’ language and increasing their satisfaction. It not only provides hotel staff with a range of answers to these and other questions in 12 most popular languages used in tourism and hospitality business but also provide similar answers to guests’ questions in a restaurant, an impressive array of materials in 12 languages as well as a learning program and an on-line English course for those in the hospitality sector and tourism and hospitality students thereby increasing their competences and employability.Six partners are involved in the project: Turiba University from Latvia specializing in business, including tourism and hospitality management; Ekonomska šola, a tertiary education institution from Slovenia providing business education; Sapientia University from the Hungarian-speaking part of Romania - providing a wide spectrum of study programmes; IPSSA Nino Bergese, a hotel school from Genoa, Italy; Turisticka i ugostiteljska skola, a hotel and catering school from Dubrovnik, Croatia; and Primrose Publishing from England that created the FrontDesk program for the industry and the smartphone apps.The Consortium created the Learning program using Moodle platform. The Learning program comprises 2 levels: 1) A2/B1 language learning course for 12 languages and 2) B2/C1English course. Each of the parts contains 6 modules relevant for work in hotel and catering industry.Comprehensive curricula, pedagogical and technological guidelines, intercultural guidelines are a part of the outputs.Other outputs comprise two computer programs and two apps containing answers to guests' questions in 12 languages, the activities include relevant lexis necessary at restaurants and an in-depth survey of cultural sensitivities in all European countries and thereby avoid causing offence and distress. Digital maps have been created showing hotels in three locations: in a rural countryside, by the seaside and at a ski resort in the mountains that will help to learn a language using innovative approach. The maps are accompanied with the tasks and the inside hotel maps. All the materials created will be available after the project free of charge as a learning program. A project web-site has been created, and a comprehensive and challenging dissemination programme has been undertaken. The learning program and the on-line English course was piloted and reports written and uploaded on it. A wide variety of media, disseminationtools were used: seminars, workshops, presentations, e-mail campaigns, social media, conferences,articles, reports, fairs, etc.8 National workshops were held followed by an international conference in Slovenia with the participation of key stakeholders from the hospitality sector invited from the partner countries These events were organised to promote the project and demonstrate of all outputs of the project.The results are highly-motivating with the potential to transform and even revolutionize the way students and hotel trainees are trained at all levels. There is clear opportunity for all who work in the tourist industry to be excited by what the project has produced, and exploit the materials created to enhance their language skills and their ability to advance in their career.The project sustainability plan adopted secures this.

The project involves the cooperation of 6 technical vocational secondary schools from the following countries: Poland, Turkey, Slovenia, Romania, Italy and France. It deals with the area of raising gastronomic competences of students and teachers. All partners educate young people in the fields related to cooking and their experiences in this field will be shared with the participants of the project. Both students and teachers will participate in the mobility. In order not to limit access to pupils and teachers from outside the thematic area of the project, we will also involve students from other fields of education not related to gastronomy in our activities and mobility.The aim of the project is partners’ cooperation in the promotion of their cultural heritage, which is undoubtedly the national and regional cuisine and increase vocational and language competences. During mobilities, students will take part in various culinary trainings conducted by host school teachers, which will deal with the national and regional cuisine of the host country and other gastronomy activities, waiter service, catering, confectionery, and bakery product quality testing. Part of the workshop will be run by the chefs of local restaurants cooperating with schools, which will allow students to get acquainted with the real work environment in gastronomy in foreign countries. By participating in the project, teachers and students will receive knowledge and skills in the preparation of dishes specific to a given country and region, will cooperate in international teams, improve soft skills (eg ability to work in a group) and language skills (especially in communication and vocational vocabulary).The results will be achieved, among others, through the implementation of 25 mobilities (short training programs for the staff) of vocational teachers who will participate in advanced 25 hours trainings and learn techniques specific to the country and the host region. Moreover, the project assumes 50 students’ mobilities and 50 accompanying teachers’ mobilities for short-term exchanges, during which participants will also take part in educational activities related to gastronomy, culture and integration.The multilingual final products of the project will include, among others: a website containing a multimedia / an interactive dictionary containing general terms but also typically culinary in each of the languages of the project partners, a cookbook with national and regional recipes specific to each project partner - in print and the digital version (downloadable), videos with instructions on how to prepare individual dishes from the cookbook. Thanks to such forms of dissemination, we will ensure a long-term and wide process of sharing the final products as training materials available under open CC BY-SA (Open Educational Resources) licenses. All the partners, thanks to the good cooperation so far will use local media for current promotion (press, radio, television, internet portals). The culmination of the project will be a conference organized by the project coordinator with the participation of all partners, summarizing and disseminating the final products and results.

Contemporary world shows a change in the employability patterns and skills needed in the future. Cedefop’s skill supply and demand forecasts (2014) highlighted Europe’s employment challenges indicating that the most job opportunities will be in services, and point to a rising trend towards high-skilled jobs. Moreover, the increasing tourism flows, mobility for study and professional reasons as well as global migration processes have placed Europe in a previously unknown situation in which multilingualism is becoming not a desired state but a vital necessity. Communication in many languages is not any longer regarded as an aim but is considered as a tool for participating in socially meaningful activities in everyday and professional setting. Language skills, intercultural and digital competences are important employability skills in the current situation, especially in tourism and hospitality sector. This also requires new innovative ways for developing VET learners’ employability skills to be competitive in the changing labour market and contribute to cohesive society. This idea lies at the core of the current project, the stimulus for which was our previous project „Key Skills for Hotel Industry Staff” in which we focussed on developing language course for hospitality industry employees in 12 languages. The current project elaborated and put forward the results attained in the first project increasing its scope. This project addresses the specific objectives of the Erasmus+ programme in the field of education and training: 1) to improve the level of key competences and skills (employability skills, language and intercultural competence), with particular regard to their relevance for the labour market (tourism and hospitality industry) and their contribution to a cohesive society (providing better cultural awareness and increased language competence, including in remote areas); 2) improve the teaching and learning of languages and promote the EU's broad linguistic diversity (16 languages are targeted) and intercultural awareness (language teaching/learning materials integrating culture of European countries, including minority groups (ethnic Hungarian region of Romania) and creativity in language learning. Nine partners are involved in the project: two vocational schools – TUSDU, Croatia and IPSSA Nino Bergese, Italy; two higher vocational schools - Ekonomska sola Murska Sobota, VSS from Slovenia and Vyšší odborná škola, Střední průmyslová škola a Obchodní akademie, Čáslav, from the Czech Republic; three tertiary level education institutions - Biznesa augstskola Turiba, Latvia; UNIVERSITATATEA SAPIENTIA DIN CLUJ NAPOCA, Romania and VšĮ Vilniaus verslo kolegija, Lithuania; Provincial Directorate of Education in Turkey Kutahya MEM; and Primrose Publishing, an enterprise from the UK. The project created an interactive blended learning language course „Unity in Diversity” comprising on-line learning materials available on the Moodle Learning platform and face-to-face interactive materials incorporating case studies, games, problem-solving tasks, videos, etc. targeted at developing VET learners’ language, intercultural and digital competence, creativity, problem-solving skills and flexibility. The complete course is formed up by three courses: 1) an interactive A1 language learning course in 16 languages (CZ, DE, EN, ES, FR, GR, HR, HU, IT, LT, LV, RO, RU, SE, Si, TR) containing such modules as “Welcome”, “Hotel”, “Restaurant”, “Professional skills”; 2) A2/B1 language course in 16 languages comprising such modules as “Hotel Reception”, “Restaurant”, “Restaurant Kitchen”, “City”, “Hotel Business Centre” and “Management Offices”, the first two also as smartphone apps, the module “City” accompanied by 3 interactive maps and 3 inside hotel maps; 3) B2/C1 intercultural English language course comprising 8 modules “Hotel Front Office”, “Catering Service”, Hotel Management”, “Conference and Business Services”, “Off-site Services” and “Financial Management”, an Intercultural module revealing cultural sensitivities of the nine partner countries and nine Country modules featuring the main tourist information required for work; the course contains case studies, videos, on-line modules and face-to-face problem-based tasks. The project outcomes are addressed towards the development, implementation of innovative practices at organisational (education institutions), local (VET institutions, hospitality enterprises), regional (VET and hospitality enterprises), national (through multiplier events, dissemination, reports impact on education institutions, industry, individuals for lifelong learning) and European level (the impact of the platform, dissemination, research activity, both for VET, industry and lifelong learning purposes) on long-term basis. The courses are available for learners on the learning platform http://esolams.eu/unity/ and information is also available on the project webpage: http://languages4all.eu/