2. EXCHANGE OF EXPERIENCE IN ATHENS (GREECE)
In the period from the 22nd to 26th October 2018, the second exchange of experience took place in the capital of Greece, in Athens. The aim of the exchange was to get to know best practices on the topic of early professional orientation for careers in the industries “Tourism and Catering” and “Applied Arts”.
On Monday, the host of the project week, AKMI Educational Organization SA (Greece), welcomed together with the project coordinator, the Centrum for Innovation and Technology Ltd., all the other project partners and mobility participants who came from Spain, Italy, Germany and Latvia. AKMI represents almost 55% of the total private VET sector in Greece, making it the leading Vocational Education and Training Institute. First, we got an overview of the various tasks of AKMI and what we would expect in the rest of the project week.
Among the interested participants were teachers, career adviser, start-up adviser or adviser for long-term unemployed people as well as heads of HR and trainees of larger companies of the participating partner countries. Everyone was full of expectations of what they would learn from AKMI´s best practices this week.
At the beginning of the second project day, the attendees had the chance to see the impressive and brand new AKMI "Metropolitan College". Thanks to the state-of-the-art technology and a strong involvement of the practice, the students receive in small groups the ideal opportunity to prepare themselves for their later professional life. Afterwards we had interesting workshops and presentations on the topics "The Hospitality Industry in turbulent times", "Career hunting in hospitality" or " New Business models in the hotel industry: Issues and Challenges".
The following day the project participants had the opportunity to get to know the premises of the AKMI vocational training institute. The participants were amazed about the different learning methods and the variety of hands-on training opportunities available to learners. In addition to detailed recreated 5-star hotel rooms or a classroom with an integrated bar for practicing for prospective professionals in the hotel and catering industry, the participants saw confectionary art and the highly modern kitchen, in which the students were busy.
This was followed by a presentation of AKMI methodology on career orientation and current trends and interesting workshops on topics such as "Creative and Cultural Industry in Greece and Career Opportunities", "Skills in public speaking" or "Education in times of crisis".
However, the highlight was the study visit to the Titania Hotel in Athens on Wednesday. There the participants could find out which practical challenges await future professionals in the hotel and catering industry and that they have to be real organizational and multi-talented people. We also had the opportunity to meet some young hotel professionals, which completed their training at AKMI SA and thus found the optimal career entry.
Following a very exciting last workshop on "Coaching Methods & Empowerment of People", the participants once again had the chance to reflect on the project week. At the end of the project week all mobility participants agreed that it was a very exhausting, eventful but also educational week. Therefore, we would like to thank our project partner, the AKMI Educational Organization SA.