<< Background >>Due to the shut down of schools as the result of the pandemic and growing need for new forms of teaching and training, including hybrid learning in all of Europe we have come to a conclusion that in order to continue our international cooperation activities and offer cultural exchange, relevant skills and experiences to our students a new online hybrid learning course module is needed in the field of baker confectionery studies. In the project coordinator organisation the teachers have already experimented with online learning content creation including making instructional videos and carrying out some hybrid learning workshops. The teachers are eager to share best practices and learn from their colleagues in other schools in order to create an truly engaging hybrid learning experience for students. With travel restrictions also new forms of international cooperation have emerged. When the students and teachers cannot participate in physical mobilities to enhance their professional skills they are looking for new ways to learn about different traditions in different countries in the culinary arts. During the distance training period the coordinating partner staff also noticed that teachers’ digital skills in our school as well as our partner schools are at different levels. Therefore the proposed project addresses the development of teachers and students digital skills through actively learning by participating in project activities.<< Objectives >>The objectives of HYBAKE project is to create a student centered and engaging hybrid learning course for baker confectionery studies and pilot the course with students from all partner countries. The project aims to enhance teachers and students digital skills through active participation in course creation and piloting.The project aims to create a strong professional network of teachers, foster international cooperation and enhance participants' language skills.HYBAKE project objectives include creating Model structure for a hybrid learning course;Online learning material for baker-confectionery online course, including video instructions for practical workshops;Piloted hybrid learning course on a mutual platformTeachers will have a knowledge and experience of European culinary heritage and will be able to pass it on to students in a modern format.<< Implementation >>The project will include developing hybrid learning course module that will consist of 3 different intellectual outputs, the course design and structure, the course materials and hybrid learning course platform. The online learning materials will include three different baker-confectionery product instructions per partner representing three national holidays, in total eighteen products which are related to three different national holidays of their country and step-by-step instructional videos. In total the project results include at least 9 instructional videos on different traditional holiday bakery products.During the project period 3 physical meetings and monthly online meetings will take place between the project teams to discuss the project progress and content development. During the project period 5 Learning, Teaching and Training Activities will be held spread between partner countries. Each LTT has a specific topic that is related to the hybrid learning course development. In each country, teachers involved in the project will make the products and instruct their colleagues how to prepare the workshop. At the end of the project the coordinating partner will organise a hybrid conference in order to disseminate project results.<< Results >>As result of the HYBAKE project teachers have developed their digital competencies in using IT tools for virtual online meetings (Zoom, Skype, Microsoft Teams, Google Meets), creating virtual tours and videos online, Microsoft PowerPoint, Excel, Word for recipes and calculation purposes. The participants have benefited from cultural exchange, language training, new social skills in an international context and developing close cooperation relationships.The project contributes to the prestige of vocational education establishments by introducing a hybrid learning course module in practical workshops and develops virtual cooperation possibilities between VET schools. The students that have participated in piloting have knowledge of different European holidays and traditions including culinary traditions and new skills in preparing different national products from partner countries. They have also developed their communication and language skills, have higher self-esteem and developed their digital competences. The hybrid learning course created will be available to other schools to incorporate into their curricula and will be used to develop further virtual and blended mobilities between partners.

"PROJECT SUMMARY ""Education Development Guidelines for 2014-2020"" define the basic objective of the development of education - high-quality and inclusive education for personal development, human well-being and sustainable national development. To ensure the development of education, it is necessary to work on quality management and improvement in VET institutions. The main goal of the project „Change management forwarding to excellence in vocational educational institutions” was to improve quality management approaches in VET institution trough promotion of self-evaluation and benchmarking.Our concrete objectives were:1. To examine and research existing approaches for quality assurance in Vocational education and training sector in participating countries2. To carry out self-assessment based on EFQM and EQAVET principles to identify both strengths and weaknesses of the partner organizations3. To share and validate identified tools and approaches and learn from each other4. To implement change management in partner organizations based on the exchange of effective practices5. To develop a Guide of recommendations for effective practices and support their practical implementation in VET institutions.Project partners were from Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania Slovenia, Bulgaria VET institution and Expert ""Biedrība Eurofortis"".The project was divided into 3 phases. In the first phase of the project, the partners made research and later in training activity learned about self-assessment which was provided with Excellence approach (EFQM) and quality assurance (EQAVET). After that organizations visited more than 20 VET institutions which are working hard to improve their organizations' quality in every aspect. Partners got many ideas from each other about VET institution in quality management and everyday school life that makes quality. At the end of the project partners shared not only in partnership know-how but also to a wider scope of VET organizations by developing a Recommendation guide which is available in the project website www.evet.lv. Project partners are surprised by the impact which is left after the project implementation:1. Deputy Minister of Education and Science in Bulgaria, which before was director of Sofia Professional High School in precision engineering and optics ""M.V. Lomonosov"", became as deputy minister and made changes in self-assessment in all professional schools. This person participated in good practice sharing of our project where she got inspiration to change that system.2. All partners started to care more about students and their wellbeing in school. Some partners in different aspects started to evaluate students and teachers about their feelings in school and what could be done better.3. All partners understood that there is needed better communication among administration, teachers and students. It is a hard job to make qualitative dialogue between different generations.The most important thing that VET institution more than 20 have started care more about quality management which includes Excellence. In the project website, it is possible to find more information about the project, recommendation guide, good practice, and improvements which were made in every partner organization."

"Today’s study environment has become more challenging than ever. One of them is an integration of blended mode of teaching/learning in the lessons while, at the same time improving the teaching quality and students’ performance in the VET schools. The previous study depicted that a majority of teachers of partner VET schools need to upgrade the digital skills to ensure a higher quality educational process.Project objective: to upgrade digital competences of teachers in the blended mode of teaching/learning and to determine the most effective methods and innovative tools for the teachers and to create a compilation in a manual that will have free public access, so to promote an exchange of good practice.There will be three short-term joint staff training events (2 days training excluding traveling to/from hosting place):- (Greece) ""The virtual laboratories and most effective digital teaching tools""- (Estonia) ""The most effective face to face methods, approaches, tools"";- (Slovenia) ""Quality education process and students’ performance"".Teachers and staff (20 participants from 5 VET project partner schools) will take participation in the training activities of the project. Four transnational project partner meetings will be organized. Two meetings will be organized face to face, and two will be online meetings.During the project the following intellectual outputs will be developed:- Report (research) will be made using the results of surveys. Owing to the first survey we will find out the main internal and external factors that effect teaching quality and students’ performance in a blended teaching/learning process. The second survey will give a feedback concerning created manual. - Creation of the manual. The manual will ensure a methodical support to teachers. It will contain the most effective digital tools, virtual laboratories, animated tasks, learning games and face to face methods and approaches. Created an innovative graphical model in the manual will illustrate the main factors that influence the quality education process and students’ performance in blended teaching/learning lessons, recommended structure of lessons and recommended application of advised teaching and learning tools.- Development of the website of the project and maintenance. A website will depict essential information concerning the project, good practice of partner VET schools concerning blended teaching/learning and it will ensure free access to the manual and at least 3 video-based lecture materials from training activities. The communication and dissemination activities will be organized according the dissemination and communication strategy.A desired impact: owing to the project activities a teaching quality and students’ performance in the blended teaching/learning process will be improved. The trained teachers will become more knowledgeable, more confident with the technologies. An expected impact on the students: they will be tough by the effective methods and contemporary tools making these students successful learners and will positively affect students’ performance. An expected impact will become wider on account of trained teachers and staff who will train teachers from involved collaborative schools and will share with the good experience to community on international level."