"<< Background >>The Covid-19 crisis has had a huge impact on vocational education and training, as many professional sectors have had to close or slow down their operations due to the various blockades. One of the most affected sectors is the hotel and restaurant industry. Due to all these closures, thousands of young trainees did not have the opportunity to complete their professional internship. Thus, if there was a 22% drop in internships in companies in 2020, it is 50% in the field of catering. This poses real problems to which this project seeks to contribute a concrete response through e-learning methods and virtual reality, thanks to the active participation of two training centers as formal partners.On the other hand, we note that the Erasmus Plus program is focusing more and more on VET project mobilities. There is indeed a growing interest in extending mobility opportunities to vocational and educational training. This requires a preparation, especially linguistic, for which not all training centers are yet equipped, due to a lack of teachers and time.The various virtual reality projects in which some of the partners have participated in the past have confirmed that virtual reality can be an opportunity to allow students to have a first glimpse of the professional experience they need to validate their diplomas, but also to prepare for internships abroad, as well as to have a glimpse of the context in another country where they cannot work directly, by developing their foreign language skills. As the virtual reality environments will be common to the whole consortium, despite some adaptations, the objective of VET VR ACADEMY, using the e-learning platform, will be to allow the creation of activities or presentation of concepts that are difficult to retranscribe in virtual reality, but adaptable in a more classic theoretical e-learning content.This project will develop and test virtual reality environments to fill this need in the field of professional training for students wishing to work in hotels and restaurants, taking into account the cultural differences between countries. They will be able to experience their own national context as well as the context of other partners' countries.<< Objectives >>VET VR ACADEMY, starting from the needs stated above, has set a series of general and specific objectives, which have been developed to meet them. All of the goals are in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, in particular the fourth goal: ""Ensure access to quality education for all and promote lifelong learning"". UNESCO's Global Coalition for Education COVID-19 proposes a goal within this framework that we fully embrace: ""Help countries mobilize resources and implement innovative and contextually appropriate solutions to deliver distance education, leveraging high-tech, low-tech, and non-tech approaches. ""The Erasmus Plus program follows the same perspective by promoting the use of digital tools in vocational education and training to enhance its attractiveness. In the case of VET VR ACADEMY, we focus on training in catering, to develop the skills of teachers by providing them with innovative and attractive digital training tools. The interest of using ICT is also in a sustainable development perspective. Indeed, we can find in online and virtual teaching practices, even if we have to remain modest because contact with the customer remains essential, some impacts of face-to-face training, while limiting their carbon footprint. The overall objectives of the project are to: - Promote the use of digital tools in vocational education and training and promote new approaches to foster the digital transition.- Strengthen the capacity of VET organizations in the field of digital training.- Enhance the attractiveness of learning in VET through innovative methods and more flexible opportunities.- To develop new ecological approaches through e-learning activities.The specific objectives of the project are to - Address the emerging needs of learners in the food service industry, regardless of age, in response to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic- Develop the pedagogical framework for new digital tools for VET schools, teachers, and trainers.- Develop new digital tools for VET schools, teachers and trainers.- Provide new hands-on learning opportunities in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic for VET students for hospitality jobs.- Develop cross-cultural and foreign language skills for VET students in the food service industry.<< Implementation >>To achieve these results, the consortium will implement the following activities- Organisation of 4 transnational meetings to ensure the coordination and management of the project- A European learning activity for VET teachers and educators who will set up the final test phase to familiarize them with the tools to develop and strengthen their digital skills- A curriculum/pedagogical framework that will serve as a basis for the rest of the project- An e-learning platform to complement the virtual reality environments- Virtual reality environments available on consumer headsets- A public test of these results with 25 teachers and 100 learners across Europe - An impact study/policy paper for those who would like to reuse the tools or produce other virtual reality environments with a similar protocol- A dissemination strategy including the following elements: website, 4 newsletters, an infographic, publications on European platforms, making the virtual reality environments available on the download platforms of the chosen manufacturer, etc.<< Results >>The project will develop 4 results: PR1: VR ACADEMY FRAMEWORKThanks to the experience of the partners in the field of virtual reality and vocational training in the hotel and restaurant industry, we will develop a curriculum focused on this working environment, taking into account in particular the tasks performed in the hotel and restaurant industry that can be transferred, for a first practice or to get an overview of the working context abroad, in the digital world. The program will be available in the following languages: French, Spanish, Greek, German and English.PR2: VR ACADEMY ONLINEWe will use an online learning platform, complementary to the virtual environment, to host online lessons complementary to VR. This platform will be designed to prepare and accompany students who will first test and then benefit (after the end of the project) from the virtual environments. It will include language learning elements to enable students to develop their foreign language skills, whether in preparation for internships abroad or not. The results will be available in the following languages: French, Spanish, Greek, German and English.PR3: Development of environmentsThis project outcome, led by Ludus XR, will mainly focus on the technical development and testing of the virtual reality environments, following the development of the curriculum, as well as the content of the e-learning platform. The results will be available in the following languages: French, Spanish, Greek, German and English.PR4: Evaluation Report / Policy Paper / Impact AnalysisOne of the most important parts of the project will be the evaluation, the assessment of the impact through a guidance document that will allow the consortium to have a global perspective of the results and impact of the projects in order to ensure its sustainability. The guidance document will be available in the following languages: French, Spanish, Greek, German and English."