Mother tongue:

The project

EuroCatering Language Training - a free and freely accessible web-based interactive language course in 12 languages for the catering and hospitality sector.

This web-based language course will enable the student to learn vocabulary and to practise communicative skills for placement abroad in a kitchen or restaurant. Realistic interactions with an animated chef and manager are the main ingredients of this course. The product also includes a portal which students, trainers and teachers will use to consult extra reference material about the sector, the language, video material, gestures and assessment tools.

Our target group consists of trainees and professionals in the catering and hospitality industry. Available languages are Dutch, English, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Slovenian and Spanish.

All developed materials may be used independently or as an add-on to any language course in the professional sector

A new sector: the Reception area is available in 11 languages since August 2013.

Project leaflet

Download the project leaflet in any of these languages:

Project history

This language-training project for transnational placement trainees in the catering industry was designed and developed from 2006-2008 under the EU Leonardo da Vinci programme (EU Education and Culture division), followed by a second European LLP-project under the Key Activity2 programme for languages between 2010 and 2013 (EuroCatHos - Project 511483-LLP-2010-BE-KA2MP).

A project team from eleven EU countries - Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Spain and the United Kingdom collaborated on designing and producing a web-based language-training package for trainee kitchen, restaurant and hotel students.

The training materials are a direct response to the shortfall in the provision of language and cultural preparation for placement students. The training package has been based on the needs identified through surveys/questionnaires submitted by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and trainees in the catering industry, as well as promoters of transnational mobility projects and short-term placement trainees.

The 2.0 version of the EuroCatering Language Training Project was formally launched in March 2013, with 5 additional languages (DE, FI, IT, GA and PL) and new functionalities such as

the possibility of learning a target language through the same language
independent learning and teacher-led learning with group monitoring, additional exercises on The Tray
assessment tools with descriptions of learning outcomes.

The 3.0 version of the EuroCatering Language Training Project was launched in September 2013, with a new flowchart for the Reception area, described in 20 scenes: trainee orientation, pre-arrival, arrival, the stay and departure of the customer. All materials have been translated into 11 languages: Dutch, English, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, Polish and Spanish. The scenes are composed of audio-visual vocabulary identification and exercises, real-life contextual dialogues and exercises.

The aim was to design a web-based course, with audio-communicative scenes in a variety of situations, which relate to the demands observed in service in the catering & hospitality industry.

The product was designed and developed by language teachers and catering trainers in higher education and vocational schools in the eleven participating countries (see Partners).

The web-based language training package is available for free to all workers in the sector, vocational training organisations, hotel groups and SMEs in the catering & hospitality industry.

We hope you will enjoy this language tool as much as we have enjoyed working on it.

Awards

EuroCatering language training has been awarded many prizes since its launch in 2008:

the European Language Label in Slovenia in 2008
the European Language Label in Norway in 2009
the European Language Label in Belgium (Flanders) in 2009
the European Language Label in Ireland in 2010
the European Language Label in Spain in 2010
the European Language Label in Belgium (Wallonia) in 2011
the CALICO – Access to Language Education Award, USA, 2010
the European Language Label of the Labels, Limassol (CY) in 2012

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