The expert Basque chef at VET centres in Brescia and Bagnolo Mella

Basque chef Borja Extebarría was a guest at CFP Canossa Brescia and Bagnolo Mella, where he held the first of two days of training for our cooking instructors. The course was entitled “Cocina Tradicional del Pais Vasco” (Traditional Cuisine of the Basque Country).

The chef brought traditional recipes from the Basque Country, starting with typical appetizers such as “La Gilda” (anchovy skewers, pickled peppers, and olives) and the highly anticipated “El Bilbainito” (quail eggs, shrimp, mayonnaise, parsley, and olives). His colleagues then prepared (and tasted, of course!) a second course, “Txangurro a la Donostiarra” (crab stuffed with brandy, onions, and breadcrumbs) and “Papel Vasco,” a Basque cake made with shortcrust pastry and custard.

The chef continued with other dishes, such as main courses based on salt cod cooked in three typical Basque sauces: “Bacalao al Pil-Pil” (salt cod in “Pil-Pil” sauce: an emulsion prepared with oil flavored with garlic, chili pepper, and salt cod jelly; the curious name derives from the sizzling sound made by the juices released from the fish when it is immersed in boiling oil, which turn into a gelatinous substance); “Bacalao en salsa verde” (hot sauce made with oil, parsley, garlic, and flour); “Bacalao Club Ranero” (pil-pil sauce with onions, zucchini, and green and red peppers). Another recipe featured squid in squid ink, “Txipirones en su tinta,” cooked with stewed red onions, fish stock, and squid ink.

The dessert, “Goxua,” was a “biscottata” cake made with biscuits, whipped cream, and custard, all decorated with caramelized sugar.

The refresher course aroused great interest among the practical teachers, who were satisfied with the recipes presented and the results obtained, and Basque chef Extebarría was pleasantly impressed by the participation of his colleagues in the kitchen, who actively engaged in preparing new recipes.

The chef hopes for future collaborations and exchanges with students and teachers at his restaurant Yandiola in the Biscay area.

Once again, the Erasmus+ project has borne fruit (good fruit, and this time Basque fruit)

3H: Compendium of good practices

A new goal has been achieved by the Erasmus 3H – Head, Heart, Hand project: the creation of a Compendium of good practices for social and emotional education in vocational education and training.

The last period has been very intense for the 3H partners, but also very fruitful. The first published result is a very interesting volume. Following the project partners’ training meeting in early February, dedicated to analyzing the “Compendium – Collection of Good Practices” in the field of social-emotional education, two versions of the volume were published, in Italian and English.
Starting from the main objectives of Project 3H (i.e., developing the skills of teachers and trainers through the introduction of methodologies for managing student demotivation within the classroom group and a socio-emotional perspective in daily work with students), the partners worked to create a Compendium of Good Practices.

This volume was produced thanks to six training activities (Learning Teaching Training Activities, LTTA) organized among the partners. Four of these LTTA were international visits to vocational training institutes. The remaining two were online “Virtual Coffee Breaks.” The main objective of this work is to address the problem of educational ineffectiveness and early school leaving.

To do this, the team highlighted four “points of attack,” which are variously represented in the corpus of practices collected:

• Reception/orientation: #1 Clinical Art, #5 Gamification and Digital Tools, #6Individual Learning Path, #7 Joint Tutoring and Flexibility, #9 Lego® Art, #10 Mediation Project, #22 Serious Game (Escape Room), #25 Walk Of Life, #26 Women Group.
• Well-being and motivation: #21 The School, A House Of Well Being
• Independent learning: #4 Ethazi, #5 Gamification and Digital Tools, #11Neets For Neets, #18 Renyo, #19Ruori assessment
• Problem-based learning: in #3 Cultures in our classroom, #12 Pitstop, #14 Public events and products, #15 Rebound, #25 Walk of life, #16 Recipe book project

Each good practice has some main objectives that provide a description of what is meant by “social-emotional learning” and “social-emotional skills” in this Compendium. For example, the objectives of community building (European community, local community, school, class), teamwork skills, personal expression connected to personal harmony, awareness, and contact with oneself. Other goals are related to decision-making and personalization and developing students’ reflective skills.

Each objective is analyzed in depth in the Compendium, enabling readers to identify the most useful practices for achieving the objectives in their own vocational education and training centers and schools.

Ultimately, this document represents the first result of the strong collaboration and mutual contribution between the partners.