In spring 2021, the school Raquel Paya in Dénia, Spain, contacted Östersund municipality with an inquiry. They wanted to get in touch with other schools for “functional challenged students”, the equivalent of our adapted compulsory school, and therefore sought help from UNESCO’s gastronomic network. The municipality in turn contacted Marjut Svanström, principal of the adapted compulsory school at Odensala School, and asked if she could receive a delegation from the Spanish school.

– It was the principal and two teachers from Raquel Paya who came to visit for a week. Their main objective was to find a suitable gastronomic city where their students could come for a week’s internship once a year, but they also wanted to broaden their network for other types of knowledge and experience exchanges.

During the visit, the visitors established an incredibly good connection with Marjut and her colleagues at Odensala School – so good that they would ideally like to have their student internship right there, in Odensala School’s school kitchen. Whether that will happen remains to be seen, but Marjut is entirely positive about the idea. The meeting with the Spanish delegation also sparked quite a few thoughts and ideas in Marjut. What if Odensala School could also take its students on study visits and internships abroad?

– When Raquel Paya described how actively they work with international exchanges in their educational activities, it whetted our appetite. Thanks to the connection between our schools, it actually feels like a real possibility to be able to offer internships abroad for our students. International experiences would add an extra dimension to the internship and help the students grow tremendously. The school’s staff would also receive professional development in that way.

– Now that the connection is established, it becomes much easier to make our ideas a reality. The first step could be to make a study visit to Spain and the next step to actually offer internships. It is exciting how the UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy designation has put Östersund on the map, and that it brings such fantastic opportunities.

Back row from left: Sara Rudebjer, Sara Lindström, Maria Olsén, Gunilla Johansson, teacher adapted compulsory school, Odensala School, and Noelia Vilar Juan, teacher Raquel Paya. Front row from left: Miquel Angel Ivars, principal Raquel Paya, Marjut Svanström, principal adapted compulsory school, Odensala School, and Maria Gil Ortega, teacher Raquel Paya.