The project main activity is the simulation of an on-line travel agency; the task will be carried out by students from an Italian, a British and a Spanish school, who by working together will create a common platform for Web-working . The idea for a project that would lead to the creation of such a structured product originated from an analysis of the needs of the context of all the partner countries, and from the educational needs identified as priorities for the training of students, future citizens and workers of Europe. Our school , a Technical Economic Institute, offers 5 different courses which cover the areas of Administration, Finance and Marketing, Information Systems , International Relations for Marketing, Tourism and evening classes for workers. It is located in an economic environment where the tourist activity is the main sector of production of wealth and of employability. We have therefore considered it strategic to invest in the improvement of the training of technicians of tourism, marketing and information technology. In designing this action we have taken into account the needs of education and training as indicated in the Strategic Framework for European Cooperation Project 2020; they identify the development of key competences, multilingualism, mobility and self-entrepreneurship as the main objectives to be achieved. Our school has a laboratory simulating a Travel Agency, in which students play the roles of tour operator and travel agent and create proposals for sustainable responsible youth tourism in the region, in Italy and abroad. It is in this context that we thought the realization of this project, whose objectives are : - activating citizenship competences which will be put in practice in totally new environments ( abroad ) - improving the knowledge and communicative competence in the European languages ( English and Spanish) - strengthening disciplinary skills ( interpreting the characteristics and needs of different areas , developing products with lower carbon footprint , focus on customer satisfaction ) - promoting self-employment - setting up learning environments in which dialogue, cooperation and discussion among students, both inside and outside their own country, and with teachers are facilitated - raising students feeling of self-esteem and belonging and consequently motivation - activating networks of exchange and international collaboration aimed at the production of teaching materials - Professional development of teachers, carried out through comparison of experiences and exchange of best practices with other countries to help improve the quality and effectiveness of education. We have set up an international partnership between our school, IES Francisco Ayala in Granada and Halesowen College in Birmingham , who share similar economic contexts, similar difficulties for young people in entering employment, and have the same goals which can be reached in the task carried out by a network of students. This network will work for the development of sustainable youth tourism , creating and disseminating itineraries in their respective territories . The students of the English and Italian tourism courses will play a role-play of clients and tour operators, while the Italian and Spanish students of marketing and IT will provide technical assistance for the development of computer-based tools for the promotion and marketing of tourist products to peer groups, associations and institutions, to promote tourism. The project also includes the production of material for CLIL teaching of geography, that wants to be a tool for the professional development of teachers who will want to use it . All phases of the action involve the use of active learning methodologies (learning by doing) , with tasks that activate citizenship competences and contribute to the motivation and re -motivation of learners in a shared democratic environment. We expect to record improvements in communication skills, both linguistic and in computer science , to experiment new effective learning methods, to develop a growing feeling of membership in vocational education and training and to form a more complete and competent citizen of the world.
The project STEP TO EUROPE has enabled the creation of a well-structured educational path that has led to the simulation of an online travel agency by the students of the three partner schools, ITE Tambosi Battisti (Italy), Halesowen College (UK) and IES Ayala (Spain), who, working in synergy, have created a Web-working platform. The idea for a project that would lead to the creation of such a product arose from the needs analysis of: - the education and training sector, as outlined in the Project Europe 2020 - Strategic Framework for European Cooperation, which highlights the development of skills and competencies, multilingualism, the promotion of mobility and entrepreneurship as the main objectives to be achieved; - the territories of the partner countries: the three schools are embedded in economic contexts where tourism is the main sector of wealth production and employability. It is therefore considered strategic to invest in the improvement of the training process of tourism, marketing, and information technology technicians, which correspond to the study courses offered by the schools involved. At the Institute Tambosi Battisti, there was already a laboratory simulating a Travel Agency, where students carry out role-plays of tour operators and travel agents, with the production of young, sustainable and responsible tourism proposals. We wanted to turn this AdV laboratory into an international resource, involving young European clients as tourists. The students of the three schools simulated professional tour operator activities in their areas, through the production of tourist itineraries in Trentino, the Black Country, and Andalusia. These products strongly satisfy the requests of a spirit of innovation and attention to the customer, respond to features of sustainable and responsible tourism, have a strong originality in the choice of tourist destinations. For the creation of these products, students had to analyze the tourism policy and market strategies in the three countries and be able to focus on the strengths and weaknesses of the sector and draw ideas for their own proposals. The comparison among the students of the three schools, made possible by the role-play activity, allowed corrective and improvement action, thus promoting the attitude to analysis, self-analysis, and revision of own actions; this is a desirable attitude in a process of growth and development of self-entrepreneurship. The activity made use of technologies and the tourist proposals took into account the latest operating guidelines of online tourism marketing. Brochures with the produced itineraries have been uploaded on the shared site, created by students of the computer courses in the three schools. During the mobilities and the virtual contacts with partners, students worked together using the English and Spanish languages, confirming and enhancing an attitude of openness toward each other. The cultural exchange has recorded remarkable growth and maturation processes, it has greatly improved the communicative and linguistic skills of students and has enabled them to activate citizenship competencies while performing real-life tasks in new environments. The active methodology adopted, highly task- and project-based, enhanced motivation and re-motivation to study and strengthened the students’ disciplinary and professional competences. Besides, it helped reduce the risk of drop-out for some students. The project also created opportunities for exchanges between teachers of schools with similar characteristics, and for close collaboration for the implementation of other VET projects, as well as for exchange of good teaching practices. In this context fits the shared production of the intellectual output "Geography for Tourism: tips and materials", a teaching guide for the teaching of tourist geography in CLIL.