• Context/background of project; Tourism is one of the fastest growing and most profitable industrial sector in Europe and accounts for consistently larger share of GDP. Despite great expectations of continuing growth of the tourist sector as a base for economic stability, there is a lack of recognition concerning skills of employees. In order to meet the requirements of a competitive tourist sector there is increased demand for qualified service personnel in the tourist sector. This project aims at improving the qualifications of unskilled persons in the tourist sector by creating a strong and comprehensive learning model for vocational instructors (training of trainers) who will be capable of providing fellow employees with education and training taking into account the special requirements of the target group. • Objectives of your project; The primary objective of the project is to create, test and implement a learning model/curriculum, which will meet the requirements of the specific situations in each partner country and can be adopted in other European countries. This model will be based on a well-proven methodology for training on-the-job-trainers in retail, services and other industrial sectors. One of the key elements are the specific requirements in adult learning. The model which will be developed will also be based on GAP analysis requirements performed in all partner countries and taken into account other established and recognized learning models. • Number and profile of participants; The consortium consists of five partners: Two from Iceland (one of which is the project coordinator and the other is federation of tourist enterprises) and one from each of the following countries, Austria (Vienna), Finland (Kajaanin) and Italy (Sicily). All partners holds a key position in their home regions in vocational education development. Partner all have close links to the tourist industry in the home region and have secured partnership of local enterprises where the learning model will be tested in real circumstances. The partnership ensures that the final model will take into consideration the differences in tourism in the different areas and different vocational school systems. • Description of activities; The first step will be to revise a proven learning model for training of vocational instructors by the name of Stepping-stones and has been implemented recently in the retail sector. Parallel to this review a GAP analyses in all partner countries will be performed whereby the outcome will be compared. The GAP analysis together with the revised learning model will be the base of drafting a curriculum, which will then be tested in a pilot training in all partner countries. The pilot training will be assessed and results will be used for improving the curriculum. The model will be presented for stakeholders and finally implemented by trainers in their perspective organizations. Dissemination will occur both throughout the project promoting the TTRAIN learning portal and in the final conference in Iceland in September 2017. • Methodology to be used in carrying out the project; A set of methodologies will be applied in order to achieve the goal of the project, to implement a tailor made learning model for vocational instructors in the tourism sector. The basic model which will be applied is a combination of 19 different modules where the main subjects concentrates on the demands of adult students, enhancing self-confident and encouragement of creative thinking together with practical solutions in the working environment. Each of the 19 subjects will be revised and adjusted according to the identified needs of the tourist sector. • A short description of the results The result will be a detailed curriculum plan including content, number of learning hours and practical guidance for the vocational instructors. The result will be disseminated and published on the TTRAIN web portal as an open educational resource (OER). • Impact envisaged The project will favor the potential participants who will receive skills to teach and train fellow employees in the tourist industry. It is estimated that the 8-12 trainers will be trained in each country. These participants will represent 5-8 organizations in each country/region. It is furthermore envisaged that around 160 trainees will benefit from the pilot training. • Long term benefits. The TTRAIN project will contribute to strengthen the image of the participating companies and increase their competitiveness with more personnel that are qualified and make happier customers who will be provided with better services. A long-term impact will be to improve vocational education and training for employees in Europe by developing a proven learning model, which will be open to all. This goal also secures the sustainability of the result. Another long-term impact will be contribution to the national economy by supporting the growing tourist industry.
• Context: Tourism is one of the fastest growing and most profitable industrial sector in Europe and accounts for consistently larger share of GDP. Despite great expectations of continuing growth of the tourist sector as a base for economic stability, there is a lack of recognition concerning skills of employees. This project was set up to improve the qualifications of unskilled persons in the tourist sector by creating a strong and comprehensive learning model for vocational instructors (training of trainers) who can provide fellow employees with education and training considering the special requirements of the target group. A GAP analysis clearly indicated that the need for this type of VET education is similar in all participating countries - from Sicily in the south to Iceland and Finland in the north. • Objectives: The primary objective of the project was to create, test and implement a learning model/curriculum, to meet the requirements of the specific situations in each partner country and which could be adopted in other European countries. This model used was based on a well-proven methodology for training on-the-job-trainers in retail, services and other industrial sectors. The model developed was adjusted to requirement analysis made in all partner countries. Our opinion is that we succeeded very well with the objectives of the project. • Participants: The consortium comprised of five partners: Two from Iceland (one of which was the project coordinator and the other is federation of tourist enterprises) and one from each of the following countries: Austria (Vienna), Finland (Kajaanin) and Italy (Sicily). All partners hold a key position in their home regions in vocational education development. All partner has close links to the tourist industry in the home region which was important to secure involvement of local enterprises where the learning model was tested in real circumstances. The partnership ensured that the final model took into consideration the variations in tourism in the different areas and different vocational school systems in each partner country. • Activities The first step was to revise a proven learning model, designed for training of vocational instructors, by the name of Stepping-stones and had been implemented in other industrial sector, i.e. the retail sector. Parallel to this review a GAP analyses in all partner countries was performed whereby the outcome was be compared. The GAP analysis together with the revised learning model was the base of drafting a curriculum, which was then tested in a pilot training in all partner countries. The pilot training was assessed, and results used for improving the final learning model. The model was presented to stakeholders and finally implemented by trainers in their respective organizations. Dissemination activities were carried out during all project time by promoting the idea behind the TTRAIN model and the learning portal. • Methodology A set of methodologies were applied in order to achieve the goal of the project, to implement a tailor-made learning model for vocational instructors in the tourism sector. The basic model which was applied is a combination of several modules where the main subjects concentrates on the demand of adult students, enhancing self-confident and encouragement of creative thinking together with practical solutions in the working environment. • Results The result is a detailed curriculum plan including content, number of learning hours and practical guidance for the vocational instructors. The result was published in an open web portal. Other main outputs are the summary results from the GAP analyse and a summary report on the outcome of the pilot test courses. • Impact The main impact of the project is the contribution to increase the quality of vocational training of tourist company employees, which leads to enhancing the quality of services provided to tourists and raise the quality of the companies involved. Moreover the project leads to better qualified employees with grater motivation to further build on to the education and become more valuable employees. Another impact is on the educational providers, especially those involved in adult education. • Long term benefits The TTRAIN project contributes to strengthen the image of the participating companies and increase their competitiveness with more qualified personnel and happier customers. A long-term impact is expected to be improve vocational education and training for tourist companies’ employees in Europe. This goal also secures the sustainability of the result. Another long-term impact is the contribution to the national economy by supporting the growing tourist industry.