The headline of the March 6th Edition of the Italian Newspaper 'Taormina Informa' “Enough with seasonality say workers in the tourism sectors” – announced by the regional secretary of Fisascat Cisl Sicilia – a Labor Union Federation for Touristic Activities in Sicily. This announcement was accompanied by a demonstration of the federation employees and tourism workers to express their frustration with poor payment and benefits for working in seasonal tourism jobs.Within the Tourism sector, which employs over 12 million people, many work on short term contracts and follow a pattern of intense high season activity followed by low season unemployment.The issue of seasonality in tourism has long been a source of concern expressed in EU publications and it is feared that the intense concentration of touristic activities in a relatively short period of time “may have dramatic negative impact on local economies for the whole year” (Ecorys Study in support of policy measures for maritime and coastal tourism, 2013). This is particularly true with regard to employment prospects of the tourism workers in the areas of a “marked seasonality” that is, those dependent on the “sun and beach” model or winter skiing resorts.Official reports have proved this cross-border trend is evident in most seasonal tourist hot spots. As an example, the Balearic Islands of Spain, the Rimini Province of Italy, and Austrian skiing resorts, have published statistics to show employment contracts usually fall by 70-80% by December compared to July in the same year. From these three areas, the 420,000 workers employed during the high season, 300,000 of them will be unemployed during the low season. ( Sources: Coyuntura Económica de las Islas Baleares Marzo 2013; Centro per L’impiego – Provincia di Rimini 2014; Annual Report by Austrian Ministry of Economy, Family and Youth, 2009). This cycle disproportionately affects young people who resort to seasonal work to escape unemployment, but often become trapped in this cyclical process, where they are unable to follow more sustainable career options. And yet, seasonal workers within the tourism sector have already gained valuable skills that could be utilised for more professional careers. This project aims to break this cycle and help these young people find longer term employment opportunities by:Firstly, identifying a portfolio of fundamental informal transversal skills and competences,Secondly, create and develop a 'Validation Tool' that provides meaningful and graded assessment of any Informal Transversal Skills held by the user through testing rather than self-assessment, andThirdly, create and develop a 'Career Guidance App' that matches the users' identified transversal skills to longer term career opportunities that are required by other professional sectors.To identify the Informal Transversal Skills, the project will carryout an in-depth skills needs analysis targeting employees and employers within the Tourism sector.It is envisaged that the Informal Transversal skills identified will include accounting skills, Entrepreneurial skills, Customer service skills, Communication skills, IT and Digital skills, Language skills, Team working skills Organisational skills, Interpersonal skills, Marketing skills, Management skills, Problem solving skills, Office skills, Leadership skills, Decision making skills.The main results of this project will be increasingly disseminated to reach large numbers of those working in the tourism sector. Both the Validation Tool and Career guidance App will be launched at the final project conference in Palma De Mallorca, Spain. The invited organisations will include stakeholders that represent employers, workers, the ECVET community, employers unions, chambers of commerce, tourism sector groups etc.This project will provide the tools to break the unemployment cycle for short season workers. These tools will provide 1.) new opportunities for tourism sector workers who posses the informal transversal skills demanded by longer term jobs and careers,2.) help to accelerate the users' pathway to quality employment in a more linear, less interrupted or detoured way,3.) save employers time and efforts firstly in attracting and filtering the right kind of skills in their candidature that can also help them to base their recruitment decision on a transparent and concrete foundation instead of having to rely on subjective assessment and experiences,4.) make employers in the tourism sector more aware of the utilities of their employees’ skills and add new employment plans for them, including job rotation or promotion incentives,5.) add complementary tools to the existing EU skills and competency tools like Europass, EURES and ESCO.
Within the Tourism sector, which employs over 12 million people, many employees and especially young people, work on short term contracts and follow a pattern of intense high season activity followed by low season unemployment. The issue of seasonality in tourism has long been a source of concern expressed in EU publications and it is feared that the intense concentration of touristic activities in a relatively short period of time “may have dramatic negative impact on local economies for the whole year” (Ecorys Study in support of policy measures for maritime and coastal tourism, 2013). This is particularly true with regard to employment prospects of the tourism workers in the areas of a “marked seasonality” that is, those dependent on the “sun and beach” model or winter skiing resorts. Official reports have proved this cross-border trend is evident in most seasonal tourist hot spots. This cycle disproportionately affects young people who resort to seasonal work to escape unemployment, but often become trapped in this cyclical process, where they are unable to follow more sustainable career options. And yet, seasonal workers within the tourism sector have already gained valuable skills that could be utilised for more professional careers. The main objective of the VALITS project was to break this cycle and help young people working in seasonal tourism to find longer term employment opportunities. Five project partners from Spain, Austria, Poland, Bulgaria and Italy cooperated in this project: - Sea Teach (ES) is a VET provider organisation active in tourism 'hot spot' of the Balearic Islands and experienced in the field of validation and comparison of qualifications. - Danmar Computers (PL) contributed its extensive expertise in developing software applications within an educational environment. - Know and Can Association (BG) brought to the project its experience in the field of applying specialized programs to develop social and civil skills using modern methods in non-formal education. - Euro (IT) runs the Alcamo National Park and employs seasonal workers as well as being a training center for the tourism sector. - SMC (AT) is a training centre situated in a winter alpine centre, experienced in offering re-education training and working with seasonal tourism workers. To reach its objectives, the partners undertook the following activities: 1.) The partners identified through extensive desk and field research the 10 most fundamental informal transversal skills and competences, inside and outside of the tourism sector. 2.) The consortium developed an assessment methodology that is based on an objective assessment and not self-assessment. From this methodology the partners developed the 'Validation Tool' that assesses the users for their perfomance in all 10 informal transversal skills and provides them after test completion with a meaningful and graded assessment certificate. 3.) Finally the partners created and developed the 'Career Guidance App' that matches the users' identified informal transversal skills to longer term career opportunities that are required by other professional sectors. The VALITS project has provided the two tools, the Validation Tool and the Career Guidance App that have the potential to break the unemployment cycle for short season workers. These VALITS tools have a variety of important impacts and will 1.) provide young seasonal tourism sector workers with new career pathway options that match their informal transversal skills identified in the assessment and are in demand by longer term jobs and careers, 2.) help young seasonal tourism sector workers to accelerate their pathways to quality employment in a more linear, less interrupted or detoured way, 3.) save employers time and effort firstly in attracting and filtering the right kind of skills in their candidature that can also help them to base their recruitment decision on a transparent and concrete foundation instead of having to rely on subjective assessment and experiences, 4.) make employers in the tourism sector more aware of the utilities of their employees’ skills and add new employment plans for them, including job rotation or promotion incentives, and 5.) add complementary tools to the existing EU skills and competency tools like Europass, EURES and ESCO. In the long-term perspective the VALITS Tools can be easily transferred to other target groups and other economic sectors, offering a viable Open Educational Resource (OER) to employees and employers, thereby fostering the recognition and use of informal transversal skills and enabling employees as well as employers to close skills gaps and skills mismatches more efficiently.