Background of the project: a. The tourism-hotel industry is growing rapidly International tourist arrivals grew by a remarkable 7% in 2017 to reach a total of 1,322 million, according to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer. This strong momentum is expected to continue in 2018 at a rate of 4%-5%. Led by Mediterranean destinations, Europe recorded extraordinary results for such a large and rather mature region, with 8% more international arrivals than in 2016. (Source: UNWTO, 2018: http://media.unwto.org/press-release/2018-01-15/2017-international-tourism-results-highest-seven-years) High increase in all participating countries is forecasted also for the future. b. Hotels are lacking adequatelly skilled work force Fewer and fewer youngster selects professions, related to working in hotels. Also adequately trained workforce is not willing to take jobs in hotels for a number of reasons (shift work, work during weekends, seasonality, difficulty to reconcile business / family life, payment…). Because of that most of these jobs are occupied by employees without relevant professional education and without relevant knowledge, skills and competences. Many of them are immigrants, which points to cultural differences, the gap that we also need to reduce. Additional problem represents ageing of hotels’ employees and their inability to cope with the challenges that modern tourism brings. c. Educational system is not responding Formal educational system is not responding to the needs of the labour market. For some occupations in hotels there are no formal or non-formal education or training (hotel animator, concierge, bellboy, manager of VIP events…), for some there are NVQ, but not adjusted to the specifics of the hotel work (touristic animator, chambermaid…) With the proposed project we want to eliminate these identified gaps. Objectives of the project: - To improve quality and access to vocational education and training - To improve professional and general competencies of the staff, working in hotels - To improve employability of other adult students - To motivate hotel staff by additional training programmes - To promote hotel professions Specific objects: - To develop training programmes for the following hotel professions: hotel animator, concierge, bellboy, manager of VIP events, hotel chambermaid - To develop training programmes for trainers - To develop relevant learning materials - To develop the system of on job learning from best practice exchange Partnership is composed by six partners, which come from two European regions: Central (Slovenia, Austria) and South-east (Croatia). Partnership includes entities from educational sphere, employment agency, and private companies from hotel sector. Project activities: - Intelectuall outputs development - Mutual learning - Multiplier event implementation - Dissemination of project results - Evaluation of project results qualty and their impact - Project management Methodologies, used in carrying out the project: Intellectual outputs will be developed in line with ECVET praxis. Working methods of IO development: - questionnaires development, - data gathering (online, individual interviews, focus groups discussions), - data analysis, - individual and team work of the selected partners’ experts, - sub-contracting. Working methods for training programmes’ pilot implementation: - theoretical lectures, - group discussions, - role playing, - practical training, - e-learning. Main project results: 1. Detailed analysis of the educational needs of the hotels’ employees 2. Training programme and learning materials for “hotel animator” 3. Training programme and learning materials for “bellboy” 4 Training programme and learning materials for “concierge” 5. Training programme and learning materials for “hotel diplomacy manager” 6. Training programme and learning materials for “hotel chambermaid” 7. Hotel Academy - e-learning platform Impact and longer term benefits: Improved knowledge, skills and competences employees in hotels. Broader educational offer. Improved employability of adult learners. Indirectly project will have high impacts also on final beneficiaries: • Improved satisfaction of hotel guests. • Increased return and recommendations of hotel guest.
Background of the project: In the last three years, tourism has undergone major changes globally. The covid-19 pandemic has completely paralyzed tourist flows and, on the other hand, further strengthened the importance of digitalisation and e-training. If before the pandemic we recorded record growth in tourism statisticians every year, we are now in anticipation of the times before 2020, when tourism suffered the worst damage in its entire existence. According to the World Tourism Organization, the number of arrivals in Slovenia decreased by 74%, at the European level by 71% and at the global level by 74%. Given the current situation, tourism is slowly, very slowly getting back on its feet, but it is very much dependent on the epidemiological situation. In the light of the pandemic, we also completed the project, which did not have an impact on any changes in the learning content itself. All partner countries faced a similar situation, Slovenia was in the most difficult form because it was also the longest in lockdown. In the long-standing practice of preparing educational content, we have observed that the pandemic has nevertheless resulted in more use of digital tools for educational purposes, although hospitality is difficult to train on-screen alone. The programs and learning contents that we have developed have a significant impact on the further development of similar contents and still represent the first such programs for the training of staff in tourism in partner countries. All the predictions of experts speak in favor of the rapid rise of tourism again after the end of the pandemic. Tourism faced a global challenge before the pandemic and that was a shortage of staff. Often in a particular country, the basic jobs in tourism (porter, maid) were occupied by foreigners or individuals without previous tourism education. The pandemic has exacerbated this depth and there is now a shortage of staff. Many of them also switched to other activities during the lockdown. The formal education system did not follow the needs of the labor market even before the pandemic, now it is even more obvious. Professions such as bellboy, chambermaid, concierge, hotel animator and hotel diplomacy manager have thus been given a suitable form of training, which is the first, unique and current with time, which also means digitally designed in the form of e-training. Tourism faced a global challenge before the pandemic and that was a shortage of staff. Often in a particular country, the basic jobs in tourism (porter, maid) were occupied by foreigners or individuals without previous tourism education. The pandemic has exacerbated this depth and there is now a shortage of staff. Many of them also switched to other activities during the lockdown. The formal education system did not follow the needs of the labor market even before the pandemic, now it is even more obvious. Professions such as bellboy, chambermaid, concierge, hotel animator, and hotel diplomacy manager have thus been given a suitable form of training, which is the first, unique, and current with time, which also means digitally designed in the form of e-training. With the project, we wanted to eliminate these identified gaps. General objectives of the project: • To improve quality and access to vocational education and training • To improve professional and general competencies of the staff, working in hotels • To improve the employability of other adult students • To motivate hotel staff by additional training programs • To promote hotel professions Main project activities: 1. Intellectual outputs development - In-depth analysis of educational needs - Training programs - Learning materials - Training manual for trainers - The system of on-job learning 2. Mutual learning 3. Multiplier events implementation 4. Dissemination of project results 5. Evaluation of project results quality and their impact 6. Project management Main project results: 1. Detailed analysis of the educational needs of the hotels’ employees 2. Training programme and learning materials for “hotel animator” 3. Training programme and learning materials for “bellboy” 4 Training programme and learning materials for “concierge” 5. Training programme and learning materials for “hotel diplomacy manager” 6. Training programme and learning materials for “hotel chambermaid” 7. Hotel Academy - e-learning platform Impact and longer-term benefits: Improved knowledge, skills and competences of employees in hotels. Broader educational offer. Improved employability of adult learners. Indirectly project will have high impacts also on final beneficiaries: • Improved satisfaction of hotel guests. • Increased return and recommendations of hotel guests.