The valorisation of Cultural and Natural Heritage (considered, as a whole, as Non-Reproducible Goods - NRG) represents one of the most promising assets for growth and employment according to the Europe 2020 Strategy, as well as for the sustainable development promoted by the UN Agenda 2030. The activities associated with the NRG (especially in those Countries where there are significant ones, such as IT, ES, FR and GR) can lead to triple the GDP of national cultural tourism. Economic growth, job creation (including new professional figures as green jobs), environmental and social increases are foreseen. For this reason, CHERISH intends to act as an ideal bridge between the International Year of Sustainable Tourism 2017 and the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018. Doing this through the production of an integrated, interactive and multidisciplinary educational path, based on the state of the art of technical-scientific knowledge, best practices and policies, gained by the main actors of the European scene related to the NRG. The program consists of teaching modules with a strong European perspective. It will be well focused on community implementation tools (e.g. ETIS indicators), and cross-sectoral character, aiming at offering a synergistic view of the different actions that contribute to the protection of the NRGs and to the promotion of sustainable tourism, not neglecting the conservation techniques of Cultural and Natural Heritage. CHERISH intends to offer an innovative, updated, agile and integrated tool to enhance the VET educational offer, with particular reference to tourism, environmental management, biotechnologies for environment, agro-food and hospitality services. The proposal answers to two priorities of the VET Program: "Social and educational value of European Cultural Heritage" and "Further strengthening key competences in VET", due to the developed topics, the highly operational contents and the offer of interdisciplinary and interactive teaching tools. The activities will be carried out by a partnership of 6 institutions, coming from 5 Countries (ES, FR, GR, BG and 2 IT), with a solid experience in European programs and representative of different approaches towards the sustainable management of the NRG. CHERISH is structured into 5 IOs dedicated to the development of innovative products, which will be offered freely online to all interested parties, in English and in the five languages of the partner Countries. The target group consists of VET teachers and trainers, the beneficiaries are VET students and trainees. 1. Comparative Report on critical issues, excellence examples, good practices, technologies and policy tools detected at European level in the context of the enhancement of NRG, accompanied by information sheets on case studies of interest; 2. Introductory OER program which includes 3 teaching modules on the NRG sustainable development; 3. OER program for in-depth analysis including 3 teaching modules on NRG enhancement technologies and a digital app with database for thematic exercises; 4. Additional professional module dedicated to the use of GIS IT systems for the integrated territorial NRG management; 5. The CHERISH charter, an e-book containing the guidelines for the educational use of the products, the social and economic NRG valorisation with useful indications for a job orientation self-assessment. CNR-ISB will provide the general coordination; the activities and the management of the project will be shared among the partners: a different partner will coordinate each IO; a Reference Group of experts will assist each partner. CNR-ISB will coordinate the whole process, Erfap Lazio (IT) the project quality system, Allweb (GR) the sustainability guidelines, CCI Dobrich (BG) the dissemination and impact plan, Eurotracks (FR) the communication activities and FUNGUSAL (ES) the evaluation of the results. In doing so, it is ensured the monitoring of the times and the whole process, the administrative control, the mitigation of any risks, the careful evaluation of each product, thanks to appropriate defined indicators. Five project meetings will be organized, one in each of the Countries involved. Finally, to ensure an effective dissemination and sustainability are provided: a) two mailing lists not limited to the Countries involved, b) the creation of a rich and captivating web page; c) the use of blogs and social networks; d) the organization of the 5 multiplication events; e) 4 newsletters; f) contact with specialized sector portals. In total we estimate that at least 1400 people will be contacted during the lifespan of the project, at the end of which, for at least 3 years, the partners undertake to carry out sustainability measures.
The project was aimed at answering to two priorities of the VET Program, namely “Social and educational value of European Cultural Heritage” and “Further strengthening key competences in VET”, because of the topics addressed and the highly interdisciplinary, interactive didactic tools used. In fact, the educational program developed during the project - consists of teaching modules characterized by a strong European and international character; - is well focused on community implementation tools (such as the “European System of Tourism Indicators for Sustainable Management of Destinations”, “ETIS”); - is characterized by an holistic approach towards the various actions aimed at the sustainable valorization of NRGs. In this way, CHERISH wanted to create an innovative, updated and integrated tool aimed at enhancing the VET educational offer, with particular reference to courses such as tourism, environmental biotechnology, food and wine services and hotel hospitality. The final goal was, therefore, to transfer to the primary target group (VET teachers) a toolkit useful to facilitate the access of end-users (VET students) to emerging working sectors in the field of sustainable tourism.
The sustainable valorization of Cultural and Natural Heritage (considered as a whole as Non-Reproducible Goods, NRGs from now on) represents one of the most promising assets for economic and employment growth according to the Europe 2020 Strategy as well as to the sustainable development plan promoted by the United Nations 2030 Agenda. It has been estimated that activities aimed at sustainably valorizing NRGs can lead to tripling the GDP of cultural tourism in EU Countries, stimulating the creation of new job opportunities. CHERISH was, therefore, envisioned to respond to the need for a training offer tailored to this topic. The aim of the project was to link together the tools aimed at preserving NRGs with the most up-to-date good practices in the field of sustainable tourism through a multidisciplinary educational program, based on the state of the art of the technical-scientific knowledge acquired by the main players on the European scene related to these topics. The project partnership was, thus, composed of six institutions from five of the EU countries hosting the largest number of UNESCO cultural and natural heritage sites (Italy, France, Spain, Greece and Bulgaria).