CONTEXT CHALLENGES FACED BY THE HORECA SECTOR HORECA it is a dynamic sector and represents a formidable generator for the European economy in terms of output, employment and development. Besides, it represent a particular class of commercial properties where hygiene and cleanliness are pertinent far more than any other business industry. Despite the high importance of hygiene and cleanliness, a great percent of micro and small businesses in the field struggle to maintain the relevant hygiene requirements and are still characterized by unsophisticated methods and approaches, which do not take into account the power of training due to poor awareness of the relevant legislation related to hygiene, sanitary and cleaning standards due to the lack of appropriate skills and expertise of personnel and the lack of skilled supervisors and managers. Therefore, the HORECA sector is facing a crucial challenge in regards to the hygiene & cleaning services provision: how to make human resources from marginalized workers to a real asset for the development of an innovative and sustainable HORECA industry. OBJECTIVES The project aims at advancing micro and small HORECA industry in the provision of hygiene and cleaning services, through the development of the Hygiene & Cleaning Manager (HCM) profile, a professional capable of scheduling, implementing, and monitoring the property’s and products hygiene, safety and cleaning efforts and safeguarding hygiene and public health. In order to achieve its goals the project will develop a training path and related tools aiming to equip employees in the micro HORECA cleaning sector with the right skills to ensure compliance to the respective regulations (EU & national), guarantee public health and safety, provision of high quality services, maximizing thus its revenue and reputation. Besides, the project will help the socially disadvantaged to advance their skills leading to more growth and more jobs in the tourism sector which provides work opportunities for them. PARTICIPANTS The partnership comprises 6 partners from 6 countries covering software experts with profound experience in the development of ICT tools to help a new work-based training experience to VET, VET organisations, associations and NGOs which are experts in the cleaning domain of the HORECA sector with vast dissemination potential in the field and is expected to achieve a significant impact promoting the training programs and tools based on the “learning outcomes” approach. ACTIVITIES The partnership will design, develop, test, implement and disseminate an innovative training program facilitated by two tools, the Hygiene & Cleaning Strategies Tool and the HyperCLEAN Game. The development of the training program will be based on the adoption of a user-centred approach. The assessment of the training program will include extended cycles of training activities and work place centred work including skills retention. Trainers will continuously give feedback to the project team about their experiences gained at the workplace. This not only will increase the motivation of the trainers, and give weight to their practical experiences, but will also provide the necessary cross-links between theory and practice. Upon suggestions of the trainers, the project team will perform the necessary adjustments to the training approach. METHODOLOGY - Make a comparative analysis of the current state of play of cleaning practices, and awareness of the health, safety, and cleaning standards related to the HORECA industry in partner countries and identify winning practices (best practices adopted from countries topping in HORECA best cleaning services charts). - Validate the needs of micro HORECA from partner countries in relation to knowledge and skills for implementing the winning practices. - Elaborate a training methodology and a set of winning strategies for micro HORECA to improve current approach. - Devise the list of goals to be implemented for materialising each strategy. - Describe each concrete goals per concept to be supported - Design and develop the HCM Training course - Design and develop the HCM Training course to support the implementation of the actions. - Localise the strategies, goals and content (translations and any adaptations to strategies, actions and content) - Implement the ECVET tools. - Design the "Facilitating Tool" to personalise the strategies at the level of individual business - Deploy, set-up and configure a Learning Motivation Environment to provide access to the training course - Re-purpose and integrate the content as interactive multimedia resources for skills retention. - Train a number of appointed instructors/trainers to the methodology, course and delivery tools. - Organise pilots. - Process results. RESULTS - Hygiene & Cleaning Manager Training Content - ECVET supporting tools - Hygiene & Cleaning Strategies Facilitating Tool - HyperCLEAN Game - HYperCLEAN4HORECA Club
As referenced in the above response, the main objective of the project, at the highest level, was to improve the HORECA sector by improving the skills of cleaning managers working in the sector. To this end, the project had as its more immediate and practical objectives the delivery of a Hyperclean4HORECA training course, a Hyperclean Genie that allows users to personalise their approach to the course, and a Hyperclean Game allowing users to further develop and verify any knowledge and skills they have gained from the course. It is important to note here that the project consortium did not approach this skills improvement from a perspective of cleaning skills alone, but sought also to improve broader skills that may act as block on the effectiveness of a given HORECA cleaning manager. As such, the six modules that form the Hyperclean4HORECA course included cleaning skills, but also environmentally friendly cleaning, relevant EU and national legislation, and broader workplace and pertinent business skills. Having successfully delivered the project’s immediate objectives of delivering the aforementioned tools, the long-term aim is to strengthen the HORECA industry and the skills of its cleaning workforce specifically.
The main aim of the Hyperclean4HORECA project was to improve hygiene and cleanliness in the HORECA sector (particularly SMEs) by offering training to cleaning managers in that sector. The rationale for this came largely from the recognition of the great importance to Europe’s economy of the HORECA sector – hotels, restaurants, and cafés. Cleaning and hygiene are issues that are fundamental to this sector (particularly with the benefit of hindsight, given the onset of the COVID pandemic shortly after this project began), but positions and employment in this area have not historically always been viewed with the importance that they deserve. If the HORECA sector is to thrive, and in doing so support the broader economy, cleaning and hygiene skills in the industry must be of the highest quality and their inherent value to that industry properly understood. Indeed, despite the crucial nature of hygiene and cleanliness to the HORECA industry, many businesses (SMEs in particular) find it challenging to implement the required standards of cleanliness, either through inefficient approaches and skills or inadequate understanding of the standards that they are required to meet. The Hyperclean4HORECA project aimed to fill this gap.