The main goal of the project is to support teachers and trainers in dealing with the challenges that ASD students encounter in the hospitality sector and help them acquire expendable skills and competences both in the education system and the the world of work. The partners, once they have identified 15 emerging Skills and Competences for the hospitality industry, mainly addressed to ASD students, have created a compendium with Flexible and Hybrid Educational Methodology and Tools (F.H.E.M.T.), tailored to the individual’s learning requirements and characteristics.These documents will help teachers assist ASD students in gaining new sector-specific competences, promoting their integration both in and outside the school system, promoting the devolpment of new professional figures in the hospitality sector.
One among the main issues highlighted by the European Commission is to promote inclusive and accessible education, while paying special attention to facilitating the integration of vulnerable students and thus improving their quality of life. Lack of appropriate education remains the key risk factor for poverty and the exclusion of individuals with disabilities. Moreover, supporting social inclusion of young people with disabilities - especially students affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) - is among the core points of the European and national policies in the Partner countries. Education and the right to live an independent life are an important aim, as there is a high number of early leavers for pupils with disabilities both from education and training (about 20%). The lack of specialist support staff is one of the barriers that schools and training centres encounter with students with autism, therefore the InTeaM4IEd project takes in consideration two aspetcs: the need of teachers and trainers to better understand autism and how it affects learning providing them with appropriate strategies, aswell as the need of ASD students to acquire new competences spendable in the labour market of the hospitality sector.