Tourism education of the future

The European tourism industry was severely impacted by COVID crisis: it affected around 2/3 of direct tourism jobs, whilst the tourism ecosystem struggles to recruit qualified people. In addition, the tourism workforce is generally less qualified than the EU working population, with up to 25% possessing low-level qualifications. Changing skills needs and bridging skills gaps in a highly seasonal sector is a major challenge for tourism businesses, education providers and public bodies. The project has been realized to provide future and current tourism professionals (I-VET and C-VET) with the required digital, soft and professional skills to find and maintain a tourism occupation. The main problem addressed by the project is the difficulty of reducing the skills gap between schools and the tourism industry due to the lack of digital skills of teachers and students, the lack of soft skills of students and the lack of professional skills of students and professionals. The project also addressed the needs to increase advocacy capacity towards VET stakeholders; to have staff trained to establish relationships with other schools and networks; and the need of recruiting qualified staff and the difficulty of upkills professionals.

The specific objective is to improve the ability to reduce skills gap between schools and tourism industry. It will be achieved through the following results: 1. Improved digital competences of teachers and students; 2. Improved soft skills of students; 3. Improved professional competences of students and professionals. The achievement of the project specific objective led to a better quality of VET provision, to an increased employability of students and professionals, and to an improved quality of the tourism offer. A series of long-lasting benefits for the target groups are: - improved ability of teachers to develop digital teaching; to motivate, support and engage students; to adapt teaching to trends changes; to teach soft skills; - improved ability of students to develop digital skills; - improved ability to recruit qualified professionals; improved ability to upskill and reskill professionals; - improved cooperation with companies, stakeholders and schools. The project contributed to the creation of skills ecosystems and intelligence, mobility and international cooperation, digital transformation of teaching methods, attractiveness of VET, transparency and recognition of qualifications, flexibility and sustainability.