Hotel Academy for improved knowledge, skills and competences of hotels’ employees Erasmus Project

Project Title

Hotel Academy for improved knowledge, skills and competences of hotels’ employees

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Open and distance learning; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

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.

Project Website

http://www.hotel-academy.info

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 293783,5 Eur

Project Coordinator

Srednjeevropski izobrazevalni center Ptuj & Country: SI

Project Partners

• ERUDIO IZOBRAZEVALNI CENTER
• AO T Consulting GmbH
• Terme Tuhelj d.o.o.
• Visoka skola za menadzment i dizajn Aspira
• ÖHV Touristik Service GmbH