Training on Social Inclusion in Tourism, by including elderly people as local storytellers for the Tourism Industry Erasmus Project

Project Title

Training on Social Inclusion in Tourism, by including elderly people as local storytellers for the Tourism Industry

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

Data from EUROSTAT shows that the population is ageing in EU-28: there are more people above 65 years old than below 14, the median of age increased from 38 years in 2001 to 42,5 years in 2016 and it estimates that the percentage of population in EU above 85 years will triplicate from 2016 till 2080.
Some VET offers for social workers in EU include a training module on how to implement projects for avoiding the idleness of the people under social care. Yet, minimizing the idleness brings only limited benefits for the psychophysical health of the elderly, and does not bring significant socio-economic gains to society.
This project proposes the creation of a new training module for the VET courses in the fields of care and welfare, which will provide training on how to implement projects that will take advantage of the competencies of people under social care and value them. This will not only prevent their idleness, but will also show them that they have an important role to in society, which will boost their psychosocial health and will result on socio-economic gains for the countries.
The work model of the pilot-testing is the contribution of the elderly to the tourism industry, by working as volunteer local storytellers in the touristic sites. This will exploit their capacities and also allow the tourism industry to provide more authentic experiences to the tourists, resulting in economic gains, and contributing for the dissemination of the culture and history of the communities.
The choice of the tourism industry as a working model was based on the fact that it is probably the most relevant economic sector in the Mediterranean, it is strongly expanding in EU-28 and is very open to innovative solutions.
The participants in the project activities are: 20 tourism professionals, 20 VET trainers, 20 SMEs representatives from the tourism sector participating in interviews; 200 representatives from VET trainers on social areas, welfare professionals, and individuals from SMEs/ private social solidarity institutions answering questionnaires; 16 participants in round tables; 12 VET trainees participating in the Pilot Testing in 12 institutions, monitored by 12 social workers and addressing the integration of 24 senior citizens.
The main activities carried away by the partners are: a compilation of the benefits of “Local Storytellers” for the Tourism Industry; setting the state of art and needs of the performance of welfare/social professionals, by means of questionnaires and interviews; a collection of good practices and/or inspirational cases; benchmarking; round tables; definition of the training programme structure; development of the training module and resources; customization of the training platform; profile definition of the participating institutions in social and tourism sectors and of the elderly participants; pilot testing of the training module, resources and project implementation and final publication.
The methodology adopted will be management by objectives allowing the clear definition of the objectives oriented to a timeline, the establishment of the work that needs to be done, conducting to a productive work environment. This methodology enables to monitor the achievements and reinforces a positive work environment. It will be applied to planning, implementation, communication and dissemination, monitoring and evaluation and exploitation and sustainability.
The main results will be: 1 VET module on Project Development for Social Integration using the tourism sector as case study; a training tool to address the needs of VET graduates and care and welfare workers in integration dynamics / plans; development of hard and soft skills of VET trainees for the implementation of projects for social integration; dissemination of good practices in the institutions where the pilot testing activities are conducted; valorization of the immaterial knowledge of the elderly participants; increase of the social integration tools and of its beneficiaries; a pool of elderly people voluntary Local Storytellers; enhancement of the local tourism packages by integration of the social dimension of the Local Storytellers; a Publication that will guide other institutions, including from other areas, in the implementation of projects for social integration.
The project will have impact at Local, Regional, National and EU levels. Trainees will develop technical and soft skills. VET institutions and trainers will benefit from improvements in VET courses, making this offer more attractive. Synergies will be deployed and stakeholders engaged. The elderly participating in the activities will increase their well-being and sense of belonging by being socially active while contributing to the local tourism experiences and the local communities hosting the project meetings, the multiplier events and the pilot testing will benefit from the reduction of elderly people at risk of social exclus

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 228271 Eur

Project Coordinator

OVAR FORMA-ENSINO E FORMACAO, LDA & Country: PT

Project Partners

• CENTRO PER LO SVILUPPO CREATIVO DANILO DOLCI
• FUNDACION INTRAS
• CEPROF – CENTROS ESCOLARES DE ENSINO PROFISSIONAL LDA
• KENTRO MERIMNAS OIKOGENEIAS KAI PAIDIOU
• FORMACION PARA EL DESARROLLO E INSERCION, SOCIEDAD LIMITADA