Migrants’ Integration into Tourism-Related Professions Erasmus Project

Project Title

Migrants’ Integration into Tourism-Related Professions

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 adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal); Migrants’ issues; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT

Tour2Include aims to establish an innovative approach with the intention to support low-skilled migrants who would like to work in the Tourism Sector to acquire the necessary typical and soft skills. Taking into consideration that, according to Eurostat, 7% of the total workforce in Tourism comes from third, non-EU, countries (2016 data), the project focuses on targeted training opportunities which will offer better career perspectives to migrants away from undeclared work and marginalization. Besides, access to formal, dissent and secure jobs is one of the most efficient ways for Migrants’ successful Integration into the recipient EU societies.

Under this scope, the project has set the following objectives:

– To identify the professions/positions within tourism sector where migrants could be better fit
– To support low-skilled migrants in order to acquire the necessary hard and soft/intercultural skills and competencies so as to be able to access the ever demanding tourism sector
– To assess migrants’ prior learning and determine a renewed skillset that corresponds to the existing demands of the Tourism Sector
– To develop training programmes and materials targeted to the needs of migrants and their tutors.
– To offer better career perspectives to migrants who work or wish to work in the Tourism Sector
– To increase migrants’ employability in the Tourism Sector and streamline it through formal channels of employment, offering a higher protection level away from undeclared work.
– To enhance migrants’ integration into EU societies through their inclusion into the labour market.

MAIN RESULTS

The main results could be summarized in:

– Development of a self-assessment tool to be used by migrants themselves as a method to evaluate their current skills, competencies and formal and non-formal qualifications in the identified tourism-related professions.
– A typology of qualifications and soft skills which migrants lack but they are of paramount importance within the Tourism Sector
– Design of migrants-oriented training materials for the identified tourism-related professions/positions, grounded on the findings of existing gaps between their competencies and actual market needs that will have been determined during the assessment stage.
– Development of an online platform, which will incorporate digital learning materials, lectures,”e-classrooms” and interim and final tests, responding to the needs of a digitally-skilled migrants audience. On a second stage, the use of the platform will be efficiently promoted by partners to its end users with the intention to reach as many of them as possible.
– Development of two training courses; one for tutors/trainers specialized in the Tourism Sector and experienced in working with migrants; the other for low-skilled migrants currently or potentially working in the Tourism Sector
– Implementation of two pilot training sessions for the above described groups to assess the relevance of the developed training courses with the identified tourism professions/positions.
– A career pathway for migrants that wish to work on the identified tourism professions/positions

NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS

Although this project’s aim is to reach as many beneficiaries and end users as possible, it will originally engage 18 tutors/trainers and 300 migrant learners who will take part in the training courses and pilot sessions. Other stakeholders, such as migrant organizations, businesses, tourist associations, VET providers, NGOs and local/national/European authorities will be contacted via partners’ networks.

IMPACT ENVISAGED

Our partnership aims to achieve a strong impact on local, national and European level, through well-designed and tailored activities depending on the target group we are, each time, addressing to. More specifically:

Local/National Level
– Migrants’ standardization of hard and soft/intercultural skills will improve their perspectives in better career opportunities in the Tourism Sector, avoiding precarious jobs and marginalization.
– Local communities and microeconomies will be benefitted by the intercultural exchanges and by migrants’ work
– The access of migrants to normal jobs and social security will contribute to increasing resources of social security funds and combatting social security contributions’ evasion.
– Migrants integration into the labour market and their collaboration with nationals will contribute to knocking down stereotypes and fighting racism.

European Level
– A common understanding is going to be established on the necessity of customized training materials and programmes for migrants
– The project will contribute to the European dialogue on Migrants’ Integration, supporting the argument that one significant factor for successful integration is their effective inclusion into the labour market
– New policies on migrants’ integration field could be inspired by project outcomes

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 212419,2 Eur

Project Coordinator

SOCIAL IMPACT GGMBH & Country: DE

Project Partners

• IDP SAS DI GIANCARLO COSTANTINO (ITALIAN DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS)
• CESIE
• SYMPLEXIS
• AKMI KATARTISI EKPAIDEYSI ANONYMI ETAIREIA
• BK Consult GmbH