Developing an open source Interactive Tourism Portal (ITP) to promote careers and education in the Hospitality and Tourism sectors Erasmus Project

Project Title

Developing an open source Interactive Tourism Portal (ITP) to promote careers and education in the Hospitality and Tourism sectors

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 school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

The project addressed the digital literacy needs of the students and teachers in the secondary school sector.

As part of the EU ‘Digital Skills and Digital Literacy : European Union policy actions’ the New Skills Agenda calls on Member States to develop comprehensive digital skills strategies. The Digital Competence Conceptual (DigComp 2.0) Reference Model was developed with this strategy in mind (http://aims.fao.org/activity/blog/digital-skills-and-digital-literacy-european-union-policy-actions). Phase 2 of the update includes 8 levels of learning outcomes and examples of the knowledge, skills and attitudes related to each competence. This ERASMUS+ Application incorporated learning outcomes and examples of the knowledge, skills and attitudes related to each competence.

This ERASMUS+ Application addressed learning outcomes and examples of the knowledge, skills and attitudes related to each competence:
1. Information and data literacy

To articulate information needs, to locate and retrieve digital data, information and content. To judge the relevance of the source and its content. To store, manage, and organise digital data, information and content.

2. Communication and collaboration
To interact, communicate and collaborate through digital technologies while being aware of cultural and generational diversity. To participate in society through public and private digital services and participatory citizenship.

3. Digital content creation
To create and edit digital content – To improve and integrate information and content into an existing body of knowledge while understanding how copyright and licenses are to be applied. To know how to give understandable instructions for a computer system.

4. Problem solving
To identify needs and problems, and to resolve conceptual problems and problem situations.

To deliver on the objectives above the project developed two interactive and educational units for each project partner entitled:
1. Introduction to Tourism
2. Careers in Hospitality and Tourism
2. The provision of and open source resources available to target school/VET students to increase their digital literacy through encouraging active learning while promoting information on careers in a given sector.

This Interactive Tourism Project (ITP) has identified a gap in that there is no specific open resource to target school/VET students within the regions. Our material was developed in English and in the target language of the partners region therefore each partner has 4 units at project completion stage. There is a total of 28 units; created by seven partners.

The project is based on a prototype available at: www.tourisminsight.ie which provides valuable tourism insights to students and industry learners, informing them of career options within the tourism industry. Tourism is everybody’s business and every interaction with a tourist is an opportunity to make them feel welcome and we want everyone to understand the value of tourism and of every tourist. There is a strong need to present the industry as one which offers serious career options with good career prospects and transferable skills. Specifically after the challenges of COVID-19.

Featuring interactive tutorials and interviews with young people working in tourism within the relevant project regions, the project will give a comprehensive introduction to the industry and its landscape. Students will learn all about this exciting business, what it means to the respective countries and region, what’s going on in the tourism industry in your region, and how tourism is promoted around the world as well was why tourists come to specific regions.

The cohort of the project were secondary level students and VET students, who would like to be informed about their career choices. But it is also addressing school leavers who have not made up their mind about their future career and other stakeholders in the sector.

Having international partners in this consortium added value to this project: students can get a feel for what the Hospitality sector is like in other countries; it will support mobilities of students by motivating them and working in an international team will have increased quality of the final results. Furthermore, as modules are also available in target languages of the partners, it enhances language learning of the students.

Objectives:
1. Increasing students’ awareness of potential careers in the tourism, culinary and hospitality areas;
2. Addressing a shortage in human resources in these industries.

Key features of this project were:
• To promote Hospitality and Tourism as a career of choice to students at second level education.
• To ensure the sustainability of skilled personnel within the market place in each partner’s country.
• The Hospitality and Tourism Industry in each partner’s country will prosperous and grown.

Please see https://t4c.erasmus.site/ for further details.

Project Website

https://t4c.erasmus.site/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 247761 Eur

Project Coordinator

Munster Technological University & Country: IE

Project Partners

• VYSOKA SKOLA REGIONALNIHO ROZVOJE ABANKOVNI INSTITUT – AMBIS AS
• Mardin Artuklu Halk Egitim Merkezi ve Aksam Sanat Okulu
• STICHTING BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT FRIESLAND
• Istituto d’Istruzione Superiore di Ceccano
• Klaipedos turizmo mokykla
• Srednja sola za gostinstvo in turizem Celje
• Irish Hospitality Institute