Cheese and Wine and Tourism will shine! -Support to young cheese and wine sommeliers from EU- Erasmus Project

Project Title

Cheese and Wine and Tourism will shine!
-Support to young cheese and wine sommeliers from EU-

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 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Reaching the policy level/dialogue with decision makers; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

This strategic partnership in the field of VET has been established between 5 partner organizations (Economic Chamber of tourism , CENET Foundation for Tourism training from Macedonia, International Center for Development of Education and Training from Bulgaria, AFEDIS JUVETUD INT from Spain, A.I.A,M from Portugal.
All countries included in the project have great potential to make wine and cheese tourism attractions .Unfortunately there is a lack of structured tourist exploitation of such potential offer in most of those countries. On the other hand there are also countries like Macedonia with not much advanced technologies, heavy industry and therefore the benefit from such actions in the field of tourism can significantly contribute to the economic development of the country. Also Portugal, Spain to be discovered as countries who can offer excellent wines and cheese products , and not only as countries with long beaches and mass tourism , is the challenge and added value of this project.

OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT
The main goal of of the project Wine and Cheese is to promote the importance of rural tourism (and appropriate education models) with main focus on authenticity of the wine and cheese culture on each level of the society in the participating countries. Focus will be given to cheese and wine as tourism products with huge potential for the tourism industry and its benefits (more satisfied tourists, more overnights, more local business, more employment opportunities for the local population etc.)

Specific objectives of the project are:
SO1: To develop structured curriculum and training materials for 40 low skilled candidates in the field of wine and cheese sommelierie.
SO2:To train 40 low skilled candidates in the field of wine and cheese sommelerie through structured trainings using modular approach
SO3: To develop Digital Learning Platform for networking of wine and cheese sommeliers who are in the learning process
SO4:To create mobile application for tourists interested in wine and cheese in the country;
SO5:To develop Guidebook for Social Partners and Policy makers for creation of concept of themed tourism streets (wine and cheese streets)

Target Groups:
-80 low skilled professionals who would gain new qualifications of wine and cheese sommeliers
-Hotel, restaurants, wineries, cheese makers companies who are in search for skilled stuff
– Institutions responsible for tourism education who can extent the tourism education offer in the country;
– institutions responsible for tourism policy who can put strategic framework of the concept to be functional in the country.

The project has huge potential to make changes in the well being of the members of the local communities. The participants of the project (young people with lower skills) will come from most rural areas of the country and will be trained in a professional manner getting certain qualification and possibility for employment-due to specific qualifications they will gain on those trainings.
Furthermore, the concept of Wine and Cheese Streets has a huge impact of the touristic exploitation of such regions by rule. We are witnessing that nowadays, such concepts attract more domestic and foreign visitors, extent the length of stay of visitors, and that can bring lot of economic benefit for the community/region. This concept create new jobs and new perspectives for the regional development. The product placement of wineries, cheese makers could be increased as well as the occupancy rate of the hotels, restaurants from those regions.

Recently, sustainable tourism (when done correctly) has been increasingly seen as a strategy for regional development. This has been the case for several reasons: tourism often involves the transfer of wealth from a developed nation to a developing one, tourism has a supply chain that impacts many industries directly and indirectly in the country of the tourist activity, and, according to the UNWTO, is very labor-intensive and provides relatively direct access to foreign markets for people facing poverty.
Developed outputs in this project like curricula, new web based models of transfer of know how will be valuable contribution to the educational policy especially in VET. Active participation of companies in the education and training of skilled workers is a big plus for each society, since in creation of most effective VET models, only labor market relevance counts.
Links for the website and apps are:
https://gosommeliers.com/
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.extfox.gosommelier

Project Website

https://gosommeliers.com/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 143110 Eur

Project Coordinator

Stopanska Komora za turizam na Makedonija & Country: MK

Project Partners

• Foundation Center for Education and Networking in Tourism CENET Demir Kapija
• MEZHDUNARODEN CENTAR ZA RAZVITIE NAOBRAZOVANIETO I OBUCHENIETO
• ASSOCIACAO INTERCULTURAL AMIGOS DA MOBILIDADE
• ADEFIS JUVENTUD INTERNACIONAL