Embedding Sustainability Skills in Tourism Education and Training Erasmus Project

Project Title

Embedding Sustainability Skills in Tourism Education and Training

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Pedagogy and didactics; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Environment and climate change

Project Summary

CONTEXT
Sustainable tourism represents one of the megatrends of the tourism development worldwide (OECD, 2018). Growing demand for sustainable tourism products and services increases demand for green skills in the workforce. Among these skills are resource, emissions and waste management, design of tourism value chains in line with the principles of circular economy, preservation of natural, cultural and local heritage, development of sustainable and accessible tourism products (NTG, 2019). These skills, however, are yet to be mainstreamed in tourism VET. The analysis of educational standards and core curricula in the fields of Hospitality, Travel, Tourism and Leisure, implemented in all countries of the consortium, proves that sustainability-related skills are often neglected. The interviews with VET teachers in the tourism field (61 participants from 6 EU countries) shows that they lack methodological guidance, educational resources and tools for including these skills in the curricula.

OBJECTIVES
The ESTET project seeks to bridge this gap and sets the overall objective to empower VET providers across Europe to align tourism education and training with new tourism industry development trends by embedding sustainability skills in curricula delivered through innovative teaching practices.

The specific objectives are to:
1. Develop a conceptual basis for embedding sustainability skills in tourism VET curricula
2. Provide teaching-learning materials in the field of sustainable tourism adapted for embedding them effectively in VET curricula
3. Design and pilot a comprehensive in-service training programme for VET staff in the cross field of sustainable tourism and innovative teaching practices
4. Facilitate transferability and wide exploitation of the developed resources in various VET contexts
5. Raise awareness of possibilities and added value of embedding sustainability skills in tourism VET curricula among educational professionals in the sector

TARGET GROUPS
The project’s primary target groups are senior leaders, teachers, trainers and tutors in IVET & CVET institutions offering tourism qualifications at upper- and post-secondary non-tertiary levels, as well as non-formal training programmes and courses in the field of tourism; VET students, trainees and non-formal learners in the field of tourism, incl. employees and aspiring entrepreneurs.

The secondary target groups are employers in the tourism sector (private companies, destination management bodies, tourism NGOs); education and training stakeholders (VET public bodies, institutions offering in-service training for teachers and universities).

METHODOLOGY AND OUTPUTS
The project utilises life-cycle methodology, which defines a sequence of activities for planning, development, implementation and dissemination of the project results.
During the project lifetime the following intellectual outputs will be developed:
O1 Conceptual Framework defining sustainability skills at core and advanced levels of mastery and ways of embedding them in tourism VET curricula
O2 Portfolio of learning resources for tourism sustainability skills development, including micro-learning videos, WebQuests and ideas for service-learning projects
O3 In-service training programme for VET teachers, trainers and tutors, addressing professional and pedagogical skills (awareness of sustainable tourism and skills for constructing educational process based on such approaches as single-concept learning, inquiry-based learning and service-learning)
O4 Compendium of Success Stories, providing evidence of the impact the ESTET approach and results have had on the participants in the project’s training activities

PROJECT ACTIVITIES AND PARTICIPANTS
450 representatives of the project target groups and stakeholders will be directly involved in the project activities and events:
– focus group interviews (min 72 VET and tourism stakeholders)
– transnational train the trainer workshop (19 VET staff members of the partner organisations)
– multiplication training sessions in partners’ countries (min 48 teachers, trainers and tutors from IVET and CVET institutions offering tourism programmes and courses)
– field try-outs with VET learners in partners’ countries (min 90 students/learners in the field of tourism)
– implementation of service-learning projects in cooperation with min 6 community partners – tourism stakeholder organisations
– seven multiplier events with min 215 participants
In addition, the consortium plans to reach at least 5000 tourism VET stakeholders through targeted and broad dissemination of the project results.

IMPACT
We hope that by educating VET professionals about tourism sustainability and providing them with hands on approaches and tools for including the sustainability-related skills in curricula as an important outcome of tourism VET, our project will drive the process of behavioural change among future tourism professionals for a more sustainable tourism in Europe.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 275372 Eur

Project Coordinator

SPOLECZNA AKADEMIA NAUK & Country: PL

Project Partners

• Eastern Macedonia – Thrace Regional Directorate for Primary and Secondary Education
• ALBEA ETUDES ET CONSEILS
• Mazowiecka Regionalna Organizacja Turystyczna
• PROMIMPRESA SRL
• FUTURE IN PERSPECTIVE LIMITED
• EUROPEAN CENTER FOR QUALITY OOD