Improvement of Branding for Rural Areas through Vocational Education Erasmus Project

Project Title

Improvement of Branding for Rural Areas through Vocational Education

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 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment; Rural development and urbanisation; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education

Project Summary

Partnership:
Ceutí municipality, Spain. Local authority.
Tranemo municipality. Sweden. Local authority.
Lemvig municipality, Denmark. Local authority.
Vzw Midwest Development, Belgium. Regional non-profit organisation.
Colegiul Economic Buzau, Romania. Vocational school specialized in business administration and tourism studies
Ekonomska Skola Braca Radic, Croatia. Secondary vocational business school.
Exesios Ltd, U.K. SME company specialising in Branding, digital, and design projects.
University of Almería, Spain. One of the youngest and most dynamic universities in Spain.

Context/ background: Partners’ territories in this project and other rural areas in Europe face the same problem: population is decreasing, low educational level and a need for new market opportunities. Partners in this project think they could attract more people by creating jobs and working on a better image. Tourism offers a mixture of both.

Objectives of the project: Participating municipalities and local SMEs in the tourism sector would work together with vocational schools, the University and the company expert in branding Exesios, to develop vocational skills by exploring already existing branding methods, and identify the most effective methods on a municipal level to strengthen the link between SMEs and the municipality with a special emphasis on SMEs with focus on tourism. This is to create employment and a more attractive local area where residents and tourists want to come and stay.

Activities and methodology:
Partners worked on four different topics which corresponded to four workshops hosted by different partners.
1. Global/ European/ national/ local scanning, with an emphasis on tourism apps. Ceutí.
2. How do we see ourselves? How do others look at us? SWOT analysis. Lemvig
3. Place branding. Roeselare.
4. Local action plans on branding. Tranemo
All workshops were aimed at learning the learners, being the first target group the staff members like local development professionals and teachers. During the meetings, a lecture and/ or a workshop on the topic was made by Exesios, which were recorded and are available on Youtube. The second target group are the students, SMEs, and other stakeholders trained and advised by the first target group.

A fifth workshop was organised in Buzau, after having realised of the excellent work carried out by the two vocational schools from Romania and Croatia by involving their students in their territory promotion through the creation of promotional material and merchandising. The topic was the collaboration between local entities and vocational schools.

All partners, as well as professionals from other destinations, have brought very good examples of tourism projects and place branding; so the University of Almería, together with Ceutí Town Council and the collaboration of the rest of partners, have developed an intellectual output: “Destination Branding. A compilation of Success Cases”, a useful toolkit which shows 16 mini cases presenting different alternatives to create and develop “place branding” strategies by tourist destinations, as well as an app guide with best examples of applications to promote local businesses, give information to tourists, make their experience unique and give visibility to your destination.

Results and impact:
Better prepared staff to train students, SMEs and entrepreneurs, with an increased knowledge on place branding and innovative tools applied to tourism, much more aware of the importance of involving local population in place branding processes and their role as local ambassadors, with a more strategic vision
More qualified and better prepared students for labour market raising their employability by improving their professional skills and making them more aware of the opportunities that the tourism sector offers.
New and stronger local networks between local entities, SMEs, vocational schools and other stakeholders
New international networks.
IBRAVE movie which shows all partners explaining the project’s impact.
Newsletters showing all the project process, local implementation and impact on participants as well as organisations.
SWOT analysis, the intellectual output, IBRAVE website and youtube channel, new curriculum for the educational partners, local development plans on branding, promotional materials and merchandising created by students, Almería Summer Course “Tourist destination branding for local development”, “Economy everywhere” (a course in Croatia, registered in School Education Gateway which is expected to be celebrated in October 2017)

Longs-term benefits are: more attractive partners’ territories, creation of employment in the tourist sector, better skilled staff, students, workers in SMEs.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 103865 Eur

Project Coordinator

Ayuntamiento de Ceutí & Country: ES

Project Partners

• UNIVERSIDAD DE ALMERIA
• Tranemo Municipality
• vzw Midwest Development
• Colegiul Economic Buzau
• EKONOMSKA SKOLA BRACA RADIC
• Exesios Ltd
• Lemvig Kommune