Rooms to VET – Upskilling and Professionalisation of private tourism accommodation services Erasmus Project

Project Title

Rooms to VET – Upskilling and Professionalisation of private tourism accommodation services

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 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

Europe is the world’s no. 1 tourist destination, with tourism industry representing a key sector of the European economy. Private tourism accommodations are increasingly gaining ground in many countries and hold significant share of the total of holiday accommodations. At the same time, needs and challenges that private accommodation service providers are facing, have not been addressed in a satisfactory manner. In this respect, the European tourism industry needs to plan ahead in order to stay competitive and to support this area with great growth potential.
The overall goal of the Rooms to VET project was to maintain and increase the competitiveness of the European tourism industry by supporting the upskilling and professionalization of tourism services provided by owners of private accommodations.
Specific project objectives are to:
• Make available to providers of private tourism accommodations the necessary knowledge to plan their business, identify and successfully address the main challenges and trends
• Help private tourism accommodation providers to face-lift and professionalize their services in order to capture economic benefits
• Identify and raise awareness about certification tools and systems available, including the tools and systems that the European Union has developed, and the ways to make use of them
• Examine the different legal frameworks and standards pertaining to their kind of business
• Raise awareness about the value and methodology of developing networks among tourism stakeholders.
Project activities have been delivered by a transnational consortium, composed of 9 actors from 5 Erasmus+ countries, all having profound experience and expertise in the field of (entrepreneurial) education in tourism. The partnership consists of the Institute for Tourism from Croatia (project coordinator), University of Zadar from Croatia, Olympic Training & Consulting Ltd. and Militos Consulting S.A. from Greece, the Innovation Training Center, S.L. and the association of tourism establishments Asociacion Hotelera de Menorca from Spain, NGO Cyprus Center for European and International Affairs and the R&DO Limited from Cyprus and University of Primorska from Slovenia.

In order to achieve these objectives, following activities have been undertaken: a study “Private tourism accommodations: state-of-the-art, challenges and prospects for development” has been drafted (O1); best practices in target countries are identified and compiled in an online publication (O2); a thorough needs analysis of private accommodation service providers has been made through expert interviews, online questionnaires and focus groups (O3); based on O1-O3 a theoretical framework and structure of the training course have been developed (O4); the learning and training material has been developed and translated in all partner languages (O5), uploaded in the online interactive learning and training platform and validated through pilot workshops (O6) while a regularly updated Online Repository and Database is hosting all the material, news and project outputs produced.
As a result of conducted activities, a learning and training course has been designed accommodating the needs of direct target group (providers of private tourism accommodation services and wanna-be providers, owners, managers and staff at all posts; VET trainers; unemployed). The training platform, translated in all 5 project languages (English, Croatian, Greek, Slovenian, Spanish), is available online at: https://training.roomstovet.eu/en/. It provides end users with a practical, interactive, learning and training course structured around self-contained, short and focused 6 modules (Hospitality and service culture, Planning for success, Running your business day to day, Face-lifting your business, Creative and innovative products and services and Promoting and selling effectively), with background concepts, tools and techniques.
This tested and integrated blended training programme can be used at European level, beyond the project’s scope by representatives of direct and indirect target groups, through mainstreaming and multiplication.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 222729,42 Eur

Project Coordinator

Institut za turizam & Country: HR

Project Partners

• OLYMPIAKI EPAIDEFTIKI KAI SYMVOULEFTIKI EPE
• Innovation Training Center, S.L.
• Cyprus Center for European and International Affairs
• R&DO LIMITED
• SVEUCILISTE U ZADRU
• MILITOS SYMVOULEUTIKI A.E.
• UNIVERZA NA PRIMORSKEM UNIVERSITA DEL LITORALE