Sustainable Tourism Innovative Training Erasmus Project

Project Title

Sustainable Tourism Innovative 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 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; Open and distance learning

Project Summary

The project SUSTAIN IT was fully in line with Erasmus+ priorities and objectives:
HORIZONTAL Priority 1 Development of relevant and high-quality skills and competences
VET Priority 4 Further strengthening of key competences
Horizontal Priority 3 Open education and innovative training

CONTEXT
In Europe, the tourism sector contributes to 12% of GDP and provides 24 M jobs, 12% of total labour force. A priority for the EU is to develop a sustainable, responsible and high-quality tourism. Still, despite policy goals and ambitions, tourism is far from reaching its “sustainability potential” due to shortages of skills.
There is an immediate need to train new entrants and most importantly retrain people already working in the sector to concepts and practices of “sustainable tourism”. Such needs are best captured by official EU Commission documents:
– Agenda for a Sustainable and Competitive European Tourism
– How to Better Target Initiatives to Develop Skills in Tourism, 2015
– Mapping of Supply in Tourism Education & Training, 2016
These documents highlight that the EU VET system struggles to provide skills for sustainable tourism and there is the need for innovative and flexible training, especially for micro and family-run businesses. Reportedly, current provision is neither adequate nor practical: many graduates are not “work-ready” because of courses that employers consider too theoretical and of a generalised lack of provision in emerging areas, notably sustainable tourism.

OBJECTIVE
In this context, the objective of SUSTAIN IT was to enhance the competitiveness of sustainable tourism by developing and delivering innovative, concrete and actionable training. The objective of SUSTAIN IT was to deliver training via traditional means (face-2-face) and the dedicated Open Educational Resource (OER). SUSTAIN IT is highly innovative as it develops and implements concrete training with actionable tools that allow trainees to directly implement sustainable tourism strategies and actions. The multilingual versions of training and tools and OER Distance Learning functionality allows SUSTAIN IT to overcome access barriers.

PARTICIPANTS
SUSTAIN IT involved 8 partners from 6 countries, all with a strong vocation to sustainable tourism, bringing together complementary expertise and competencies to develop quality results. The partnership involved VET providers (both formal and non-formal), NGOs, associations, public support agencies and businesses active in sustainable tourism.
The project involved more than the target of 250 target groups at implementation through the pilot deployment of SUSTAIN IT innovative training and tools.

ACTIVITIES
a) Developed and maintained the multilingual SUSTAIN IT OER Platform
b) Mapped and selected Sustainable Tourism tools, methodologies and techniques
c) Developed SUSTAIN IT Training and Tools in 5 languages
d) Implemented for Test & Validation the training and tools
e) Developed the SUSTAIN IT training and tools in their final validated version
f) Mainstreamed SUSTAIN IT across the European VET and tourism sector for adoption and scalability

METHODOLOGY
SUSTAIN IT relied on a robust methodology combining operational relevance, demand-driven approach and pedagogical accuracy. SUSTAIN IT methodology was worked on by the partners in this order:
=> we mapped Sustainable Tourism trends, tools, methodologies and techniques
=> we developed the training material (demand driven)
=> we did our pilot work for user-based validation
=>we finalised the material
=> we did our full roll-out and deployment through OER

RESULTS
SUSTAIN IT results are the innovative and practical training and tools for Sustainable Tourism. Our training material is available for FREE and without restrictions in multilingual versions via the OER platform.
Both training and platform are a timely and concrete answer to the needs confirmed in our mapping at EU and national levels.

IMPACT is as follows:
> Participating organisations enhanced their capacity to better serve Sustainable Tourism sector
> Sustainable Tourism at systemic level benefitted from relevant, timely and FREELY accessible training and tools, with an OER Platform available to network and exchange knowledge
> Target groups gained competences and skills to implement Sustainable Tourism

Impact:
Local: SUSTAIN IT engaged local stakeholders to produce immediate impact in Sustainable Tourism
National: SUSTAIN IT informed “evidence based” policy making and support the sector
EU: SUSTAIN IT established a pan-European platform for training and networking

LONG TERM BENEFIT
In the beginning of the project the Partners committed to maintaining the OER platform for at least 2 years after the end of EU cofinancing for sustainability. SUSTAIN IT mainstreamed its results with VET providers, Sustainable Tourism operators and facilitators to ensure that the tangible results of the project are sustained beyond

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 299378 Eur

Project Coordinator

Husavik Academic Center / Þekkingarnet Þingeyinga & Country: IS

Project Partners

• IRISH RURAL LINK CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY LIMITED
• INSTITUT DE HAUTE FORMATION AUX POLITIQUES COMMUNAUTAIRES
• Pafos Regional Board of Tourism
• IDP SAS DI GIANCARLO COSTANTINO (ITALIAN DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS)
• Nýheimar þekkingarsetur
• INTERNET WEB SOLUTIONS SL
• IAL INNOVAZIONE APPRENDIMENTO LAVORO FRIULI VENEZIA GIULIA SRL IMPRESA SOCIALE