Analysis and development of a European system of qualifications and skills in the hospitality sector for transparency and recognition without borders
New (No-borders European Workers) hospitality

I/06/B/F/PP-154078

Duration
1/10/2006-30/9/2008

Source of Financing
Programme Leonardo da Vinci 2nd phase (EAC/11/04) - 2006, priority n. 1 – pilot project “Development of new measures and instruments  to describe, promote and compare qualifications and skills on a European, national and sector level”.

Content and activities
The NEW (No-borders European Workers) HOSPITALITY project intends to be a reference point for the transparency of qualifications and competences in the hospitality sector in the partnership countries and, therefore, for their transferability within the European area. Structural, technical and organisational mutations in labour have modified the qualification profiles required of workers in this sector. Possession of specific competences associated with active transversal behaviours such as adaptability, handling uncertainty, taking initiative, willingness to accept responsibility, readiness in decision-making, teamwork, willingness to improve, flexibility, organisational ability, and communications skills, should be fostered, up-dated, validated and made visible, on the one hand to avoid the cognitive obsolescence of workers and, on the other, to foster the “spendibility” of professional qualifications in the labour market and in the training systems, in a European dimension of mobility of persons. Moreover, the changes introduced in the labour and training systems– flexibility, new skills, life long learning, etc. – have highlighted the need for new ways of representing knowledge, to allow the emergence of learning derived from non-formal contexts.
In the light of all this, the NEW HOSPITALITY project proposes a research mechanism which, in its initial phase, calls for an integrated and shared analysis in the partnership nations, from which the emerging professional figures in the hotel sector will be deduced. In the second phase qualifications and professional competences will be described and analysed through a field research. Subsequently, a trans-national repertory of the minimum competences in the hospitality sector of the countries involved in the partnership (of the emerging professional figures) will be compiled (promoting, in this way, abilities and competences), integrated with the system of training credits, and ECTS credits if applicable, and separated into activities and areas of learning. The final research phase will allow the definition of measures and instruments to foster the continuous adaptation of training curricula to the professional requirements of hotel firms which will give form to the transparency policies adopted by the European Union and improve the quality of and facilitate access to the system of continuous professional training.

Output:

• NEW HOSPITALITY RESEARCH KIT - Study and definition of the methodology and parameters of the research
• NEW HOSPITALITY DESK RESEARCH – Study and analysis of the demand and supply in the hospitality sector, of the employment situation of the sector and of the skill and competence certification systems used.
• NEW HOSPITALITY FIELD RESEARCH -: Questionnaires exploring professional skill and competence needs will be distributed to entrepreneurs and workers in the sector. The results of the survey will be used to elaborate and test the research instruments.
• NEW HOSPITALITY COMPETENCE UNITS DATABASE - Database of the minimum competence units with reference to the hospitality sector and with detailed descriptions, in correlation with the professional figures, by activities, by area of learning, by training credits, by ECTS credits.
• NEW HOSPITALITY EUROPASS - Software and the related instructions manual which will guide workers in the sector through the preparation of a European curriculum vitae (for the part concerning individual skills/competences), in order to guarantee the legibility of the information contained therein, by following a common protocol which responds to the need for comprehension, a sharing of language and of a glossary and the focusing of information on the relevant aspects.

Target

• Direct targets  and  potential users of the final products include:
  • Hospitality industry workers, for whom the formal recognition and transparency of competencies and knowledge, acquired in various ways, are guaranteed to permit European mobility of professional qualifications
  • European educators and trainers because the instruments proposed for the analysis of competencies are of interest in planning training interventions and for the dissemination of instruments for the transparency of qualifications.
• Indirect targets, which can be identified in the public and private entities operating in the hotel sector: businesses, unions and category associations, political decision-makers who regulate orientation, training and the labour market.

Partnership:

• Italian Centre for Advanced Studies in Tourism and Tourism Promotion – Assisi, Italy
• Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry – Sofia, Bulgaria
• National Tourism Research Institute – Sofia, Bulgaria
• Institute of Tourism Studies, St.Julians - Malta
• Malta Union of Teacher - Valletta, Malta
• Federalberghi – Roma, Italy
• Unione Italiana del Lavoro (UIL) – Tu.C.S. – Roma, Italy
• Transnational Association for Training and Vocational Mobility – Bucarest, Romania
• Universitatea Ovidius Constanta- Facultatea de Stiinte Economice – Constanta, Romania
• Camera de Comert, Industrie, Navigatie si Agricultura – Constanta, Romania
• Centre of the Republic of Slovenia for Vocational Education and Training – Ljubljana, Slovenia
• Sindikat delavcev gostinstva in turizma Slovenije – Ljubljana, Romania