Improved Employability and Apprenticeship in the Tourism Sector
The project
With unemployment remaining high and employees tending to move around more during their careers, tourism represents an industry offering meaningful employment opportunities. Therefore, it suffers from a misalignment among:
job seekers having a negative perception of the sector in terms of job quality, seasonality and limited career prospects, which turns into a major number of low-skilled workers;
tourists, and then SMEs and operators, requiring for professional high-skilled workforce capable of offering innovative and customized tourism experiences, that are worthy of time, money and recommendations of tourists.
In this framework, a holistic approach should be taken for keeping European tourism destinations attractive for tourists, job seekers and businesses, while being it straightforward the high level of complementarity and interdependency of different actors in the value creation process.
#IdEATE develops a sustainable model helping to connect main players active in the field of tourism (job seekers, prospective employers and SMEs, training institutions, public authorities) with the aim to facilitate the uptake of high quality jobs, apprenticeships and traineeships positions in the tourism sector across the EU.
It is meaningfully addressed to strengthen the image of careers in the tourism sector through the exploitation of opportunities offered by the Internet and social networks, and is essentially based on collaborative approach, engagement, storytelling and relationships, actually among the main strategies used to attract tourists towards destinations.
The project supports the creation a professional network specialized in the tourism sector that essentially offers and shares contents that have value to its audience. Its innovative nature is embedded in a model based on a multi-sided platform which can play a transformative role in the tourism sector by taking advantage of network effects.
Objectives
IdEATE develops a sustainable model helping to connect main players active in the field of tourism (job seekers, prospective employers and SMEs, training institutions, public authorities) with the aim to facilitate the uptake of high quality jobs, apprenticeships and traineeships positions in the tourism sector across the EU.
It is meaningfully addressed to strengthen the image of careers in the tourism sector through the enhancement of the role and offer of training providers, as to be suitable for the expectations of the labour market.
Training providers are in the midst of dramatic, disruptive change, and they are significantly forced to innovation. In the framework of IdEATE, innovation is primarly focused on:
activating strategic interactions and an open dialogue with the main tourism stakeholders, with the aim to fill existing gaps and misalignment between the two sides of the market, both the demand-side and the supply-side;
creating better career pathways for young Europeans in the tourism sector;
cooperating for bundling education with evaluative components and tools that allow applicants to demonstrate their abilities and skills in a way that is manageable and clearly understood from prospect employers.
IdEATE exploits opportunities offered by the Internet and social networks, and is essentially based on collaborative approach, engagement, storytelling and relationships, actually among the main strategies used to attract tourists towards destinations.
The project supports the creation a professional network specialized in the tourism sector, with innovation embedded in a model which can play a transformative role in the tourism sector by taking advantage of network effects. This approach puts more emphasis on the interactions among actors involved. The more the network becomes strong, the more attractive it becomes to all participating players, and more simply turns into the startup of a positive feedback loop, with all involved actors coproducing value.
IdEATE involves ten partners from Belgium, Finland, France, Greece, Italy and Spain, and revolves around the following main objectives:
- broaden the role of training providers and help them at (a) enhancing employability for students, thus improving training providers’ overall offer and reputation; (b) boosting image of careers in the tourism sector and promoting the acquisition of relevant skills for jobseekers in order to face with emerging tourism trends and demanding tourists;
- improve employability of young Europeans by offering a package of benefits through (a) the promotion of existing tools and opportunities in the European framework (EURES, Your First Eures Job, Drop’Pin, European Alliances for Apprenticeships, Erasmus+) and (b) the offer of training contents aiming at their empowerment, fostered confidence with the European job market and broader soft skills;
- reduce asymmetry information problems for potential employers, dealing with both funding and employment issues through (a) the promotion of existing tools and opportunities in the European framework (EURES, Your First Eures Job, Drop’Pin, European Alliances for Apprenticeships, Erasmus+) and (b) the offer of training contents aiming at recruiting talents and improving their offer;
- promote open dialogue and cooperation among training providers, tourism SMEs and public players, in order to support young jobseekers to be more easily employable, and in the meanwhile helping tourism SMEs and destinations to be attractive for tourists;
- foster the image of careers in the tourism sector by a well-proven communication strategy, strongly focused on online tools and channels, and face-to-face events (a 6 country-roadshow), thus favoring interactions and multi-dimensional experiences to attract youngers to a career, apprenticeship and traineeship position in the tourism sector.
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