ProTourism project is placed in the context of the skills demand in the Tourism sector of Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia and the capacity of VET sectors, mainly VET schools in Tourism to reply effectively to this demand. According to CEDEFOP’s recent study (2020) on the main skills sought by employers from VET graduates, three main skills stand out – Customer service, Communication and English language.
Our project unites five organisations from four Tourism-dependent countries such as Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, and Serbia in an effort to support VET schools in providing quality training in concrete above mentioned skills areas, which will contribute to increasing the quality and competitiveness of touristic services. The main aim is to improve the quality of vocational English language teaching at VET schools in Tourism across all partner countries. We will achieve this aim through a set of SMART objectives:
- By the end of December 2022 design and develop a set of digital ProTourism pedagogical materials for English language teachers on the topics of Customer service and Communication;
- By the end of January provide instructional training to use digital pedagogical materials for 16 English language teachers (4 from each partner country) in using the materials with their students;
- By the end of June 2023, each trained teacher engages in digital learning activities min. 20 students from 10-12 grades (320 in total);
- By the end of August 2023, the digital pedagogical materials are updates as a result of the feedback from piloting and available online for multiplication;
- By the end of September 2023 conduct one blended international ProTourism conference in Sofia to share and promote results.
ProTourism project it’s delivered across 21 months in order to allow enough time for development work, which includes piloting on 2 levels: training of VET teachers and piloting activities with VET learners. Our methodology is based on the experience of Publishing partners in developing pedagogical materials and more specifically textbooks and allows for time-efficiency, high-quality and impact of the results that is realistic and achievable. In addition, the methodology takes into consideration that on one hand we are developing labour market relevant content and on the other we would like to deliver this content through a tailor-made platform managed by the applicant (IZZI).
Since 2002 Klett Bulgaria is among the leading publishers of textbooks and learning materials for all areas of preschool and school education in Bulgaria. The rich palette of Klett editions covers everything from the classic textbook to modern interactive teaching materials, from specialized to fiction. All textbooks follow official curriculum from the Ministry of Education and Science and meet all state educational standards in Bulgaria. The mission of the organization is to create quality educational materials and to help society for better education. Klett Bulgaria is an always been a partner of teachers, students and all those who want to improve and develop on the path of knowledge. Our key activities are – publishing of textbooks and all type of learning materials; producing high level digital and interactive education content and resourses; teachers trainings and seminars We have around 140 staff members. More than 300 000 students who every year use our materials.
The Association of Schools of Restaurant and Hotel Management in Bulgaria (AURH) was established on January 26 , 2001 in Gabrovo, Bulgaria as a non-profit association. AURH is the first association of schools in the Republic of Bulgaria. Today it unites 49 vocational high schools in tourism, which trains personnel for the essential tourism industry. AURH's mission is to assist principals and teachers in implementing modern, innovative and labor market-friendly education in their schools. Since it was founded, the association is guided by the following main goals to organizes, coordinates and encourages the development quality education and its practical application in the field of restaurant and hotel business, to promotes the achievements and opportunities of its members in Bulgaria and abroad, which contributes to increasing their professional training. In cooperation with the hospitality business, the association organizes national competitions within different professions and with the assistance of the different associations AURH organizes trainings for teachers, students and principals to raise awareness of the national and international achievements in the field of tourism.
Publishing House Klett Belgrade is a part of Klett Group based in Germany. It is established in Serbia in 2004. Our aim is to take an active part in educating society. Being innovative and creative, using our expertise and knowledge we tend to make learning and teaching as effective as possible. Our main scope of work is publishing textbooks for public primary and secondary schools. University professors and school teachers are our main partners in creating textbooks. The end users of our products are students (primary and secondary) and teachers. A number of our textbooks has been awarded international prizes. We were among first publishing houses offering digital books thus promoting and helping digitalisation in educational process. Students all around Serbia use our textbooks since we are the leading publisher in Serbia.
Srednja šola za gostinstvo in turizem Celje (Secondary Vocational School for Catering and Tourism Celje) is one of the most modern vocational schools in Slovenia offering 3 educational programmes for the catering and tourism sector as well as training programmes for National Occupational Qualifications and short courses tailored to the needs of individual hotel and catering enterprises. There are about 450 full-time students and adults and 80 members of the school staff. Teacher and student teams of SŠGT Celje participated in numerous outside catering events on the local, regional and national level. The school was coordinating the consortium of the Slovenian schools educating for the catering and tourism sector in the 2-year national project co-financed by the EU Social Funds (Reform and modernisation of the educational programmes in the field of gastronomy and tourism) in close cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport and other national bodies involved in VET. Our school was among the first which applied ECVET tools for recognition of the learning outcomes acquired by the students during the mobility. We have a wide network of national and international partners. In 2015 SŠGT Celje was awarded with the Erasmus+ Mobility Charter in VET. In 2021we received Erasmus Accreditation for VET (AKR-VET-13/20).
Since 1995 we are improving Croatian education with the methodological and pedagogical quality of our publications and with the development and application of modern technologies. We provide teachers as the central figures of education system with a diverse and high-quality selection of educational materials, as well as continuous educational training and professional support. We are a reliable partner in education for students and their parents, and our publications are recognizable as inventive and focus on students and their needs. Our main areas of activity are: Publishing of textbooks; Publishing of digital education content; Development and maintenance of authoring tool for digital content creation. We outreach through our digital content to 200.000+ students and teachers.
Professional Foreign Language Preparation of VET Students in Customer Service for Quality Tourism ProTourism project has started
The first official partner meeting was organized by the coordinator Klett Bulgaria. The main topics discussed by the partners were the objectives and the main activities of the Erasmus+ project and the ProTourism project; Introduction of the partners and getting to know each other; Tasks and responsibilities of the project - what, where, who and when? Planning of the ProTourism project pedagogical material milestones.
Activity 2.1 - Development of Pedagogical Materials and upload on platform has started. In-dept research. Creating basic content structure. Partners feedback and proposal. A consolidated version is produced. Each partner selects and invites participants for a focus group.
Еach partner conducts focus group with VET teachers, employers and other stakeholders to map their expectations and preferences. Reports from the focus groups are sent for consolidation to the leadings partner (min. 5 participants in one focus group) Creating an in-depth questionnaire. Using two feedback methodologies - discussions and a questionnaire. Focus groups in every country; Valuable feedback from VET teachers and various representatives of the tourism business, tourism associations in the tourism spheres considered by us. Participants – 27
Creating the content - 8 modules, 5 units per module. Draft – 148 pages
2nd meeting, in Zagreb, hosted by Profil Klett (Croatia) – Main topics: partners discuss current progress on output development; ongoing reporting and emergent issues, if any addressing; ongoing dissemination and communication. The Agendas for 3rd and 4th meetings will be agreed during the second meeting in order to adapt the content of the meetings to the project’s current developments
Process of editing pedagogical materials after second feedback from focus groups. Content is transformed into digital content through the IZZI platform. Providing guidance for recruiting participants for the training of instruction (VET language teachers). Partners recruit teachers to participate in the training.
Conduct teacher training.
Training participants:
- Bulgaria - 12 teachers
- Serbia - 5 teachers
- Croatia - 5 teachers
- Slovenia - 4 teachers
Develop guidelines for pilot activities with VET learners.
Trained VET language teachers present their plans for individual pilot sessions.
Partners provide feedback and recommendations.
The pilot activities take place in each partner country.
Partners collect evaluation data from participants.
Implemented pilots of digital pedagogical materials with students in classrooms in Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia
Planned:
320 students - Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria and Slovenia
So far...
Bulgaria - 176 students
Croatia - 112 students
Serbia - 104 pupils
Slovenia - 96 students
Total: 488 students
Feedback analysis, editing and making changes to the digital edition after test periods.
On 29.09.2023 at a special event in Sofia we presented the developed digital pedagogical materials to help the tourism industry. Official guests at the final conference were Irena Georgieva, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Tourism, Vanya Tividosheva, Director of the Directorate "Vocational Education and Training", Ministry of Education and Science, Vesela Karayaneva, Chief Expert at the Directorate "Vocational Education and Training", Ministry of Education and Science, and Mariyanka Zhivkova, Vice President of the National Agency for Vocational Education and Training - NAPET. Ms Irena Georgieva welcomed the guests and urged the participants to continue working together for an even more prepared and knowledgeable generation. Pavlina Ilieva, President of the Association of Tour Operators and Travel Agents "United Future for Tourism", Adelina Alexandrova, Complex Manager and Catering Manager at Hotel Premier, Sofia, Bulgaria. Stanimir Donev, manager of the hotel chain City, Veliko Tarnovo. Pleven, Dr. Hristo Hristozov, Manager of HVH Consulting and member of the Board of Directors of Lighthouse Golf and Spa Hotel.
You can use the ProТоurism digital pedagogical materials in full with free access here : https://bg.izzi.digital/DOS/418317/418320.html