THE PROJECT

With a high rate of unemployment and the rising of employees’ mobility throughout the career, tourism represents an industry that offers different and fascinating employment opportunities. The misalignment lies among: – job seekers having a negative perception of the sector in terms of job quality, seasonality and limited career prospects, with the consequence of a growing number of low-skilled workers – SMEs of this sector, looking for professional high-skilled workforce capable of offering innovative and customized tourism experiences, that are worthy of time, money and recommendations of tourists but, at the same time, often offering low quality services because of a lack of professional education IdEATE develops a sustainable model helping main players who are active in the field of tourism (job seekers, prospective employers and SMEs, training institutions, public authorities) to connect with each other, with the aim of facilitating the uptake of high quality jobs, apprenticeships and traineeships positions in the tourism sector across the EU.

The project involves ten partners from Belgium, Finland, France, Greece, Italy and Spain, and aims at:

• improving employability of Europeans aged 16-35 years by offering a package of benefits with training contents that aims at their empowerment, fostering confidence with the European job market and broadening soft skills
• reducing asymmetry information problems for potential employers, dealing with both funding and employment issues
• promoting 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
• fostering 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

In this platform, addressed to job seekers, SMEs and training providers in the tourism sector, users will find information and updates on:

• E-learning courses with a user-centered approach to actively involve the target groups to improve the qualification of human capital for the tourism sector. They will also enhance and facilitate the presentation, communication and improvement of soft skills
• Videos with a variety of interactive learning tasks such as micro-simulations, questionnaires, discussions, study relevant resources and interactions with the content. More in detail, there shall be 2 videos on European initiatives for jobs and 6 videos of testimonials and ambassadors of tourism careers
• Several events will be organized in many EU countries, strictly connected with stakeholders, with the aim of spreading the initiative and to support the policy maker at both local and national level
• Information about different European initiatives concerning mobility and funding opportunities, apprenticeships and traineeships shall be available in the toolbox

The project supports the creation a professional network specialized not only in the tourism sector in its broad meaning, but also in the different categories of jobs which are: hospitality, Food & Beverage, Tour operator, Travel agencies, attractions and recreations activities. The innovative nature of this project is embedded in a model based on a multi-sided platform which can play an innovative role in the tourism sector by taking advantage of network effects.