Search for European Projects

Corporate Social Responsibility Training and Certification in the Travel Sector

Discussions and actions around Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) have matured rapidly, driven by increasing demand for accountability of businesses to society. This development is driven by: - Sustainable destinations are essential for the long term survival of a tourism sector and provide a competitive advantage. - About 60% of consumers in Western European countries expect an ethical behaviour from the companies they buy from. - B2B, companies ahead in CSR expect their business partners in destinations to comply with basic but gradually raising CSR requirements.The project introduced CSR in the vocational knowledge and competence of current and future professionals working as tour operators, travel agents and their providers. It transfered an established and innovative CSR training and assessment system (Travelife) to Croatia, Greece, Poland and Latvia.In order to achieve this goal, the project:1. Improved and built upon existing and established training material, methodologies, virtual learning environments and support tools2. Developed national CSR assessment standards for travel companies3. Pilot tested developed training and assessment systems 4. Built local capacities and knowledge to manage, promote, implement and expand the CSR training system and standards. 5. Implementation: delivered training, assessment and certification to 25+ companies per country.The consortium consisted of:1. Exporting partners – developers of the sector wide CSR training and award system. 2. Importing partners - national travel associations (the target group) aiming to supporting their members in CSR.VET institutes in each country were involved in delivering the training to their students. Consortium members had extensive experience in transnational cooperation from joint work on the development of the system to previous cooperation on the sustainable tourism projects. The project produced a set of nationally adapted and tested CSR training materials and standards:- Training and standards and award system for travel companies.- Training course for VET institutes.- Sustainability training and assessment for Hotels (Croatia and Greece).In the short term, the project results contributed to reducing the skills gaps in the labour market, enabled the travel associations and VET institutes to offer training that meets the labour market needs and supported the expansion of the efforts to include CSR into travel companies’ business models. In the long-term the project improved professional capacities and changed learning habits and attitudes of travel companies’ employees. The project established strong and active links between the training sector and field practitioners' organisations. It helped efforts to minimise negative environmental, economic and social impacts.
Up2Europe Ads

Coordinator

Details

5 Partners Participants