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Language skills and intercultural issues in the ho..
Language skills and intercultural issues in the hospitality industry: unity in diversity in the EU labour market
Start date: Sep 1, 2016,
End date: Aug 31, 2018
PROJECT
FINISHED
Contemporary world shows a change in the employability patterns and skills needed in the future. Cedefop’s latest skill supply and demand forecasts (2014) highlight Europe’s employment challenge indicating that the most job opportunities will be in services, and point to a rising trend towards high-skilled jobs. Moreover, the increasing tourism flows, mobility for study and professional reasons as well as global migration processes have placed Europe in a previously unknown situation in which multilingualism is becoming not a desired state but a vital necessity. Communication in many languages is not any longer regarded as an aim but is considered as a tool for participating in socially meaningful activities in everyday and professional setting. Language skills, intercultural and digital competences are important employability skills in the current situation, especially in tourism and hospitality sector. This also requires new innovative ways for developing VET learners’ employability skills to be competitive in the changing labour market and contribute to cohesive society. This idea lies at the core of the current project, the stimulus for which was our previous project „Key Skills for Hotel Industry Staff” in which we focussed on developing language course for hospitality industry employees in 12 languages. The current project is intended to elaborate and put forward the results attained in the first project and by attracting new partners it is extending the scope as well and bringing the results a step further.This project addresses the specific objectives of the Erasmus+ programme in the field of education and training: 1) to improve the level of key competences and skills (employability skills, language and intercultural competence), with particular regard to their relevance for the labour market (tourism and hospitality industry) and their contribution to a cohesive society (providing better cultural awareness and increased language competence, including in remote areas); 2) improve the teaching and learning of languages and promote the EU's broad linguistic diversity (16 languages are targeted) and intercultural awareness (language teaching/learning materials integrating culture of European countries, including minority groups (ethnic Hungarian region of Romania) and creativity in language learning.Nine partners are involved in the project: two vocational schools – Turisticka i ugostiteljska skola from Dubrovnik, Croatia and IPSSA Nino Bergese, Genoa, Italy; two higher vocational schools - Ekonomska sola Murska Sobota, VSS from Slovenia and Vyšší odborná škola, Střední průmyslová škola a Obchodní akademie, Čáslav, from the Czech Republic; three tertiary level education institutions - Biznesa augstskola Turiba, Latvia; UNIVERSITATATEA SAPIENTIA DIN CLUJ NAPOCA, Romania and VšĮ Vilniaus verslo kolegija, Lithuania; Provincial Directorate of Education in Turkey Kutahya MEM; and Primrose Publishing, an enterprise from the UK.The project aims at creating an interactive blended learning language course „Unity in Diversity” comprising on-line learning materials available on the Moodle Learning platform and face-to-face interactive materials incorporating case studies, games, problem-solving tasks, videos, etc. targeted at developing VET learners’ language, intercultural and digital competence, creativity, problem-solving skills and flexibility. The complete course is formed up by three courses: 1) a new interactive A1 language learning course in 16 languages (CZ, DE, EN, ES, FR, GR, HR, HU, IT, LT, LV, RO, RU, SE, Si, TR) containing such modules as “Welcome”, “Hotel”, “Restaurant”, “Professional skills”; 2) A2/B1 language course extended to 16 languages comprising such modules as “Hotel Reception”, “Restaurant”, “Restaurant Kitchen”, “City”, “Hotel Business Centre” and “Management Offices”, the first two also as smartphone apps, the module “City” accompanied by 3 interactive maps and 3 inside hotel maps; 3) B2/C1 intercultural English language course comprising 8 modules “Hotel Front Office”, “Catering Service”, Hotel Management”, “Conference and Business Services”, “Off-site Services” and “Financial Management”, an intercultural module revealing cultural sensitivities of the nine partner countries and nine country modules featuring the main tourist information required for work; the course contains case studies, videos, on-line modules and face-to-face problem-based tasks. The project outcomes are addressed towards the development, implementation of innovative practices at organisational (education institutions), local (VET institutions, hospitality enterprises), regional (VET and hospitality enterprises), national (through multiplier events, dissemination, reports impact on education institutions, industry, individuals for lifelong learning) and European level (the impact of the platform, dissemination, research activity, both for VET, industry and lifelong learning purposes) on long-term basis.