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Travel & Tourism Project
Start date: Jul 1, 2014, End date: Jun 30, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

REY Europe is a Social Enterprise and not-for-profit organisation based in central London. We deliver a range of projects related to employment, training and the provision of work based learning opportunities. Our projects aim to address the emerging skill gap across a variety of sectors by providing direct support to unemployed people, and facilitating work placement opportunities in Europe and the UK as well as wider strategic work to address emerging skills gaps within projected areas of economic growth. We actively pursue projects to support those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds. This project sought to address the labour market needs within the UK's Travel and Tourism sector. We aimed to address the existing skills gap and raise standards of training in order to meet projected levels of expansion and replacement demand within the sector. The project provided an experiential learning opportunity for participants and an international experience for young people who had not previously had the chance to travel, developing their professional and personal competences and better equipping them for entry into the labour market. REY worked with two UK based FE colleges to recruit young people in their second year of study for a BTEC in Travel and Tourism. These students were aged between 17 - 19 years, the majority of whom had not lived overseas or lived independently (away form their family home), prior to their involvement in the project. REY has proven experience of working with this target group and providing a structured and supported mobility experience. The project was run over 2 years, from August 2014 - June 2016. In total, we sent 84 learners and 5 accompanying persons, who spent 8 weeks on placement. (The accompanying persons joined the group for the first 5 days only) The mobilities took place in Seville, Andalucia, with students hosted in small groups in a range of work placements. Placements were all local tourist operations, and provided students with the opportunity to gain first hand customer service and hospitality experience and develop their confidence working in a cross cultural environment. Students received 2 days of face to face preparatory training in the UK prior to departure and an in-country orientation by a REY Europe representative based in Seville throughout the mobility to ensure that participants had access to local pastoral support. The mobility was designed to be credit bearing, with participants will working towards at least 1 unit of their Level 2 BTEC qualification during the mobility. Prior to the mobility, students were supported to develop an individual Learning Agreement and a set of learning outcomes, which were shaped by the job description that they were given by their placement. The learning outcomes were defined within the context of the ECVET framework. Participants were supported in-country by a line manager within the placement, who conducted regular review meetings with participants to chart their progress and signed off their learning agreement at the end of the mobility if learning outcomes were achieved. The agreements were then returned to their college tutor who was able to award the appropriate unit of their BTEC qualification. The mobility achieved its intended impact; for students to gain first hand work experience, intercultural experience and personal development that has strengthened their position in the labour market and their workplace readiness. Students have developed their personal and professional confidence, an understanding of the European labour market and a set of transferable skills that has made them more prepared for employment, given them a competitive edge when seeking employment and provided them with an international outlook. 54 participants have successfully completed at least one unit of their Level 2 BTEC that was set for them to be achieved within their mobility placement. We are currently monitoring and evaluating the impact of the mobility of the longer term by looking at participants' career pathways and how the mobility has supported their progression to employment. For the participating organisations, their European networks and international outlook have been developed and strengthened, and they are now in a position to expand their international mobility to increased numbers of students and are more engaged and connected to the European labour market.
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