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Weiterentwicklung und Erprobung von ECVET-Lernergebniseinheiten für die Ausbildung zum/zur Staatlich anerkannten internationalen Touristikassistenten/in
Start date: Sep 1, 2015, End date: Aug 31, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Within the framework of Erasmus+ we followed the course embarked on in 2008 and completed the project “Development and test phase of ECVET learning outcomes” for the vocational training as “Staatlich anerkannter internationaler Touristikassistent” (= State Approved Assistant in International Tourism; we included learning contents and opportunities of EU education programmes into our vocational training courses; besides, we improved our strategy of providing an international framework for the courses at our school. The school’s project consisted of a 24-week internship for State Approved Assistants in International Tourism; we organised this internship in cooperation with our long-term partners of the Spanish tourism industry. The period of the internship is an integral part of the curriculum for State Approved Assistants in International Tourism and takes up the third semester of this course. 8 trainees of this vocational training course have taken part in the project. Of the seven female and one male participants, four had passed their A-levels and four had left school with the “Mittlerer Schulabschluss” (= German equivalent to the GCSEs). Overall, the participants were of very diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds; their ages ranged from 18 to 29 years. The trainees could apply, develop and improve their language (Spanish, English and French) and social skills, their knowledge of the tourism industry and hotel management as well as that of IT and intercultural communication; they had the chance to do this in different departments of the respective service providers. The students did their internships in different positions of five long-term partners of the tourism industry on the Canary Island and in Malaga. The students who worked in the hotel industry had the following work placements: in the management’s office, at the front desk, the guest service and the department of leisure and entertainment. In the Malaga travel agency the tasks consisted of planning, administrative work as well as accompanying groups of tourists as a tour guide. The trainees were instructed and supervised by experienced staff of the respective travel agency or hotels. They were fully integrated in an international team and profited from a wide range of experiences. For most trainees the internship was the first stay abroad, far away from home; thus, this period was an opportunity for becoming independent and practicing intercultural communication. The most important goal for these trainees was improving professional competencies in an international setting by practicing relevant skills and applying their abilities. Looking back onto the projects of the last few years, we can state that we were successful in reaching this goal; this is illustrated by the fact that most participants of the projects found a job in the national or international tourism industry right after graduating from the BFT – Berufsschule für Tourismus gGmbH. The eight participants of this year will complete their vocational training in September 2016. We are optimistic that participating in the Erasmus+ project will have a positive impact on the chances of finding work on the European job market. The project showed that the test phase and the development of our ECVET instruments had a positive effect on all partners involved. The trainees experienced an improved quality of the internship and the learning outcomes became transparent and comparable. The host companies profited from a clearly defined and well-structured evaluation scheme for their training contents and goals. In the medium term there is the chance to formulate quality criteria for the respective departments, which then will have positive effects for the market position of the company. The centre point for our project was the development and extension of our ECVET activities. In the context of the DE/13 project we developed two ECVET learning outcomes (unit 1: front desk, unit 2: service) as well as their respective evaluation sheets with the help of one cooperation partner. In a second step we used these learning outcomes with the other three hotels of the project. Besides, we successfully developed a third learning outcome (unit 3: assisting the hotel management and F&B) and the corresponding evaluation sheet, which were used by one of the hotel partners on the Canary Islands. Concerning our third learning outcome we have already received a positive feedback from Ms. Polk of the ECVET National Contact Point. Together with the first two units, this new unit has been published under http://www.ecvet-info.de/de/325.php. The success of reaching our goals as well as the lasting effect of ECVET activities can easily be seen from the fact that our school has been awarded the ECVET seal. This award encouraged our plans to continue and further develop the ECVET project.

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