25 March 2018
PRESS RELEASE
TOPIC:
4η Steering Committee Meeting on the EU ERASMUS+ “Employer Programme for Hospitality and Tourism”
The 4th steering committee meeting of the EU ERASMUS+ project titled “Employer programme for Hospitality and Tourism” has been successfully concluded a week ago. The purpose of the project is the development and formalization of partnership processes between the tourism – hospitality private sector, tertiary educational institutions offering programmes of studies in tourism and hospitality and students, through a state – of – the art and innovative employer programme, that is tailored made to the needs of the tourism and hospitality sector. The meeting took place during the period 12 to 13 of March in Padova, Italy at the premises of GRUPPO 4 and the main purpose of the meeting was to discuss the specifications document and the online platform development. GRUPPO 4 is a private firm that collaborates as a project partner in the EPHT project, offering technology and internet solutions. GRUPPO 4’s main responsibility in the project is the development of the online platform to support the EPHT project. The rest of the research partners in the programme originate from four (4) other countries across the European Union. More specifically, research partners in the programme come from Cyprus (Higher Hotel Institute of Cyprus, Mediterranean Management Centre and Cyprus Hotel Association), Finland (Tampere University of Applied Sciences), Greece (Technological Educational Institute of Crete), and Spain (DΟCUMENTA S.A.).
During the 1st day of the project meeting (12th March), the main issues pertaining to the management of the project were discussed. Partners also discussed quality assurance issues as well as updating the dissemination strategy of the project. The positive feedback by the Cypriot National Agency was also presented to the partners. This was followed by a very informative presentation by Mrs. Carla Furlan from ITS Jesolo, an Italian HEI specializing on vocational education in tourism and hospitality management, followed by a discussion on the possibility of future cooperation with the ITS Institute on the project.
On more central issues, the steering committee also discussed the Operational Manual, that is, the specifications document for the platform, as well as the draft of the platform that had been prepared by Gruppo 4. In particular, the presentation of the Operational Manual from HHIC focused on the systematic methodology for the development, installation and monitoring of a successful employer programme for the hospitality and tourism industry. The aim of the Operational Manual is to offer an insight on the development of an electronic platform through which various stakeholder groups from academia and industry professionals could interact. Subsequently, Gruppo4 presented the technical approach to the platform (Xenios Zeus) and explained the different tech key points as well as the software architecture to the partners present.
Last but not least, the 1st day of the steering committee meeting concluded with a workshop on the specifications document and the platform development, which went through the work performed to date and gave input for the finalization of the specifications document and completion of the platform.
The second day (13th of March) the meeting focused upon the discussion of the workshop's results with respect to the specifications document and platform development. Subsequently, the Recommendations Report developed by the TEI of Crete was presented to the partners. The aim of the recommendations report is to put together information and evidence from the European Needs Analysis report and the Best Practices report, to offer recommendations regarding the various component parts of the employer programme. The progress of dissemination activities were presented by MMC, followed by certain guidelines for future actions to all partners.
Additionally, the steering committee discussed the procedure for testing the electronic platform (“the pilots”). During these pilots, students, employers and representatives from HEIs across the five (5) countries participating in the EPHT projects will be called upon to evaluate the functionality and operationability of the platform. The 4th steering committee meeting concluded with the evaluation of the research programme’s progress status so far and the organisation of the logistics for the 5th and final meeting in Cyprus on the 9th – 10th of July 2018.
Finally, the progress of quality assurance was discussed, along with certain evaluating results of deliverables, based on the quality assurance strategy guide.
The next steps in the Employer Programme for Hospitality and Tourism research programme revolve around the development of the platform which will be installed in the three academic institutions that participate in the project's consortium, as well as the organisation of multiplier events in Cyprus, Greece, Spain and Finland. The latter refer to National and/or transnational conferences, seminars or events aimed at sharing and disseminating Intellectual Outputs produced by the project.