This Intellectual Output will consist of the elaboration of a comparative transnational report of identified barriers and needs of the tourism and hospitality sector regarding KCs 6 and KC8. This joint report will be based on the insights from the five national analyses made in each partner’s country, following a common methodology in each territory. The report will identify patterns and necessities common at European level and also detect geographical particularities. This first intellectual output will be the basis for the elaboration of the CS.Tour Curricula on KC6-Social and Civic competences and KC8-Cultural awareness and Expression. The final structure and contents of the transnational report will be agreed by partners based on the individual analyses, but it will contain at least the following contents:

• Tourism and hospitality industry in Europe
• Target group: European citizens involved (employed and unemployed) in the Tourism and Hospitality industry
• Methodological approach of the individual analyses
• Key common barriers and needs identified
• Key common solutions proposed
• Conclusions and recommendations

This transnational report, written in English, will be available on the project’s website.
To elaborate the transnational report, the following activities will be carried out:

• Discussions, interviews and focus groups with the potential final beneficiaries.
• Focus groups with experts in the field of tourism.
• Elaboration of the national analyses in each partner’s territory.
• Elaboration of the comparative transnational report.

At a first level, each partner will conduct a desktop research in each consortium country for the social and cultural awareness skills in tourism and hospitality sector regarding existing training curricula & identified barriers in terms of needs & gaps in skills, knowledge & attitudes.
 

Prior to the design and implementation of a specific training programme it is necessary to make a detection and analysis of their own demands, identifying barriers and possible solutions and actions to be carried out. In order to develop a common bottom-up approach, it is essential to count with the collaboration and participation of the final beneficiaries in order to determine the limitations that could potentially set back the development of the proposed training programme. Therefore, this first analytical activity will consist of organising discussions, semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with stakeholders and focus groups. In the discussions, partners will use a common semi-structured questionnaire to ask participants about imperative training skills and knowledge they lack or whose deficiency and barriers prevents them from becoming entrepreneurs in the tourism and hospitality industry and to identify any restrictions and/or limitations they face working in these sectors. This questionnaire will be common whereas all partners will participate in its elaboration. Additionally, partners will conduct focus groups to present the project and give opportunity to participants to discuss their experiences. To corroborate the results and conclusions obtained through the discussion, the focus groups will include some of the people who have actively participated in the aforementioned discussions and have shown great interest in the implementation of the training programme. The focus group will be also formed by several intermediate beneficiaries, including members of associations of hoteliers, local workers, current entrepreneurs in tourism industries, policy-makers, local/regional authorities, researchers, or any related organizations representative of the target group. The development of these focus groups will generate additional and more general information about the current situation of the target groups, facilitating the identification of tools and resources for the development and implementation of the training modules and the selection of learning outcomes.

Then the selected partners should develop a national analysis compiling the main conclusions extracted from the contacts established with direct beneficiaries and relevant stakeholders. Finally, a transnational study at European level will be developed to identify current trends, common needs and possible solutions at European level.

In summary, in this first phase of the project, partners will make a profound analysis in order to depict the necessities of the final beneficiaries identified by “themselves”, that will be also discussed and analysed by business representatives formed by different related profiles in the fields of employment in tourism and hospitality sector. This work will permit the identification of real demands from people involved in these two sectors and the development of training to both facilitate and empower business and job creation within this target group.