FORESTUR: “Tailored training for professionals in the rural tourist sector” ES/06/B/F/PP PROJECT PRESENTATION Valencia, November 2006

1 Introduction What is FORESTUR? Leonardo da Vinci pilot project LdV objective: “to improve the quality of, and access to continuing vocational training...” Priority in the Call : Developing relevant and innovative e-learning content. Target groups: Professionals (worker and business people) in the tourism sector in rural areas. Duration of the project: 24 months ( )

2 Summary Through this project, tourist professionals operating in rural areas will benefit from high quality continuous training, adapted to their needs and made possible through the use of online resources. This project seeks to increase professionalism of the tourist human capital by means of tailored continuous training adapted to previously identified needs and requirements in the sector, such as: · Quality in the management of tourist companies · Customer−oriented approach · Use of ICT · Language skills (mainly English for Tourism purposes).

3 Summary Tourist professionals in rural areas usually find difficulties to access training, due amongst others, to the following causes: · Distance between urbanised areas and the rural environment where these professionals operate. · The rural tourist sector is mainly composed by "micro−enterprises", often lacking human and financial resources for training. In other cases, they are not aware of their training needs or do not perceive training as a future investment. · Characteristic timetables of the tourist sector, which make it difficult for both employers and employees to benefit from training courses.

4 Aims of the project The specific aims of the project are: − To identify/determine specific training weaknesses among professionals in the different rural areas involved in the project − To design tailor−made training (pedagogical methodology and content) that meets the specific needs of the target groups involved in the project. Whereas the methodology will be the same for every participating country, the content will be different in every country, given that the aim of the project is to adapt training to the existing needs in the countries − To adapt the methodology developed in the project LdV FENICIA, which is suitable for use in the framework of eLearning, based on social interaction and collaborative learning.

5 Aims of the project − To carry out pilot courses of the training approach in each member country. Training that progressively incorporates the use of new technologies (face−to−face, blended, on−line) − To provide tourism professionals with access to specialized training in remote areas − To raise awareness among professionals in rural areas of the potential of training as a tool for business management improvement − To promote the use of new technologies among rural tourism businesses − To raise awareness among professionals in the tourism sector in relation to the importance of offering quality client−oriented services, as an important competitive advantage

6 Aims of the project − To improve the basic language skills of those professionals − To provide local and regional authorities with a training methodology applicable to tourism businesses in their rural areas.

7 Expected results The expected results of the project are: 1. Report on the specific training needs of rural tourism sector in the participating geographical areas, but also comparing results between the partner countries. 2. ICT based training methodology adapted to the tourist sector. Its pedagogical approach is based in the use of asynchronous communication and social integration. 3. Training materials suitable for tourism professionals in remote areas. They will be available in CD format and will also be downloadable from the project website.

8 Expected results 4. Project website containing project description and related documents, access to the training platform through which the training will take place and links to the partners websites as well as other interesting websites, online bulletins, press, etc. 5. Online training platform. Free software will be used for its design, such as "Moodle". 6. Support guidebooks for trainers and trainees.

9 FORESTUR partnership Florida training centre (Spain) – Coordinators Tuejar Town Hall (Spain) Valencian Community Foundation-European R. (Spain) Europrofessional Hungary EC (Hungary) Hungarian federation of village and farm tourism (Hungary) Pixel (Italy) Italian confederation of agriculture of Florence (Italy) CIDAf - Innovation and business development centre (RO) Bucovina tourism association (Romania)

10 FORESTUR partnership ICT EUROPROF. HU PIXEL IT CIDAf RO Tuéjar Town C. Bucovina Asoc. CIA Firenze Hungarian Feder. FCVRE Brussels FLORIDA ES

11 TYPES OF PARTNERS Support partners in each country Dissemination & support partner FCVRE Core partner in each country Spanish core partner coordinator

12 Support partners: Zone coordinator Roles in the Project Core partners: National coordinator Expert Trainers Administrative FCVRE Expert Administrative

13 Spanish work team General Coordinator: Inma Mora Experts & Trainers: Pepe Portilla, Nick Kearney, Salva Gutiérrez, Amparo Valles IT Technician: Tomas Palomares Administrative: Laura Uixera Florida’s team Tuejar’s team Zone coordinators: Beatriz Barrachina Eliseo Martínez

14 WORK PROGRAMME WP 1 - ANALYSIS OF NEEDS - 01/10/ /02/2007 WP 2 - DESIGN OF THE TRAINING CONTENT AND ADAPTATION OF THE FENICIA METHODOLOGY 01/03/07 – 30/09/07 WP 3 - PILOT TEST OF THE METHODOLOGY 01/10/07 – 31/03/08 WP 4 - WRITING & EDITION OF THE SUPPORT GUIDEBOOKS 01/04/08 – 30/09/08 WP 5 - DESIGN & IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROJECT VALORISATION/SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGY 01/10/06 – 30/09/08 WP 6 - DESIGN & IMPLEMENTATION OF THE QUALITY MANAGEMENT PLAN - 01/10/06 – 30/09/08 ** See a Gannt chart in your project folder.

15 WP 1 – ANALYSYS OF NEEDS Duration: Activities: 1)Planning of the joint report. Selection of criteria and instruments. 2)Data collection in each country 3)Initial design of the website 4)Analysis of the data and results obtained 5)Carrying out of the report in each country (in English) 6)Compilation of reports and writing the final report 7)Organisation of a regional/national focus group in each country Additional tasks Logo & leaflet design ¿¿?? Planning of activities for next stages

16 WP 1 – ANALYSYS OF NEEDS Objective of the report: Identify and concrete the real training needs of the professionals from the different rural areas involved in the project. How to work on this report? 1) Data collection: existing studies, strategic plans, etc. 2) Interviews/group dynamics with the final users. 3) Analysis of data 4) Writing the report 5) Focus group with representatives of the local/regional or national governments, experts in the subject or leaders in the areas.

17 WP 1 – ANALYSYS OF NEEDS Discussion: 1) Length of the report: Proposal: pages (font size 12´) 2) How to work on this report in each country: Core partner + support partner will work in cooperation for all the activities: data collection, interviews or group dynamics, etc., but the core partner will be in charge of the analysis of data, writing the report and send it to the coordinators on time. 3) Deadline to send this report: ¿? *The deadline could not be after due to the final and joint report must be finished on

18 Report on the specific training needs Report about the state of the art Introduction Introduction of each rural area (brief presentation) State of the art in each area Data collected, description and figures (number of professionals involved in each area by sub-sectors: hotels, restaurants, tourist services....) Existing strategies, policies and initiatives in rural tourism in each country/region/area Specific training needs detected in each country Conclusions Hungary report Italy report Romania report Spain report

19 Comparative report of the state of the art Comparative & Joint report of the state of the art in every partner country Introduction State of the art in all the countries involved Existing strategies, policies and initiatives in rural tourism in each Specific training needs detected in each country Conclusions by countries Final conclusions Hungary report Italy report Romania report Spain report

20 Interviews or group dynamics Objective: each country will organize some interviews or group dynamics with the final users in the area in order to collect information about their real needs as well as link them to the project. Participants: experts, workers & owners in the tourist sector, representatives form associations,federations related and “leaders” from the area involved in the project. Dates: November – December 06

21 Focus Groups Objective: Present the project and the local and final report to the participants. Valorisation of the project (promotion+ dissemination+ mainstreaming). To count on public authorities involved in the project from the starting of the project to guarantee the suitability of its results. Participants: representatives from national/ regional/local governments, experts in the subject, representatives from associations or federations related outside of the scope of the partnership, “leaders” from the areas. Dates: February - March 07

22 WP 2 – DESIGN TRAINING CONTENT Objective of this WP: Design of the training methodology and design of the ICT tools (website & on-line platform) Questions to be agreed: 1. Dates for the second transnational meeting in Budapest (HU) May - June Training modules**: How many training modules we are able to design and teach? Number of hours? Distribution of hours (Blended training: face−to−face, blended, on−line). 3. Common modules through the platform. 4. Coordination with the support partners for the general dissemination of the project and the recruitment of participants for the pilot test - next stage WP3

23 WP 2 – TRAINING MODULES ** In the proposal we spoke about training modules, such as: Quality in the management of tourist companies Customer−oriented approach Use of ICT Language skills (mainly English for Tourism purposes). Florida’s proposal: 4 modules (40-60 hours)