Tavoite

International tourism has a significant impact on the economies of the European Union and its member states. More than 5 % of the EU’ GDP are generated by the tourism industry, with approximately 9,7 million. Regardless of the global economic crisis, the EU remains the number one tourism destination in the world. An increase in growth of 6 % in international tourist arrivals in Europe was experienced in the years of 2010 and 2011. Forecasts by the UNWTO suggest that the number of international arrivals will have almost doubled in Europe between the years 2000 – 2020. Nevertheless, also other regions outside Europe are competing for the growing trade. In order for Europe to remain in a strong position as top tourism destination it is crucial for it to have well trained and educated tourism workforce. As the tourist experiences a whole range of tourism services, from the receptionist welcoming him to his accommodation to the country’s advertisement created by its tourism developers, the quality of tourism education in all its breadth is crucial. Cooperation among the different levels of tourism education and the industries different sectors, however, is still in its infancy. Hence this project is trying to activate a more dynamic cooperation between different levels of tourism education as well as tourism academia and working life. While cooperation between the different partners of the project had been ongoing for some time and in some scope, the partner consortium has not before been collected into one task force working together at the same time. However, as the different partners’ needs can be fulfilled from within the partner consortium, it is crucial that the consortium has the opportunity for joint cooperation. The project aims at strengthening the partnerships between education and employment by involving actors from the tourism industry in research and teaching activities; improving both teaching staff’s and students’ proficiency in ICT technologies, in turn using these technologies for better and easier cooperation with the employment sector; and the acquisition of practical entrepreneurial experience through internship placements – both of HEI as well as VET students.

Tulokset

The LeTo project has following result areas and corresponding activities (Intellectual outputs, IO’s): IO 1. Project Management and Coordination 1.1. Organizing project transnational meetings 1.2. Daily project management 1.3. Project monitoring (Steering Group) 1.4. Project evaluation (internal and external) 1.5. Financial project management 1.6. Project closing 1.7. Project reporting (incl. audit) IO 2. Instigating a joint student research programme on working life case development to enhance students’ knowledge of international tourism, increase intercultural competence and boost their entrepreneurial viewpoint while at the same time broadening their academic expertise 2.1. Starting joint student research programme on working life case development 2.2. Organizing and holding workshop for students, teachers and working life partners on case Piloting cases in participating HEI’s 2.3. Adjusting cases according to feedback received 2.4. Embedding of working life case into curricula IO 3. Launching interactive, mutually beneficial co-operation among the participating organisations facilitated through mobility initiatives and joint eLearning 3.1. Creating joint internship structures for HEI students 3.1.1. Initiating internship mobility between all participating HEI’s 3.1.2. Setting up internet portal for communication and learning supporting for incoming and outgoing interns – Knowledge Network 3.1.3. Develop a mentoring scheme (face-to-face/Internet) for interns 3.1.4. Develop internship based case study for returning students 3.2. Create internship structures for VET learners between Lapland and the Allgäu (activity still being developed) 3.2.1. Creating benchmarks of international internship structures 3.2.2. Benchmarking partner consortium’s international internship structures 3.2.3. Creating LAMO’s own international internship structures based on best practices and learning experiences from project consortium in cooperation with UAS Lapland, IHK Schwaben and Allgäu GmbH 3.2.4. Piloting internship structure with the Allgäu region 3.2.5. Collecting feedback from outgoing students and companies 3.2.6. Adjusting structure if necessary IO 4. Investigating and benefitting from the participating educational organizations’ and the working life partnership’s structure, stakeholder cooperation practices and the utilisation of their operational model 4.1. Establishing tourism observatory and innovation centre working group 4.2. Developing working methodology and criteria for knowledge network information management 4.3. Formulating plan for transformation of information into innovative products and services 4.4. Formulating plan on improving the content of the curricula regarding international exchange activities and their benefit for the local tourism industry 4.5. Combining findings working group into article collection IO 5. Disseminating project results 5.1. Publishing article collection on project results and best practices 5.2. Establishing and updating project homepage 5.3. Establishing and updating project social media accounts 5.4. Establishing and updating project profile on EU dissemination platform 5.5. Utilizing seminars hosted by the organizations on other topics for project dissemination Organizing and hosting article collection multiplier event

IO.6. From innovative methods to permanent practices – an investigation (Lapland UAS)

tourism working group will review the participating educators and working life partnership structure and the utilizing of operative modeI IO.7. Article collection (University of Lapland) based on experiences and best practices found during the project, both existing and those created during the project, an article collection will be compiled and published