Abstract:

CHERISH is a currently ongoing, two-years lasting project funded by Erasums+, the European programme aimed at promoting the development of innovative tools, products, services and policies in the field of education, training and lifelong learning. The project operates in the field of transnational cooperation for innovation, exchange of good practices and strategic partnerships dedicated to Vocational Education and Training (VET). In particular, CHERISH is dedicated to the sustainable valorization of Cultural and Natural Heritage that can be considered, as a whole, as Non-Reproducible Goods (NRGs). NRGs represent, indeed, one of the most promising assets for economic growth and employment according to the Europe 2020 Strategy as well as to the UN Agenda 2030 for the sustainable development. The activities associated with the NRGs can lead to triple the GDP of national cultural tourism. Economic growth, job creation (including new professional figures, such as those called ‘green jobs’), environmental and social sustainability improvements are foreseen. For this reason, CHERISH intends to link together and further extend the main principles of the International Year of Sustainable Tourism 2017 and the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018, doing this by means of an original integrated, interactive and multidisciplinary educational path, based on the state of the art of technical-scientific knowledge, best practices and policies, gained by several actors of the European scene related to the NRGs. The project activities are performed, indeed, by a partnership of six institutions, including research bodies, universities, NGOs and PMIs, coming from the four European Members States hosting the largest number of UNESCO Cultural and Natural Heritage Sites (Italy, France, Spain and Greece) and from one EU Country that is currently very proactive in the field of sustainable tourism (Bulgaria).

The project focus consists of teaching modules characterized by a strong international approach. It will be well focused on transnational implementation tools (e.g. ETIS indicators for tourist destinations) and cross-sectoral approaches that take in account all the three dimensions of sustainable development (environmental, social and economic), aiming at offering an holistic view of the different actions that contribute to the protection of the NRGs and to the promotion of sustainable tourism.

The methodology developed for the project will be discussed in the presentation, by giving detailed information on the five intellectual outputs (IO) that leads to the production of the didactic program and that are briefly described as it follows:
IO1: Comparative Report on critical issues, excellence examples, good practices, technologies and policies detected at transnational level in the field of the sustainable valorization of NRGs;
IO2: Introductory OER program which includes 3 teaching modules on the basic principles of sustainable valorization of NRGs;
IO3: Advanced OER program that includes 3 teaching modules on the state of the art technologies, tools and policies aimed at preserve NRGs;
IO4: Additional professional module dedicated to the use of Geographic Information Systems for the integrated territorial management of NRGs;
IO5: The e-book containing the guidelines for the educational use of the products, the social and economic NRG valorisation with useful indications for a job guidance self-assessment.

Keywords:

Sustainable Development, Cultural and Natural Heritage preservation, Sustainable Tourism, Vocational Training, Erasmus+ education project.