Abstract:

SMART PLUS is an Erasmus+ funded project aiming to identify discrepancies between those skills and competences required by employers in the field of tourism and the training provided by educational institutions across the board.

With the goal of improving on existing curricular design and enhancing the skillset needed for the 21st century Labour Market, SMART PLUS has identified the following areas to further improve hiring options: intercultural skills, entrepreneurship, information and communication technologies (ICT), soft skills and languages. In order to bridge the gap between education output and employment needs, three measures have been put in place: an analysis tool of said mismatch for educational institutions, a self-assessment of the skills of each participant and an online platform that offers personalized training for the users in the identified key competences. This entails three target groups and beneficiaries of the project’s output: educational institutions, their students, and the companies where they will be employed.

The desired outcomes of the implementation of this project, which may subsequently be extrapolated to other fields, include an increased employability of the participating students, who would enjoy a raised self-awareness of their own abilities; access to open sources for the identification of skill mismatches; a boost of key transversal competences to add on and complete the curricular body of educational institutions; a connection between these institutions and the companies which will receive their graduates; a better service provided in the field of Tourism by new employees with higher skills; and the adaptation of the SMART PLUS training system to the European credit system for Vocational Education and Training level (ECVET).

Therefore, the SMART PLUS training will allow educational institutions to strengthen key competences addressed by their curricula, at the same time promoting the improvement of transversal competences of students thus helping their employability and easing up their transition into the labour market.

Keywords:

Tourism, Vocational Studies, Entrepreneurship, ICT, Soft Skills, Interculturality, Foreign languages, Competence, online platform.