BEST Institute for vocational training and personal training GmbH

INTERPRETING OUR EUROPEAN HERITAGE

ECVET for transparency and recognition of learning outcomes and qualification in the European Tourism Sector

Background

Tourism is one of the most important economic sectors in Europe, with a significant occupational relevance. Within the tourism sector, there is growing importance of “heritage interpretation”, which is a key tool to develop qualified tourism projects involving EU cultural and natural heritage.

Qualification and learning outcomes characterising this “heritage interpretation” are not yet defined in the EU countries, and Vocational Education and Training (VET) systems for tourism professions still show a wide range of sectoral profiles and figures, which are frequently regulated in terms of access to training and qualification opportunities.

An intervention to put relevant issues in transparency and respectively recognise learning outcomes related to cultural and natural heritage interpretation activities, thus applying and implementing the European tools and frameworks EQF, ECVET, and Europass, could therefore have a significant impact.

Objectives and Target Groups

Since the qualification and learning outcomes characterising the “heritage interpretation” activities are not clearly identified across European VET systems of tourism sector, the project intends to apply EQF and ECVET to these professional field and learning outcomes, mapping it onto EQF via national qualifications frameworks and systems, designing the qualification in learning outcomes transferable units with credit points allocation, designing and delivering related VET programmes with flexible devices to validate, transfer and recognise learning outcomes achieved in formal, informal and non-formal contexts.

Target group: tourism guides, incoming tour operators, site managers, museum managers, visitor managers and many other professionals.

The main indicator is constituted by the number of tourism professionals with certified knowledge, skills and competences about “heritage interpretation” recognised across the European VET systems.

Results

Results of the “Highlight the Competences” project- which for the first time implemented the ECVET process in all its’ dimensions and steps –will be adopted in the framework of INTERPRETING OUR EUROPEAN HERITAGE. From there approaches and directly usable tools will be adopted, in particular an ECVET Memorandum of Understanding – MoU, a ECVET Learning Agreement and the ECVET Credit Awarding Model with Europass Certificate Supplement, the DEPD approach for the description of qualifications in units of learning outcomes.

EU-Program: Leonardo da Vinci – Transfer of Innovation
Coordination: KOAN Consulting SL (Spain)
Contact: Karin Kronika
Duration: October 2013 - September 2015
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.