Best practice on skills development from Greece: The Institute of Greek Tourism Confederation

The Institute of a Greek Tourism Confederation was selected and presented as a best practice because it’s a particularly important initiative towards on the one hand identifying current and future skills needs and on the other hand developing broader reskilling and upskilling actions. The Confederation is a non-profit organisation that has been established as an important social partner, representing the Greek tourism industry both nationally and internationally. The Confederation’s Institute (best practice) has four major partner organisations: Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE), The Hellenic Hoteliers Federation (HHF), The Hellenic Association of Travel & Tourist Agencies (HATTA) and The Confederation of Entrepreneurs of Rented Rooms and Apartments (SETKE). The best practice presents a successful example, on how sectoral partners can develop a large-scale initiative to support lifelong learning through reskilling and upskilling actions. The Institute’s constant focus on skills development defines part of the educational culture of the Greek tourism sector.

Background information

The Institute is considered the most important – unconventional – provider of targeted tourism training in the country. It is the result of an initiative of the main sectoral bodies of Greek tourism. The Institute’s initiatives and actions have been imitated in recent years. Its training activities are part of a wider context of discussion regarding the role of social partners in tourism and their contribution to the development of new skills. It monitors, on an annual basis, its performance and the achievement of its objectives through the evaluation of the education and training activities but also of the stakeholders themselves (e.g., trainers). At the same time, through this process, suggestions for improvements are collected and future training needs are identified. It seeks to enhance diversity and equality but its role is limited due to the need for broader collaborations at both national and sectoral level.

Key principles

The Institute recognizes the contradiction between the significant importance of tourism for the Greek economy and society and the lack of know-how and skills that will support the industry and the tourism experience offered. It has clear goals and values which to a great extent are associated with bridging the existing skills gap and to a lesser extent the future ones. It has a strong dedication towards skills development in the Greek tourism sector (with emphasis on tourism enterprises), which is his main priority. In this context, the range of its training activities, their geographical dispersion and their focus on tourism provide useful information on the new skills needed in the Greek tourism sector and the necessary actions on skills development, which is a central activity of the Institute.

The learning and development principles of the Institute recognize the primary importance of human capital in tourism. The Institute focuses on their training and through training on their development and motivation. Its constant focus on skills development not only benefits the Institute itself but also defines part of the educational culture of the Greek tourism sector. It also benefits employees through the recognition of the new skills and abilities and the development of “horizontal” training and empowerment actions.

The Institute emphasizes on the prediction, and recognition of skills gaps, a particularly difficult and demanding process that, at national and at the same time sectoral level, requires the participation of many partners – stakeholders. The reskilling and upskilling actions developed by the Institute address to executives and employees as well as unemployed or those who want to work in the tourism industry in the future. The training it offers has an informal form of certification; due to the recognition it has from the wider tourism sector. From this best practice, the need for basic skills (courtesy, communication skills, etc.) of tourism employees was understood, often these skills overshadow the need for more important – complex skills. An important digital skill for the industry is the knowledge of specialized programs (software) related to the daily operation of a tourism enterprise. Skills related to big data analysis and data mining are also considered necessary. On a sectoral level, green skills related to energy management systems and “green” certifications are necessary. In terms of social skills, the Institute underlines the importance of the “classic” tourism-related skills such as empathy and human approach (towards both colleagues and guests). The ability to work in teams and collaborate with others as well as taking the initiative to solve everyday problems are considered important for the industry. The Institute, due to its aim and activities, has increased needs in specialized skills related to technological tools used in distance learning. While its needs for green skills are limited as they are only partially related to energy saving.

Examples and case studies

The training activities of the Institute, since 2015, have made it an industry leader as they have led to the knowledge – skills enhancement (reskilling and upskilling) of about 42,000 individuals in over 20 regions of the country in 220 training topics. It is characterized by strong dedication in lifelong learning. The visitation of the Institute’s YouTube channel is also important. There isn’t fully organized and conscious focus on sustainable employability, but the Institute gradually enhances practices that increase retention rate, flexible forms of employment (e.g. teleworking), while offering internal training of its human resources, with the resources that it uses to offer reskilling and upskilling to the trainees.

Potential pitfalls and challenges

The Institute recognizes the inherent limitation of any individual effort to adequately provide the necessary new skills. This is because each initiative must be embedded in a broader, long-term strategy shaped by major tourism stakeholders. This creates another challenge: ensuring that the overall strategy does not limit the possibilities of individual partners to develop effective reskilling and upskilling actions.

Benefits and outcomes

An interesting benefit from the best practice, which may be a possible solution for other organisations, is the Institute’s initiative to utilize the knowledge of trainers from other economic sectors. Because these trainers needed to familiarize themselves with the characteristics of the tourism industry, the Institute undertook “train the trainers” initiatives. The best practice also recorded the tendency of large tourism enterprises to offer in-house to their human resources the knowledge and skills they need for their operation.

Measuring success

Given the nature of the Institute’s activities, the measurement of its success is fully associated with the number of the training initiatives and the number of trainees as well. More essential, however, is the recognition and adoption of its initiatives by institutions and tourism enterprises and the degree of the trainees’ recruitment by the enterprises.

Responsibility and accountability

All initiatives of the Institute are developed under the agreement and cooperation of partner organisations (these were presented earlier). At the same time, it develops collaborations with universities and individual experts who train both trainees and members of the organisation. The responsibility for the success of the Institute concerns the Board of the Institute and those responsible for planning and implementing the training activities.

References and external resources

Institute of Greek Tourism Confederation (INSETE): click here