NEXT TOURISM GENERATION continued in the new PANTOUR project

In June 2022, the Tourism Blueprint Strategy was delivered to the European Commission by the Next Tourism Generation Alliance (NTG). It was the result of more than four years of work and research about skills and training in the tourism sector in Europe. This strategy stated how to promote skills development in order to achieve better tasks development in any job position. As it was discovered, the same skills are used for different tasks and allow professionals to develop different job positions. This way, professionals must be trained on skills while they will be taught in operational tasks in their positions. From this point, a new project was submitted to an ERASMUS+ call, “Pact for Next Tourism Generation Skills – PANTOUR.

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NTG Blueprint Strategy and Action Plan for addressing digital, social and green skills needs in the European tourism

Building on previous work by the European Commission and sectoral partners to address skills gaps in tourism, the NTG Alliance is one of the Sector Skills Alliances set up as part of the Blueprint for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills. Each Sector Skills Alliance is funded by the European Commission Erasmus + KA2 programme and was tasked with setting up a Blueprint to help direct the way forward for skills development across a wide range of stakeholders. Thus, the NTG Alliance has developed the first Pan-European Skills Blueprint for the Tourism Industry, presented in this document. The Blueprint provides a roadmap for addressing digital, social and green skill needs in the tourism sector in Europe through transformational collaboration between industry, education, social partners and government.

This Blueprint sets out a comprehensive methodology to respond to the need for a sectoral skills strategy that is innovative, relevant, and responsive to the current and future skills scenario for the tourism sector. Importantly, it also builds on previous research such as the European Commission’s Tourism Skills Mapping exercises and Panorama Skills in Tourism and work by the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training.

Download the full press release here: NTG Press Release Blueprint Strategy Skills Development in Tourism

Download the blueprint here: Final Next Tourism Generation Blueprint Report

Final NTG Blueprint Document

The Blueprint document is an output of the Next Tourism Generation (NTG) Alliance, a strategic and multi-layered collaborative partnership formed in 2018. Building on previous work by the European Commission and sectoral partners to address skills gaps in tourism, the NTG Alliance is one of the Sector Skills Alliances set up as part of the Blueprint for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills. Each Sector Skills Alliance is funded by the Commission and was tasked with setting up a Blueprint.

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Presentations and video’s of the NTG Final Conference

In view of the project’s closure at the end of June, a Final online Conference was organised and held on June 9th, attended by approximately more than 150 participants from the tourism sector across Europe.

Among the invited experts were Dr. Dan Tromans – Qualification Wales, Georges el Hajal – NHL Stenden,  Marie-Hélène Pradines – European Commission, Martha Machado – HOTREC, Stefan van Tulder – Talent Data Labs and Josie and Theodor Grassos – EVBB to talk about the need for skills development in tourism. They shared best practices and their perspective on the future of tourism when it comes to skills.

Divided into four modules, the online conference brought together tourism stakeholders from government and policymakers, to industry and education and training institutions on European, national, and local/regional levels. The program was filled around four major topics, discussing current and future needs and the transition of green, digital and social skills development in tourism. Every module focuses on topics such as ‘Collaborative framework on skills development and the NTG Blueprint’, ‘Innovation in Education, Skills Training, and curriculum development’, ‘Assessing skills gaps and future skills needs in tourism’, ‘The road ahead on skills in tourism – Pact for Skills and PANTOUR’. 

The conference also showcases the work done under the Next Tourism Generation project and highlights how the Blueprint project will stimulate the Transition Pathway regarding skills and how the project feeds into the Pact for Skills in Tourism.

Watch it now:  NTG Final Conference 9 June 2022 – YouTube 

Finally, after the conference, the final NTG Consortium meeting took place in Madrid, and the efforts of NTG will be continued in a new project: PANTOUR. The project’s legacy will be the reference for bridging skills gaps and future skills needs in tourism, promoting the Next Tourism Generation Blueprint and the Skills Lab Platform, among other relevant skills resources and tools the project delivered.

NTGs second ascientific paper: Environmental Skills Gaps in Tourism and Hospitality Organisations – Evidence from Europe

The research outcomes of NTG have been published in Tourism: An International Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol. 70 No. 3, 2022.

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