NTG Webinar Insights – Tourism & Education

In 2019, ATLAS organised 2 webinars commissioned by the NTG and the INCOME Tourism projects:

 

Tourism education, employability and industry – university interaction

20 September, 2019

&

Best practices in cooperation between tourism industries and education

14 November, 2019

 

 

Friday, 20 September 2019

 

During the ATLAS Annual Conference, NTG and the INCOME Tourism project co-organised a special track on tourism education. The special track event, taking place in Girona, Spain, was also available online. In total 15 people, from 6 nationalities, attended the webinar. In the workshop room about the same number of people were attending the meeting.

 

The theme of the webinar was Tourism Education, Employability and Industry – University Interaction.

 

In the next decade, students will be applying for jobs that are likely to not exist today, and much of what we teach our students is likely to be obsolete (Students entering the uncertain world of the future and, in particular, the vulnerable tourism sector needs different skills, aptitudes and knowledge to succeed.)

 

From an industry perspective, tourism employment in the coming decades must have a very different profile than it does today. Educational organisations such as schools and higher education institutions have to evolve and adapt in order to achieve their core mission: to educate students to be successful in a complex and interconnected world that faces rapid technological, cultural, economic and demographic changes (European Commission, 2019).

 

To meet the challenges of the next few decades, tourism educational systems, however, are in need of radical change. Indeed, Wallis and Steptoe (2006) and many others argue that a fundamental re-tool and re-design is necessary.  The challenges facing the tourism industry and tourism educators call out for a new paradigm of tourism education. Active involvement of a range of stakeholders has been shown to be a contributing factor in successful HEIs. Building and sustaining collaborative relationships with key partners and the external environment is essential in achieving the full potential of an HEI, namely in providing the right conditions to create value for HEI and society. Businesses and universities cooperate and share benefits in education, research and knowledge transfer. While cooperating with businesses, universities increase the amount and quality of publications produced, improve their teaching content and methods according to the market’s needs and requirements. In addition, UBC offers funding opportunities for university-based research projects.

 

The moderators of the special track/webinar were Sheena Carlisle and Goretti Silva.

 

The webinar included the following presentations:

 

Amber Herrewijn and Marjorein van Houten: NHL Stenden University of applied science, The Netherlands. They spoke about Co-creating educational programs in Leisure & Events Management.

 

Liběna Jarolímková: From the University of Economics Prague, Czech Republic. She presented insights on the Labor Market Reflection in HEI for Tourism Professionals in the Czech Republic.

 

Angela Wright: Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland. She spoke about specific needs in the tourism industry in her presentation A City Service Charter: Setting A High Standard for Tourism.

 

Karen Harris: University of Pretoria, South Africa. Karen could explain a little bit more on the educational situation from South Africa in her presentation Stimulating Simulation: Teaching and Training Tourism Graduates.

 

Alžbeta Kiráľová: The College of Regional Development and Banking Inst. – AMBIS, Czech Republic. She spoke about developments in tourism education in the Czech Republic in her presentation Challenges for Modernization of Tourism Education in the Czech Republic.

 

Goretti Silva and Sheena Carlisle: Updated the participants on the INCOME Tourism and the NTG projects.

 

 

Thursday, 14 November 2019

 

The webinar in November was also arranged from the University of Girona. It was a mixture of presentations in Sala de Graus, which is a beautiful chapel at the university premises, and online presentations. A mixture of participants were present in the chapel and online participants attended the webinar.

The theme of the webinar was Best practices in cooperation between tourism industries and education.

 

The purpose of this webinar was to bring together professionals from both the tourism industry, tourism education, and governments to talk about the needs in tourism education. The day included best practice presentations of some of the NTG and INCOME project partners regarding university-companies cooperation and/or soft skills training.

 

The moderator was Konstantina Zerva, from the University of Girona

 

The webinar included the following presentations:

 

Goretti Silva: IPVC Portugal. Presentation of the INCOME Tourism project.

 

Sheena Carlisle: Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK. Presentation of the NTG projects (ONLINE).

Jordi Mias: Representative from the Girona Costa Brava Centre Hotel (Tourism Association) talking about best practices.

 

Marie-Christin Gerken: Alumni student of DHBW Ravensburg talking about experiences of participating in the cooperative learning program (ONLINE).

 

Carla Doria: Alumni student of University of Girona talking about experiences of participating in the cooperative learning program.

 

Jo Sanmartí: Student University of Girona, selected for the Pilot cooperative learning program.

 

Igor Leben: Head of HR at Hotel Le Meridien Lav, Croatia talking about best practices (ONLINE).

 

Ana Maria Camp: CEHAT, Madrid, presenting the NTG online matrix. This tool will provide an answer to the question of which skills will be required in the tourism industry (ONLINE).

 

 

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