New Tourism Sector Skills Toolkit set to help develop digital, social and green skills

Covid-19 has had a profound impact on the tourism sector globally. The past year will – long be remembered for the far-reaching consequences of the pandemic and the detrimental affect it has had on individuals, health, lifestyles, organizations and economies to name but a few.

As businesses start to build back from the disruption caused by Covid-19, they will need to ensure their people have the skills needed to support safe reopening and to emerge stronger from the crisis.

Over the past 18 months, we’ve been working with eight European partners as part of the Next Tourism Generation Alliance project to identify the critical skills required for digital, social and green skills in tourism and to develop a suite of resources – to help- organizations across the industry to upskill people in these core and emerging skill areas.

The Tourism Sector Skills Toolkit, due to launch in the coming months, consists of a set of resources for educational establishments, training providers, employers, government departments and individuals to enable them to review the green, social and digital requirements within the hospitality and tourism sector and to use the toolkit to support them in developing and/or updating their learning resources.

The guidance toolkit have comprehensive examples of:

• Lesson plans, presentations and training resources
• Assessments
• Blended learning approaches
• Skills checkers
• Occupational profiles
• Mapping documents
• Case studies
• Examples of best practice

Each guidance toolkit shows the skills, knowledge and attributes needed within green, digital and social areas and these are broken down into basic (operational), higher (supervisory and management) and executive levels across five tourism sub-sectors:

• Accommodation
• Food & beverage
• Travel agencies and tour operators
• Destination management
• Visitor attractions

The guidance toolkits can be used to:

• Map against existing training and qualifications, job profiles, training needs – analyses, job descriptions, responsibilities, tasks etc. for the stakeholder to identify skills, knowledge and behaviors already present and identify gaps.
• Inform and support the development of curriculum and training programs within educational establishments, training – companies, employers’ training and HR departments.
• Inform and support – the development of job profiles, recruitment campaigns, development and training plans.
• Show the skill and knowledge requirements that may be required in order to progress within or move between sectors/roles.
• Access useful examples to contextualize the data and – provide insight as to how the skills and knowledge can be used by training providers, employers and individuals.
• Provide training providers and employers with examples of good practice and resource.

Digital, green and social skills will continue to rise in importance for the tourism sector, particularly with the – growing need for staff to be able to operate within a digital environment and the increased focus on sustainability and the environment as the slow process of getting back to ‘normal’ starts. We envisage this toolkit will provide significant support for the sector in the acquisition of new skills but also for life-long education and continuous reskilling and upskilling.