Overview of the toolkit

The Tourism Sector Skills Toolkit consists of a set of resources within a guidance toolkit to be used by 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 resources including:

The guidance toolkits have been designed in conjunction with the online skills and competency matrix and is incorporated into the database to allow all users to access the guidance toolkits as they see fit. The guidance toolkits have been developed around the three core skills areas: green, digital and social skills. The guidance toolkits have comprehensive examples of:

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

Uses for the toolkit

In the video below, we explain how to use the toolkit:

Each guidance toolkit shows the skills, knowledge and attributes needed within each of the three core skill areas:

• Green
• Digital
• Social skills

These are broken down into basic (operational), higher (supervisory and management) and executive levels across the tourism five sub-sectors:

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

The five sub-sectors are further broken down into functional areas: e.g. front office, housekeeping, maintenance etc.

The guidance toolkits can be used to:

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

• Occupational profiles
• Mapping documents
• Case studies
• Examples of best practice

Overview of the online skills and competency matrix

The NTG online skills and competency matrix identifies the knowledge, skills and behaviours required in three distinct areas; green, digital and social.  In reality, standards, job descriptions, occupational profiles, qualifications, training etc. will encompass many more areas other than just green, social and digital.  The purpose of the online skills and competency matrix is to provide a checklist that stakeholders can use to identify skills and knowledge required in these three prime areas in order to check that content within their documentation / resources is not only fit for purpose to meet present green, digital and social needs, but can also provide the tools to future proof documentation / resources in these essential areas.

The impact of Covid-19 Pandemic

During the development of the toolkit, the global pandemic, Covid-19 has affected countries world-wide.  2020 / 2021 will not be forgotten for many years for the far-reaching consequences of the pandemic and the detrimental affect it has had on individuals, health, life styles, organisations and economies to name but a few.

From the NTG project point of view, Covid-19 impacted the partners that were involved in the project as each organisation struggled to adapt to a fast-paced changing world.  The matrix itself was developed prior to the pandemic and so the competencies within the matrix will not necessarily fully reflect the changed world that we are operating in now.  However, the sample lesson plans and learning resources were developed within the backdrop of the pandemic.  Although sample session plans are not specifically created for virtual delivery, most are suited to be easily adapted to be delivered via an online platform.  To help stakeholders with this process, brief guidance notes have been included in the toolkit:

• Adapting classroom delivery to virtual delivery
• Introduction to delivering virtual sessions

One of the impacts of the pandemic is the need for us all to become much more skilled and comfortable within a digital environment.  It has also shifted the focus of requirements within many roles, across all levels, for staff to be able to operate within a digital environment and to be digital savvy. The digital section of the matrix and toolkit documents will help stakeholders hone in on the digital competencies required with in the tourism sector and will be a good base to use to further develop occupational standards, job descriptions and profiles, training plans, courses, learning programmes, career pathways and progression routes, appraisal documents, CVs (Curriculum vitaes) and many other learning, HR and individual documents.

Another unexpected outcome of the pandemic is the increased focus on sustainability and the environment as the slow process of getting back to normal starts.  With lockdowns and travel restrictions have come reduced carbon emissions and a cleaner environment. Many are now seeing this as an opportunity to build upon the work already done to create a greener world as we move out of the pandemic. Stakeholders may find that the green section of the matrix is a useful tool to help support the increasing demand for a greener and more sustainable environment post-pandemic.

Read the next session ‘Mapping’ to learn more.