Tourism is very important for the European economy. It has one of the highest labour mobility rates, permitting discussion of the emergence of a truly European economic sector and a labour market with a truly European dimension. Nevertheless, skills shortage in tourism jobs is putting at real risk the employment in the sector. Thus, the identification of skill needs for the sector in Europe has a particular significance. The partners of CULTOUR project have identified that one main area of skills gap in tourism sector is related with the growing requirement of intercultural competencies necessary to deal with customers, co-workers and employees. This skills gap is transversal to the tourism sector and affects a wide range of professional roles, including employees, instructors and employers.A key factor to be taken also into account is that formal qualifications are not always required in tourism and there is a widely available opportunity to obtain qualifications by an alternative to formal education. Taking into account the very high proportion of personnel without formal qualifications, validation of informal and non-formal learning is crucial. The EQF is meant to address this problem and the ECVET tools and methodology should greatly assist with workers mobility. CULTOUR project aimed to overcome the skills gap and foster mobility in Tourism sector trough the recognition, validation and up-skilling of intercultural competences for tourism jobs. CULTOUR has integrated the intercultural competencies dimension in new VET training products, specifically addressed for tourism sector jobs and used innovative tools for the recognition and validation of these competencies. Six partner organizations (VET providers, companies and social partners) from six countries (France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Turkey and Bulgaria) defined innovative common strategies and products to reduce the skills gap of intercultural competencies in tourism sector trough VET.During the last two years, CULTOUR partners worked in tight collaboration to:- identify the specific intercultural knowledge, skills and competences required for tourism sector jobs (IO1 State of the art report); - increase transparency and mobility of tourism professional by means of recognition and validation of intercultural competencies for tourism sector jobs, based on the previous successful curriculum CULTOOL (IO2 ECVET Curriculum);- design new pedagogies and innovative methodologies to train intercultural competencies in tourism jobs (IO3 CULTOUR Handbook)- Upskill teachers and instructors of the tourism sector, both working on VET centers and/or in the industry, on new pedagogies and innovative methodologies to train intercultural competencies in tourism jobs. (IO4 CULTOUR Toolbox)-Empower tourism workers in their capacity to understand and cope with cultural differences (IO4 CULTOUR Toolbox)- Increase labour market relevance of learning provision and qualifications in the tourism sector, reinforcing links between VET and the world of work (IO5 CULTOUR Open Online Center)The main target users of the CULTOUR project products and outputs are teachers, trainers and instructors of the tourism sector, both working on VET centers and/or in the industry. Also VET providers, companies and public and private entities active in the field of Tourism. Final beneficiaries are employees, apprentices, VET teachers and instructors, employers, students and other professionals working, or with previous experience, on the tourism sector.

It is increasingly difficult for young people with low or no formal qualifications to find a job. However, even without formal training or labor market experience, young persons gather social and personal competencies. These “soft” competencies are essential for doing a good job. For some jobs, they may even be the most important elements of qualification. However, employers and those working with young people find it difficult to recognize and assess these informal competencies. Globalization, demographic changes, technological advances, and the financial crisis have created major challenges for today’s societies. Individuals have to confront rapidly changing data and learn how to keep up with them. In order to function well in this “new” diverse world, the need for adaptability is no longer a choice. It is vitally necessary that individuals develop competencies in a wide range of fields, which will allow them to adapt to the changing environment. To conclude, solely mastering certain skills is not enough anymore. As a matter of fact the so called hard skills, mainly proven by academic certificates, are rated as being of less direct relevance to companies. Instead of paying attention to narrowly defined skills and qualifications companies are now placing more importance on the candidates’ personal qualities and attitudes which cannot be recognized through conventional diplomas and certificates (Grootings 1994). The workforce is expected to show flexibility, entrepreneurship qualities, personal responsibility, adaptability, innovation, creativity and in general a self-directed and a self-motivated attitude.While some European countries have developed widely accepted systems of competence assessment, others need to raise awareness on their significance and potential impact and to define the methods and procedures for competence assessment. The proposed project thus aims at a transfer of best practices of competence assessment for young persons. The 6 Participating organisations in the project were the Cyprus Productivity Centre (Project Leader), the Institute of Entrepreneurship Development (Greece), Folkuniversitetet (Sweden), K.o.s Gmbh (Germany), Business Foundation for Education (Bulgaria) and Fundatia Professional (Romania).The project concerns the systematization of existing competence assessment methodologies in Germany and Sweden and their transfer and application to the other participating project countries. These methodologies and tools relate to the process of evaluating soft skills of young people, which were non-formally and informally acquired.The main activities and outputs of the project, targeted towards VET trainers and staff and unemployed youth were the following:- Needs analysis report: Need analysis report in each country to determine the existing situation with regards to vocational education and training and the evaluation of soft skills and to identify the soft skills that are considered to be necessary for unemployed youth to enter the labor market. The needs analysis is expected to reveal the need for well-targeted training areas and the development of tailored curriculum for the development of soft skills- CURRICULUM for unemployed youth to identify, develop and enhance their soft skills which will enable and promote the identification, development and enhancement of soft skills of youth. The curriculum outline the skills, performances, attitudes and values that youth are expected to learn, while it will include the syllabus, methods to be implemented and other such aspects. - E learning platform was developed for the needs of the project, where the target groups are able to attend on-line courses and receive training from a distance so as to enable the active participation of individuals from different regions who are not always able to be physically present to workshops/seminars/events. The e-learning platform provide with the open on-line courses, include an area of Community of Practice for open discussions and exchange and also include an e-library with important and relevant resources. A number of online open courses/webinars were materialized for VET trainers and educators in the participating countries (10 hours of distance learning) in English, Greek, German, Swedish, Romanian and in Bulgarian languages.- Toolkit (and user-guide of the toolkit) on soft skills for unemployed youth entering the labor market. The toolkit was designed using a number of different tools and methods for the development of soft skills, which can be taught to unemployed youth, complementary to the curriculum. The toolkit includes tailored tools specifically designed for the needs of the development of soft skills among young unemployed individuals. In addition, a pilot of the toolbox was implemented on the target groups in the participant countries and ensure that is the most effective way to achieve the set of goals and objectives.

"The rationale for the project was derived from the combined experience of health psychology researchers and practitioners who work for organisations providing vocational training and/or guidance counselling at national and European levels. The youth unemployment in Europe had reached a staggering 23.5% in the EU27. In this unemployed youth group, there is also a subgroup named NEETs – Young people not in employment, education or training, the figure for this group have varied in Europe from below 7% to over 17% in countries like Bulgaria and Spain for example. NEETs are a highly heterogeneous population. The largest subgroup tends to be those who are conventionally unemployed. Some young people are at greater risk than others.Those with low levels of education are three times more likely to be NEET compared to those with tertiary education, while young people with an immigrant background are 70% more likely to become NEET than nationals. Young people suffering from some kind of disability or health issues are 40% more likely to be NEET than those in good health. Being a NEET has severeadverse consequences for the individual, society and the economy.The objective of the project have been to develop a new innovative method of training courses to empower young unemployed individuals and/or NEETs.The partners involved in the project were from Austria, Bulgaria, Greece, Spain and Sweden, all highly experienced organisations that work directly with the target groups as well as representing countries that has high youth unemployment. The partner from the United Kingdom was engaged as the expert in positive psychology and psychosocial interventions.The specific aim was achieved by using an approach based upon previous work on stress, coping and resilience in health and occupational psychology. In the project, we prepared participants to not only adapt to potentially stressful events and successfully assimilate these, but also to use these potential stressors as opportunities for positive growth based on identification and utilisation of key Positive Psychology constructs and processes. Furthermore, we focused on the potential stressors likely to be encountered by unemployed younger adults seeking employment or entrepreneurial opportunity. It wasseen as necessary to empower young people by creating favourable conditions for them to develop their skills and to work and participate actively in society. This was concidered essential for sound and sustainable economic and social development.This was accomplished by developing a training curriculum ""Be Positive"" in modular form. It was implemented on 100 – 150young unemployed and/or NEETs in the partner countries (AT, BG, ES, GR, SE) and ensured the effectiveness and culturaladaptation. The result was evaluated and modified where required. The final product is available for free via the project website.The impact was the following:- Increased the staffs' awareness of their capacity in the partners’ organisation to act as role models and curators of learningReport Formenvironments which value diversity in appearance and promote social inclusion.- Increased the staffs' awareness of cultural appearance and beauty norms and they way in which different cultural appearancenorms may affect the social integration in our European society.- Provided strategies and resources that can be integrated into current guidance counselling and vocational training provisions- Provided growth and insight for young unemployed and/or NEET via the developed material for young unemployed and/orNEET that will consequently prepare them to handle the current difficult labour market in Europe in the participating organisations.- Furthermore, the training made them more resilient for the psychosocial stress associated with being unemployed and therefore consequently improved their quality of life.- Between 150 – 200 guidance counsellors, vocational trainers or other relevant stakeholders were involved in training seminarsat National Multiplier events in AT, BG, ES, GR and SE.Since the developed program is easily studied via self-directed learning, the organisations that have been exposed to the project via the extensive dissemination/exploitation plan can easily incorporate it and consequently ensure a pragmatic sustainability.The end result was that organisations got a resource that is both sensitive to psychological issues relevant to this group, as well as being constructive and positively focused. Participants are better psychologically prepared both to cope and manage positively with the difficulties of being unemployed/NEET, whilst also being enabled and empowered to identify personal strengths and meaningful goals to facilitate the search for engagement with economically productive activity."

There is an old story about the three stonecutters. Once upon a time, a traveler came across them and asked what they were doing. The first replied sadly saying that he has the hardest job in the world. He said he was cutting a stone. The second one said his job was very hard but at least could earn the money to feed his family. He said he was building a stone wall. When the traveler met the third stonecutter, the man was covered with dust but looking happy and cutting a stone with a smile on his face. The traveler asked him the same question: What are you doing? The stonecutter simply answered with shining eyes: I am building a Cathedral.Exactly two years ago the Prometheus partners posted their first publication on the Peer Network and started this outstanding project together with the words: “We come from six different European countries – Bulgaria, Austria, Greece, Ireland, Italy and the UK. We put expertise, perseverance and heart in what we do, we are friends and allies, we are the stonecutters that build cathedrals. This time we invite you to join us in building the Temple of the nowadays Prometheuses – the career counsellors and guidance practitioners.”Two years later the project has been successfully implemented in the partners’ countries and has attracted interest and achieved impact beyond their borders.The partners named the project Prometheus after the Greek god that gave fire to the people and whose name in Greek means forethought. He stands as a symbol of the human progress and the gift of fire and hope and is the best metaphor one can find for the nowadays career practitioners. The project team includes 6 partners: BFE (BG), CIAPE (IT), BEST (AT), IED (GR), Aspire-igen (UK) and CIT (IR). They are all committed to adding value to people’s realization and actively working for their enhanced employability. The team launched and maintained the Prometheus Platform – PROMETHEUS-EU.NET - a One Stop Virtual Space for Career Counselling and Guidance Services. As a result of the team joint efforts 5 more intellectual outputs have been produced and uploaded on the Platform - Career Pathways Research and Analysis Report, 100+ Enlightenment Best Practices e-Book, Peer Network and Empower Talk Movies, Online Career Counselling Guide and Toolkit with 5 career mobile apps. All the intellectual outputs have been elaborated, validated and finalized in English, Bulgarian, German, Greek and Italian languages. They will be available for free of charge use at least until the end of 2021.The intellectual outputs have been presented through different publications, seminars, meetings, multiplier events and the Final Prometheus Conference that took place in June, 2016 in Sofia, Bulgaria.The outputs elaborated and outcomes achieved are directly addressing the strategic partnership priority for re-skilling and up-skilling of adults through increasing incentives for adult learning, information on access to lifelong learning services such as career guidance and by offering tailored learning opportunities to individual learners. They facilitate the enhanced participation in learning as well as the employability by developing quality career guidance, counselling and support services.The project team also took into account the Erasmus+ Program priorities for innovating and increasing the quality and range of initial and continuing training, including new pedagogies, ICT-based methodologies and use of open educational resources as well as the production and adoption of open education resources in diverse European.The impact on the partners’ organizations and the other participants in the project activities is significant and the career practitioners are now equipped with professionally elaborated theoretical and practical solutions to their main challenges and needs related to high quality provision of career services with large variety of approaches and types of activities. These benefits contribute to the improved performance in their role on the labour market as the meeting and matching point between the market requirements and the employability of their clients. The impact for another one of the main target groups - the young adults is the enhanced potential for their employability as a result the project’s activities and results. They are better informed about the benefits of a constant development and the participation in lifelong learning possibilities for better personal and professional realisation and 10 of them shared own experience through the Empower Talks.The whole society including the stakeholders, employers, individuals, etc. as indirect target group of the Prometheus project benefit and will benefit in the long-term from the innovative and practical solutions to some of the most challenging nowadays problems. The main impact of the successful implementation of the project for the society is the reinforced interaction between practice, research and policy seen in the Peer Network.