"Tourism is a leading and dynamically developing sector in the world economy. It is one of the accelerators of globalization, increasingly embracing the various aspects of socio-economic, cultural and political development worldwide. The importance of the tourism industry is explained by its contribution to economic activity, namely - 10% of world GDP and 1 in 10 jobs generated, according to UNWTO data.The epidemiological situation since the beginning of 2020 led to the collapse of the sector and the loss of jobs. The rebuilding of the industry requires the adaptation of human capital to new business models, products and services, to digitization and robotics. In this context, human resources competencies, knowledge and skills will be key to returning to the labour market and developing it in the new conditions.The project ""Employment in Tourism Using the New Technologies"" (E-tour.net) creates an opportunity for cooperation between non-governmental organizations in order to improve key skills and acquire digital competencies of adults in the field of new technologies, thus promoting employability and helping their return to the labour market as employees or freelancers. This highlights the main objective of the project - to help overcome the economic downturn and emerging structural unemployment with specific elements of age unemployment, a consequence of the epidemiological situation in one of the most affected sphere - tourism, by improving and expanding the opportunities offered by modern digital technologies to learn and build knowledge, skills and competences.In addition to the economic implications, the epidemiological situation has raised new questions regarding multicultural dialogue and highlighted communities and the issue of open borders. In this regard, the specific objective of the project is to support social cohesion in the context of new challenges. E-tour.net focuses on cultural heritage, on the one hand, as a resource for tourism development and as an opportunity to reflect on cultural diversity within the pan-European historical experience, on the other.Through transnational cooperation, the project will improve intercultural dialogue and facilitate the exchange of good practices and the integration of innovative ideas with a view to social inclusion and overcoming the crisis and the development of the labour market. The involvement of specific partners Association ""Svetlina za Belogradchik"", ...................... provides enhanced cooperation between organizations whose profile and activity are in different fields but are intertwined and mutually supportive in the process of developing economic and human capital in their regions and countries.E-tour.net will use the innovative 3D augmented reality technology as a major solution to achieving its core and specific goals - enhancing key competencies, acquiring new digital skills from target groups and enhancing intercultural dialogue through a focus on pan-European cultural heritage.Within the project partners:- will create educational videos on technology opportunities and training resources to acquire digital skills;- develop a common product based on innovative technology - a mobile application with the restoration of destroyed cultural heritage monuments;- conduct joint trainings with target audiences to work with the application;- will present to the general public the possibilities of applying the created product;- develop a website that will be accessible to all training materials developed within the project. This will reach a wide audience of stakeholders and will ensure the sustainability of the project, promoting the activities and results achieved.Through the implementation of the planned activities, the project will enhance the knowledge and skills of the target groups and stakeholders, on the one hand, and on the other - will create a quality intellectual product that can be successfully integrated and upgraded as a tourist service in the target territories (regions of the partner organizations).The restoration by 3D technology of augmented reality of destroyed cultural monuments will focus the public's attention on cultural diversity, focusing on similarities in pan-European history. In particular, the threat of its deletion and the possibility of joint recovery, is a reference to dealing with the current crisis."

In 2015, all the Members from the United Nations signed an agreement to implement the 2030 Agenda. The Agenda included 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to be reached by 2030 and a ‘call on all businesses to apply their creativity and innovation to solving sustainable development challenges.’ Despite the growing interest from businesses in sustainable innovation, the SDGs are largely new territory for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Nevertheless, as it has been recognized by the European Commission, the SDG can only be achieved if countries manage to build up supporting systems for SMEs, including the provision of capacity building programmes addressed to them.SME Green Skills HUB project is a European multi-stakeholder partnership and a learning network between SMEs, sectorial clusters, regional governments, HEI, and VET providers from five European countries, Spain, Ireland, Portugal, Turkey and Italy. They have worked together to identify common needs and challenges and key areas of intervention in order to achieve the main AIM of the project: support the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in SMEs through VET.During the preliminary analysis partners have identified two main FACTORS FOR SUCCESS:(1) The ability to adapt the SDGs to the context and situation within which each business operates, that will require expert support to SMEs staff from VET teachers, trainers and mentors, skilled to provide initial and/or continuing training to them.(2) The use of effective and innovative training approaches and pedagogies for work place learning in SMEs, as traditional employee training and onboarding processes can become monotonous, resulting in diminishing engagement and poorer results.Based on this analysis, the partners have set the following OBJECTIVES for the project:- To co-define a structured set of competencies on implementing the SDGs in SMEs following ECVET and EU standard methods: the IO1 European Framework of Competencies.- To co-design, test and implement a next-generation ICT-based educative tool to provide OER, including training contents and VOOC, on implementing the SDGs in SMEs through VET: the IO2 SME Green Skills HUB Virtual Campus- To co-create, test and implement a digital assessment tool to evaluate competences on the implementation of the SDGs in SMEs through VET: the IO4 Mobile Assessment App.- To elaborate a policy set of recommendations to promote transparency and recognition of skills on the topic of the project: the IO4 Guidelines to promote transparency and recognition of skills to implement SDGs in SMEs.- To establish a European multi-stakeholder community of practice on supporting the implementation of the SDGs in SMEs and the further development of green skills in SMEs staff: the SME Green Skills HUB.The project will also apply the following INNOVATIVE TRAINING APPROACHES and PEDAGOGIES for work-place learning in SMEs:- NEXT-GENERATION TRAINING SOLUTIONS, which have a modern User Interface (UI) for the learner; offers high-level interactions; promotes social, active learning; enables high-resolution formative assessment; enables personalized experiences; offers mobile compatibility.- GAMIFICATION, to integrate principles of play and positive competition into employee training to create a training experience that holds the employee’s attention and motivates them.- Innovative WORK-BASED LEARNING APPROACHES, to increase the extent to which work is learning-rich within the workplace, including encouraging people to reflect on their experience; peer guidance by other workers; demonstration and practice; simulation; and problem solving; all these techniques can be integrated with the normal cycle of work and production.SME Green Skills HUB will involve 74 VET teachers, trainers and mentors, TARGET USERS of the project (24 partners’ staff /30 experts involved / 20 participants in pilots). The project will directly involve and benefit 100 SMEs staff, TARGET BENEFICIARIES participating in pilots. 385 stakeholders will be directly involved at local, regional, national and European level, and the project will reach a minimum audience of 1000 recipients through dissemination activities.The project will have a positive impact in: (i) partner organizations, SMEs, and other VET stakeholders in Europe, that will count with an innovative set of VET tools to support the implementation of the SDGs in SMEs (ii) VET teachers, trainers and mentors, acquiring new skills and opportunities for recognition and professional development (iii) SMEs staff, accessing to new opportunities for training and upskilling in green related skills. The expected impact of the project is a raised awareness about: (I) the importance and value of the SDGs; (ii) the opportunities derived from the implementation of the SDGs in business strategies: (III) the role of VET in the fight against global warming and environmental transition.

The VECTOR project aimed at defining a high skilled professional profile and the related curriculum of Destination Manager valid for the tourism sector. The specific objectives of the project were:a) to explore the skills needs in tourism and exchange good practices, knowledge and experience among partners;b) to design an EQF based set of educational standards for destination managers based on project findings, on current European VET developments (with a strong focus on labour market needs;c) to develop an innovative and joined training curriculum related to the Destination Manager profile using the ECVET approach and EQAVET principles to be included in an online course (e-learning platform);d) to organize a pilot phase in Spain and Italy involving 24 trainees to test some of the most crucial and innovative modules included in the DM training curriculum. e) to validate the Destination Manager profile and related training curriculum.The project started its activities by developing an in-depth skills survey, addressing almost 500 stakeholders from all around Europe, in order to gather all the information related to the labour market needs and to analyze the skills and competences that were suitable for the Destination Manager profile. The following step has been the development of a survey, at the European level, related to the existing curriculums in the tourism sector (belonging to the 5th and 6th EQF level) in order to develop a synoptic reading of them as well as to identify evidence of mismatch between market needs and students performance.The DM profile has been designed as a standard: In this Standard, a competence is defined and assessed as a process. Each competence is conceived as the sum of different processes. In this way it was easier to link the profile with the DM curriculum structured, following the ECVET methodology, as a series of unit of learning outcomes. The competences are:1) To analyse the market and the touristic trend, getting the features of the touristic demand and offer.2) To organise the resources (natural/historical/cultural/economical) of the destination, also by achieving the engagement of the local stakeholders.3) To coordinate actors and stakeholders, by creating a network, identifying common goals and negotiating the different needs of the parties involved.4) To promote the territory. The DM takes promotional actions in order to enhance the touristic offer according to the demand of the various customers, increasing their motivation towards the attractiveness of the territory.5) To manage and solve problems, by monitoring profits and expenses, assuring the quality of the service provided and managing time and costs.After the definition of the profile it was possible to structure the related DM curriculum and the learning contents. The curriculum was object of a pilot-testing process, carried-on involving 24 students from all around Europe. that helped the consortium to test effectively the training course not only from the contents point of view, but also analysing the most suitable supply modalities of the course aimed at increasing the possibility for workers to join the DM course.The dissemination of the results has been done at the national and international level, designing 2 work packages dedicated on such topic. The consortium put particular attention in involving key stakeholders at regional/national level during the dissemination events, signing Memorandum of Understanding with such key players during three international conference on Destination Management held in the 3 partners’ countries. These agreements are an evidence of the work developed to assure a future to the project outputs beyond the project lifespan. Furthermore, at the international level, the consortium capitalized the project joining international conferences/events organized by its associated partners as well as cooperating fruitfully with other 3 Erasmus+ project focued on tourism.

IMPACT is a practice-based, sustainability-oriented, and result-driven project aiming to advance Europe’s capacity and effectiveness in training and teaching sustainability-oriented innovation and entrepreneurship (SOIE). The ambition of the project is to drive innovation and entrepreneurship based on values of corporate sustainability, and to facilitate organisation-wide cultural change toward more sustainable innovation processes. With its explicit focus on sustainability, IMPACT makes a unique contribution to effectively translating Europe’s new growth strategy presented in the “Green Deal” into an innovative educational program and business practice.More specifically, IMPACT brings together leaders from industry, academia and innovation ecosystems to:I. empirically generate, aggregate, exchange and disseminate knowledge about good practices and methods in SOIEII. facilitate values-based and sustainability-oriented innovation and entrepreneurship practices and methods that help to establish a sustainability-oriented innovation culture III. create advanced education methods and real problem-based materials to teach and learn SOIE IMPACT builds on the results of previous projects and draws on the experience of innovation scholars and practitioners to generate actionable insights for students, young entrepreneurs and industrial partners striving to make a positive impact on society as a whole. The main outcomes of the project are: I) a database of concrete examples and best practices for enhancing sustainability; II) facilitation methods toolkit for enabling the effective involvement of internal and external stakeholders in innovation-related activities, as well as the collaborative review and redefinition of cultural routines, implicit values and hidden assumptions; and III) methods for teaching and coaching SOIE toolkit, which includes a module on Sustainable Innovation Practices (12 ECTS) for professional development and elective university courses.