Tourism is one of the largest and fastest growing sectors of the global economy. According to the World Travel & Tourism Council it was worth 8 trillion Euros in 2018, outperforming the global economy for the eighth consecutive year. On the one hand tourism creates a surplus for the European Union economy, it comprises over 2 million businesses employing over 13 million people, but on the other hand it has to deal with new challenges linked with overtourism and with the climate emergency. Indeed the exponential growth of the tourism sector has generated issues like overtourism and gentrification. At the same time there is a general growing concern that tourism needs to be more environmentally sustainable through the reduction of energy consumption and fossil fuels. Demands for more sustainable tourism have also led to the development of alternative forms of tourism. ECO.TOUR fits into this context since it comes from one of the identified needs of the European Development Plan (EDP) initiated with the KA1 VET project ETHOS in 2017 and continued with ETHOS II in 2019. The plan outlined a real internationalisation strategy carried out with the collaboration of VET schools to increase the quality of VET courses related to Tourism, which nowadays has to go hand in hand with environmental sustainability.Starting from this context, the main objective is to foster the use of innovative teaching methodologies on sustainable tourism in VET schools. The specific objectives will be: updating teachers’ competences in teaching technical subjects in training courses pertaining the tourism sector; integrating in VET curricula training activities aimed at strengthening the education on environmental sustainability; enhancing the internationalisation strategies for the development of competences on sustainable tourism in teachers and learners.In order to reach these objectives, three thematic seminars (joint staff trainings) will be organized in the framework of ECO.TOUR. In particular, the activities will focus on: innovative teaching approaches applied in training courses related to the tourism sector; methodologies to teach environmental sustainability at school; internationalisation of education. ECO.TOUR will address several target groups. The target groups which will be involved directly are: VET teachers, Headmasters, mobility experts’ staff, VET students, while business actors, civil servants and policy makers and families will be involved indirectly.The main impact of the project will be fostering the debate on how to improve the quality of training and skills of educators, and it will also launch concrete actions that will provide tangible solutions for introducing topics like environmental sustainability at school. It will have a substantial impact at local level since it will increase awareness on new teaching methodologies to introduce sustainable tourism in training courses related to this sector, collecting good practices and encouraging the investment in on-the-job training of teachers.

"Secondary Education must be constantly updated with the issues and social instances of contemporary world. ""InTour: inclusive tourism for inclusive Europe"" addressed the crucial need to open tourist opportunities for people with disabilities, activating teachers and students on the ground of “a right to the beauty for all”. In the world, over 1 billion people are estimated to live with some form of disability. In EU, they are 6-10% of the population, and this data will grow mainly due to the aging of population (source: WHO, Regional Office for Europe). The project was realized through the cooperation of three secondary schools, based in Italy (IIS Luigi Einaudi, Rome, the Project Leader); in Finland (OSAO, Oulu); and in Greece (1st Lyceum, Aigio). It directly involved 80 students, 15 teachers (both in mobility and in local activities), other school staff (Directors, administrative staff), local stakeholders (NGOs, tourist guides specialized in inclusive practices, tourist enterprises) and families. The priorities of the project were matched as following: - “social inclusion”: the project directly involved students with disabilities or special needs and focused on developing strategies for inclusion in cultural and natural heritage sites.- “open education and innovative practices in digital era” were pursued through methodologies encouraging students in working in a European learning environment, using specific digital tools and imagining new tools for the future. - “promoting the acquisition of skills and competences”: at the end of the project, students improved in their vision of disability as a context-related issue. They also developed new eyes on the variety of disabilities and on the relevance of listening and communication as crucial aspects of inclusive practices. Specifically, three international workshops were realized, with both common and complementary goals. In each workshop, a group of local students (12-20 students) joined two teams from abroad (unfortunately, due to the pandemic, the Finnish group did not take part in the last meeting). Common goals were related to the general priorities of the project. Specific goals were defined in strong cooperation among teachers, enhancing local and educational peculiarities. The first workshop was held in Rome (February 26th-March 2nd, 2019). The activity was crucial in introducing inclusive tourism among participants; reinforcing social relationships; fostering the sense of European identity and diversity. These goals were reached through a very dense weekly plan including visits to important museums, archaeological sites and peripheral neighborhoods, debates with experts of inclusive tourism. In Vatican museums and in Traiano’s Market we also had the chance to experience the tour for blind people, with tactile and audio stimuli. The methodology included peer to peer education and cooperative learning activities, managed with a reflexive and problem-solving approach. The second workshop was in Oulu, Finland (November 23rd-27th 2019), focusing on inclusive tourism in real world and in natural areas. Students used apps to record the potential barriers they found during a city tour and they explored a natural park and a reindeer breeding farm. They debated with experts concerning inclusion in hotels and in other tourist facilities and about the relevance of communication. Participants also visited the magic LUMO Festival and Tietomaa Museum, an example of inclusive and innovative Science Museum. In each of these experiences, they were required to reflect upon accessibility and inclusion, in practical terms. The last workshop was in Aigio (September 21st-27th 2021), focusing on technologies for inclusive tourism. The methodology was a mix of IT laboratory activities in cooperative learning, in mixed groups of Italian and Greek students; and in fieldworks and visits in natural and cultural Greek sites, in the city of Aigio but also in the Region of Peloponnese (Olympia Archaeological site and traditional Kalavryta city). Students were introduced to the open-source App Creator, programming some demo of apps for inclusive tourism. In the long-term, inclusive tourism will be at the core agenda of national and European social and educational policies. The project supported participants in approaching the issue as a new, comprehensive way of thinking, instead of considering it as a thematic “niche”. This approach will have the potential to deeply change both institutions and local contexts. The team also tested that a mixed methodology (theoretical, practical and problem-solving lessons integrated with on-site visits and interviews with stakeholders) is especially effective in increasing awareness and pro-active attitudes among students. They realized a specific educational module, that can be applied in other contexts/experiences. Students also declared to be ready to support and encourage other students in taking part in future Erasmus projects."

"The project ""Rome and Noumea: Let's lay the foundations in the lagoon!""Why create this Erasmus mobility project between New Caledonia and Italy?We have noticed that today we live in an increasingly connected world and mastering foreign languages is essential.The ""Rome and Noumea: Let's lay the foundations in the lagoon!"" project will address various themes linked to the heritage of each country but above all will stress the importance of preserving a territory.We have chosen to work in Rome on the architectural remains and in New Caledonia on the lagoon. These two Unesco heritage listed sites, respectively in 1980 and 2008, give this project a particular interest in safeguarding the sites.In the course of this project, students in the third year of secondary school (collège Jean Mariotti) and the second year of secondary school (lycée Lapérouse) in New Caledonia, as well as students from the IIS Luigi Einaudi high school in Italy, will have the opportunity to exchange with local populations, environmental institutions, and to meet experts on the remains of Rome and our Oceanian lagoon.Several objectives are set:- To promote intercultural exchanges and the active participation of young people at local, national and international levels through heritage.- To enable young people to discover and exchange ideas on economic alternatives and to promote solutions to alternative and sustainable development.- To raise awareness about cultural diversity, heritage and the environment in Europe.Through this project, our young people will thus be able to become actively involved in European life, consolidate cultural relations between the two European countries and become more involved in the various activities proposed.We will engage our Caledonian and Italian students in a joint project related to the impacts of global warming and environmental issues. Several activities will be proposed:- Debates and exchanges with the local population, experts and speakers, on the lagoon and the remains of Rome.- Workshops on sustainable development in close collaboration with our colleagues from Earth Sciences and Life Sciences: Ms Verlaguet, English: Mr Ounane, Spanish: Ms Brines and Ms Antin, plastic arts: Ms Cavarero-Roy but also, teachers of BTS tourism.- Visits to museums, ruins, forts in Rome and visits to the aquarium and the lagoon by glass boat.- The project will come to an end with a final exhibit ion on themes related to the project.In addition, in order to enhance the value of this project, participants will keep a ""European virtual logbook"", the Europass, in which they will record the knowledge and skills acquired in another European country. We will enable teenagers aged 15 to 18 from different backgrounds to participate in this project and we will focus on group cohesion.Finally the following results are expected:- Becoming aware of the stakes linked to global warming as well as cultural and heritage diversity.- Discovering mobility, personal commitment and solidarity- Sharing and exchanging good practices and methods with all partners involved.- Proposing new synergies, new ideas and solutions at local, European and international level- Valuing pupils' commitment and European solidarity- Strengthening the link between secondary school and high school- Valuing interdisciplinary and transnational projectsThrough this project, we want to raise a strong sense of belonging to the European Union and strengthen the pupils' commitment to the environment."

The Conselleria de Educación, Cultura y Deporte aims, with this project based on cross-border regional cooperation, to develop educational policies with a European projection, derived from initiatives of the Plan Director de Coeducación (PDC) of the Valencian Community. One of the most relevant aspects of this PDC is the need for the inclusion of women in educational content.Women are not part of the worldview that is forged in the education system. The marked absence of female references in textbooks –only a 7.6% of female presence, according to the study carried out at the University of Valencia on Spanish schoolbooks– constitutes one of the most active mechanisms of social delegitimization of women. Those who are not recognized for their cultural contributions are not granted social value and, therefore, are denied their role as active subjects in culture and history. This androcentric culture that is transmitted from the education system is one of the structural bases of social gender inequalities. The implications of this absence of women in textbooks are, on the one hand, cultural, because much of the common cultural heritage is hidden, and on the other hand, social, because the lack of recognition of female contributions to culture condemns them to social irrelevance. This favours discrimination such as gender violence or the glass ceiling. Finally, the implications are also educational, because there is a deficiency in the cultural transmission and there is no education in equal opportunities. This situation is similar in all European countries.This project arises as a European response to that common need, and its main goal is to offer instruments of educational intervention that serve to recover the forgotten European cultural heritage of female authorship and also to correct the androcentric vision of the culture transmitted in education. For that purpose, 5 Intellectual Outputs will be developed:-A database with female references, their works and activities ready to be used in the classroom, organized by subject and level.-Three catalogues with works of female authorship: an art, a music, and a literature catalogue.-The teacher training course about Women in STEM, to include scientist women in the classroom. This workshop will be taught to secondary school teachers and training advisers.The database and the three catalogues will be online, open and free, at the service of teachers and educational publishers.The participating partners (Italy, Lithuania, Scotland and Spain) will play a role at all educational levels that require intervention within the educational system: training not only at university, but also for secondary school teachers and for educational advisors, as well as a direct intervention in the secondary school classroom. Each partner will focus on their area of expertise and influence:Conselleria, Glasgow City Council, Innovazione e Apprendimento Lavoro (IAL) and Escola de Formació Melchor Botella (ESFMB) will develop and offer the training for secondary school teachers and advisers. IAL and ESFMB will expand it through their national territory.University of Valencia and University of Vilnius will participate in the training of university students and teachers, specially from the Education Master’s degree. Women's Legacy association (LdM) will develop the contents of the database. Both high schools (Einaudi, in Italy, and Benicalap, in Spain) will participate in the educational development of the database and its piloting. Several high schools from Italy and Spain as well as the Valencia City Council will collaborate as associate members. Educational publishers such as SM and Bromera are interested in the production of educational content based in the database, which provides a high impact to the project. All of this increases the repercussion and settles the sustainability and continuity of the project.The 5 products have great transferability: the database, to other languages and educational systems; the catalogues, to the field of cultural public policies; and the training course, to other subjects. The maintenance and expansion of the base and catalogues will be coordinated, and the STEM training will be offered every year. We hope that this will lead to an improvement in educational policies and will reinforce Sustainable Development Goals 4, 5 and 10, related to gender equality and education improvements. An adequate dissemination plan will be implemented in the four European countries. It would be a true social achievement to reverse this situation, recognize the leading role of women in culture and recover that cultural legacy.It is hoped to obtain a high impact because the database and the catalogues are efficient and enduring instruments for making women's references visible, correcting inequalities and recovering the cultural and scientific heritage of women in Europe.