COUNTRY: Germany/Austria

CLIENT:
Centre for Strategy and Evaluation/EU Commission

PROJECT TITLE:
Mapping and Performance Check of the Supply Side of Tourism Education and Training

SHORT DESCRIPTION

Tourism plays an important role in many EU countries, in Germany, for example, it is one of the booming and most profitable sectors of the economy. In 2015, the "Directorate Enterprise & Industry" of the European Commission in Brussels wanted to examine the education and training supply in tourism offered by the public and private sector in the 28 Member States of the EU. To this end, all 28 EU Member States were examined on behalf of the EU Commission in a comprehensive study entitled "Mapping and performance check of the supply side of tourism education and training” by “the English Centre for strategy and evaluation". AGEG Tourism for Sustainability evaluated the vocational education and training sector in Germany and Austria, two of the leading States, and the insightful results were presented at an International Conference in Brussels in the autumn of 2015 (www.eutourismskills.eu).

The overall purpose of this study is to evaluate the education and training offer for the tourism sector in the 28 EU member States and assess its performance in delivering the qualitative skills needed on the labour market.
The end product will be an overview of education and training provision dedicated to tourism occupations, the skills covered by its learning outcomes and the skills needs that remain unattended. A country fiche per EU 28 Member State describing the (public and private) educational system for tourism (from school education to academic, professional and vocational education), and its link/cooperation with the industry will be also presented. Best practices, in terms of delivering the desired learning outcomes and addressing the sector's needs, as well as in terms of successful feed-back and cooperation mechanisms between education and training providers and the economic sector will be analysed, selected and showcased at a final conference. The task for AGEG Tourism was to evaluate two of the leading EU States in term of tourism education and training systems and offer.

AGEG Tourism for Sustainability Consulting AGEG Tourism for Sustainability Consulting provided the following services:

• Elaboration of a complex study for Germany and Austria
• Study, assessment and evaluation of the education and training offer in tourism in Austria and Germany
• Interviews with education providers, organisations and ministries
• Identification and elaboration of outstanding and transferable best practice examples
• Development of an “EU country fiche” for Germany and Austria