"BACKGROUND The tourism industry is a key sector of the EU. It is, in fact, over 10% of EU GDP (including the linked industries) and employs 9.7 million people and 1.8 million companies. In our country, the industry has, as a whole, about 191.000 businesses and, on 31st December 2015, 886.000 employees, while in the two regions covered by the project (Sicily and Calabria), between 2015 and the third quarter of 2016, employment in the tourism sector has recorded an average increase compared to 2013-2014, by 3.8% in Sicily and 2.7% in Calabria. The data and projections show, however, on the one hand, the expansion of the sector and the tourist attractiveness of the two regions and, on the other hand, emphasize the need to provide trained young staff, highly qualified and able to respond positively to new and high competence requested by the local labor market. OBJECTIVES In line with the objectives of the EU 2020 Strategy and ET 2020, WORK AWAY offers young participants the opportunity to test and deepen their curricular competencies: professionalism in the specific sector of TOURISM, soft skills, cultural knowledge and language skills. These general objectives are pursued through a mobility experience which consists of an internship abroad of 1 month for 96 STUDENTS attending CLASSES IV and of 3 months for 80 newly graduated of the 8 participating VET Schools (Technical Institutes for Tourism and Hotel and Catering Schools). The project also promotes the exchange and transfer of good practices in VET by relating our VET system with the training and employment system to other European countries and contributes to the consolidation of the ECVET System. ACTIVITY 1. Transversal Activities: management and coordination; Dissemination and exploitation of results; Follow up; 2. Mobility Preparation: Plan of communication and cooperation; Recruitment and selection of participants; preparation of participants; Learning plan definition; 3. Mobility Realization: Internship in the company; Monitoring and tutoring; Project feedback and experience of mobility; Assessment, certification and validation of skills acquired. METHODOLOGY in 4 PHASES 1. MANAGEMENT PLAN AND MONITORING: the project is coordinated by IIS ""Moncada"" in close collaboration with other 16 partners of the Consortium. The Plan is based on the EQAVET quality system and includes specification on: financial arrangements, timing, names of managers / representatives of each organization, responsibilities, roles and tasks, project phases with related milestones, risk management procedures. 2. PLAN OF LEARNING AND EVALUATION: the learning and evaluation plan contains specific references and commitments on transparency and recognition of competences in an ECVET-compatible framework. The documents are: Learning Agreement and Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The quality of the experience of mobility is controlled through regular evaluation questionnaires filled out by participants, mentors and tutors. 3. PLAN OF COMMUNICATION AND COOPERATION: it provides for the involvement of all participants in the partnership with effective tools and rules to maintain a high level of interest on the project. 4. STRATEGIC PLAN FOR DISSEMINATION AND EXPLOITATION: includes phases and methods to be adopted by all partners to disseminate and exploit the project and its results all over the duration and behond. EXPECTED RESULTS a. The development of highly specific and innovative skills in the tourism and catering sector; b. More competitive and greater employment opportunities in the labor market for the participants; c. The development and innovation of VET systems. IMPACT The project includes a significant impact on the VET Systems through: learning outcomes achievement of participants to mobility; skills acquired from the staff involved in the project; recognition of skills in an ECVET-compatible framework. It represents also an added value and development opportunity for the participating organizations, which will consolidate a new training segment to complete the technical and vocational education and answer the demand of enterprises of high professional skills. LONG-TERM BENEFITS In the long term, thanks to the dissemination tools developed and to the size and importance of the consortium, it is expected to have a multiplier effect both regionally, and at national and EU level and the orientation of public policies on the base of the results of the project, using in addition, as a standard model, all procedures and best practices developed within the Project."

"<< Background >>The NET-Heritage project was born and implemented in the context of the project ""RETE SITI UNESCO"" promoted by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage, that aimed to increase the attractiveness and competitiveness of the UNESCO SITES located in the italian regions SICILY, CAMPANIA, BASILICATA, APULIA and SARDINIA, supporting the development of the tourism, through the improvement of the quality of the tourism services and promoting economic prosperity and social development through the growth of the professions and the creation of new jobs.In line with this national strategy, NET-Heritage project offered to 182 STUDENTS (35 of whom with special needs) in initial vocational training of the fourth year the opportunity to perform a mobility experience of European level of the duration of 30 days. All participants were attending a vocational and training path in the field of tourism services and carried out a relevant professional work experience abroad, to align the learning outcomes achieved in the education and training path with the needs of the labor market in the field of promotion and management of tourism, by using the international internship experience as a fundamental part of the training.<< Objectives >>The general objectives of the project have been:- Promote lifelong learning as a right of the persons to increase and update their skills, abilities and knowledge in formal, non formal and informal learning contexts;- Promote the transparency of learning and compliance training to the needs of businesses and professions in order to facilitate the meeting between demand and supply of labor and increase the productivity and competitiveness of the production system;- Enlarge the marketability of qualifications at national and European level in order to facilitate geographical and occupational mobility also in terms of the internationalization of businesses and professions.The carried out mobility experiences increased also the soft skills of the participants, such as spirit of initiative, adaptability and ability to relate and interact with cultural backgrounds different from their own.The transparency of learning in the tourism sector guaranteed, finally, through ECVET and the establishment of a partnership able to work on mutual understanding on units of learning outcomes and method of evaluation, validation and recognition of knowledge, skills and competencies achieved by participants in the international mobility.<< Implementation >>The NET-Heritage project was integrated into the strategic development of each partner of the National Consortium, as well as was transfered outside of it and was implemented in an international context of WORK BASED LEARNING with a system of actions aimed at specific training, but also at the global growth of each participant.In details, the Net-Heritage project provided:- Continuous and active involvement of all the figures of the project staff and teh supervision of project trainers and mentors;- Activities of support and mentoring; - Teaching and training methods based on the involvement, participation, the high integration between theory and practice, the development of practical skills immediately spendable, the validation of acquired skills;- A system of mid-term and final evaluations to monitor the progress in terms of learning achieved by the participants, as well as its evaluation, validation and certification through the ECVET procedures (European Credit system for Vocational Education and Training).<< Results >>The achieved impacts of the NET-Heritage project have been:- The development of specialized skills of the target groups involved (182 young students);- Set up of training models and tools of innovative value;- Diffusion of results and training models among the stakeholders of the tourism and cultural sector concerned and the Vocational Education and Training systems at local, national and European level;- Availability of the results and training models of the Net-Heritage project for the institutions and the professionals at local and regional level.The NET-Heritage project helped to stimulate the development of a process of innovation in the tourism and cultural sector related to UNESCO SITES in the project partner regions thanks to the opportunity - for the companies - to recruit 182 young people trained in similar companies abroad with EU-wide competences related to new marketing-oriented approaches and innovative methodologies for the promotion of cultural tourism plans."