Strengthening Vocational Education in Cultural and Green Tourism

ended

Young people aged 15-24 represent 20% of the African population but over 40% of the total unemployed people in Africa. There arises the need to encourage young people in Africa to pursue vocational education, and to better connect the existing vocational education structures with the private sector, and the labour market in general. Therefore, the aim of this project is to upskill VET in African countries (Cape Verde, Senegal, Kenya) in order to increase employability of young people and to connect VET with the rising sectors of the labour market in the private sector. A sector that can be targeted for this initiative is the cultural tourism sector. African countries have a wealth of local assets that can serve as a motivation for cultural, green, and responsible tourists to visit the continent. In this project, we aim to create channels of communication between VET centres and the private sector, to create a joint vocational education curriculum on green, cultural, circular, responsible tourism among the partner countries of Europe and Africa, to strengthen the connection between vocational education and work, by introducing the concept of micro-credentials and to provide opportunities to students for Green Apprenticeships/Mentoring with private sector professionals The following steps will be taken in order to achieve the objective: creation of local and international networks, focus groups with the created networks (first local, then international) in order to assess the educational needs associated with employment in the touristic sector, and to create the learning objectives and micro-credentials, development of a joint qualification profile and joint curriculum, organisation of blended courses on the issue, organisation of e-apprenticeships (digital exchange) of students to private institutions from other partner countries and assessment of students, and awarding of micro-credentials in a digital portfolio