Institute of Vocational Training, AKMI SA (https://iek-akmi.edu.gr/) coordinated the 2nd VET2Business Project Meeting that was held on 25th-26th June 2018 in IHK-Projektgesellschaft mbH (https://www.ihk-projekt.de/) premises in Frankfurt Oder, Germany.

VET2Business Project aims to tackle the students’ identified skills gap in the Tourism Sector by creating two innovative VET curricula in Hospitality & Catering Sector with strong Work based Learning schemes and by establishing cross-regional partnership in Greece and Germany.
During the meeting, the partners had the opportunity to present the current state of play of the Project (project overall assessment), with special focus given on the promotion of the quantitative and qualitative research to identify the skills gap between VET education and business market needs.
Other issues that have been raised included the design of VET Curricula and piloting of them in Greece and Germany, methods of validation and assessment tools, effective cooperation structures between VET teachers and in-company trainers, as well as communication and dissemination strategy.

CONDUCTION OF FOCUS GROUPS

As part of our qualitative research, focus groups were conducted during June and July in Greece and Germany in order to identify the current skills mismatches, the job opportunities, the tendencies and the upcoming challenges in the Hotel and F&B Sector. Participants of the focus groups were trainers, young learners from companies, entrepreneurs and representatives of Associations of employers and professionals, policy makers, local and regional authorities. The next step is the conduction of semi-structured in-depth interviews in both countries.

ONLINE SURVEY

As part of our quan ta ve research, we have designed an online questionnaire to identify skills gaps of staff in the Hotel and Catering Sector. Those information will be necessary to improve the relevance of education and training and meet recent labour market needs. We kindly invite you to provide your expertise on the topic, in the links below:

Greek: https://ihkbztest.limequery.com/579488?lang=el
German: www.ihk-projekt.de/umfrage

Next Steps

CONDUCTION OF INTERVIEWS

After the conduction of the online survey the next step is the conduction of semi-structured in-depth interviews on both countries and the design of a small-scale written questionnaire – „postcard“.

NEXT PARTNER MEETING IN THESSALONIKI

The next project meeting will take place in Thessaloniki during 8th-9th November 2018. In the period of 9th-11th November the Philoxenia Exhibition 2018 (https://philoxenia.helexpo.gr/en) will take place in which AKMI will also take part promoting the VET2Business Project.