e-TF

Tourism is one of the key sectors of european economy. It generates more than 5% of the EU GDP with around 1.8 millions enterprises employing 5.2 % of the total labour force (around 10 millions jobs). The Lisbon treaty acknowledges the importance of tourism outlining specific competence of the European Union in this field. http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/tourism/index_en.htm.

Tourism is changing radically in past few years with the emergence of e-tourism. Study published by Price Watehouse Coopers 2009 establish the anual turnover of e-tourism at 68 billions euros a year (http://bit.ly/hnV30b) . Now more than 52 % of hotel rooms bookings are done through the internet in Switzerland (Roland Schegg - HES ). All sectors of e-tourism are affected by this quick growth. To support development of the e-tourism industry well trained workers are needed by the companies. Lack of well trained professionnals is obvious as reported by Insights.org.uk (http://www.insights.org.uk/articleitem.aspx?title=e-Tourism+and+Destination+Management+Organisations).

There are 3 channels to train professionnals : 1/ Classic ICT training plus tourism specific trainings 2/ Tourism trainings with specialisation with ICT 3/ Specific e-tourism trainings . those 3 different approaches are mainly based on national qualification frameworks. Promoting mobility for professionals in the different EU countries is an objective of european policy. Due to the different approaches and lack of common framework this objective is difficult to reach. e-TF will set up a common framework to face this.

e-TF supports students to choose trainings offers in accordance with job market needs.  e-Tourism specific trainings have started in some of European countries and will start in others. Setting up a well recognised Framework for e-tourism in accordance with job market needs will support harmonised development of the industry.

e-TF is a market driven project with a balanced consortium of ICT professionnals, tourism professionals whose expertise  allows to analyse market needs, issue jobs (or function profiles) and training guidelines.

e-Tourism Framework (e-TF) is derivated from e-Competence Framework (eCF) issued by the European Comitee for Normalisation (CEN/ISSS) by adaptation from European Qualification Framework (EQF) . The e-TF will be issued according to the methodology developped by the EQFCode project to adapt eCF to internet jobs. EQFCode was highly evaluated by the German Leonardo Agency who invited the team to extend EQFCode to other job sectors (see evaluation in annex).
Furthermore the e-TF will set up a quality label of excellence for training organisations which are in accordance with job market needs.

Certification of trainings in accordance with job market needs will reinsure students and will support to provide well trained workers, enhancing transparency and comparability. e-TF will support development of industry and reduce unemployment.

Equipe de travail : Roland Schegg, Kate Varini, Sandra Bürcher.