This is a comparative transnational report of identified barriers and needs of the tourism and hospitality sector regarding KCs 6 and KC8. This joint report is based on the insights from the five national analytical reports made in each partner’s country, following a common methodology in each territory. The report identifies patterns and necessities common at European level and also detects geographical particularities in those sectors.

It covers all the components of the Social Skills and Cultural Awareness and targets every EU citizen that desires to have quality of personal life and a prosperous career in the tourism and hospitality sector. The training curriculum aims to further develop the personal, interpersonal and intercultural communication skills. It supports business initiatives in the tourism and industry sector, while it is supported by pedagogical material. The training curriculum has been tested in all partner-countries (Greece, Spain, UK, Sweden and Cyprus) and is available in four (4) national languages (EN, GR, ES, SE).

The methodological guide is a guide for trainers enriched with a pool of methodological tools, such as theoretical material, contents and methodology approaches for the trainers to use. Additional to the guide, the trainer’s toolkit supplements the developed Cs.Tour training Curriculum and guides them in covering all necessary information for a person involved in the tourism and hospitality industry. The methodological guide and the trainer's toolkit has been tested in all partner-countries (Greece, Spain, UK, Sweden and Cyprus) and are available in four (4) national languages (EN, GR, ES, SE).

 The CS.Tour trainees’ syllabus is an educational material for the development of professionals in the tourism and hospitality industry. It gives the opportunity to everyone who wants to be trained and certified in Social skills and Cultural Awareness.  The trainees’ syllabus consists of five (5) modules:

A.                  Culture in Intercultural Communication,

B.                  Emotional Intelligence in Intercultural Environments,

C.                  Culture and Cultural Awareness

D.                  Cultural Diversity and

E.                   Digitization and Tourism

The trainees Syllabus is an innovative training material in terms of its content. It supports the participants to develop core skills including the ability to communicate constructively in multicultural environments and to develop cultural knowledge about national and European cultural heritage, cultural skills related to both appreciation and expression and cultural attitude towards the respect of cultural diversity.

The trainees Syllabus is available in Greek language

CS.Tour e-platform is an access point for print, audio and visual materials in numerous formats, with relative material developed for Social competences and Cultural Awareness and Expression. The user is able to see, read and download the available learning resources. The learning resources are categorized per module (A-E) and are available into the following categories: Books, Articles, Curricula, PPT files, relevant links, tools for the trainers and Videos.  

The CS.Tour partnership has developed an online pre-assessment test to define participants’ training pathway. Overall, it includes 105 questions on Social Skills and Cultural Awareness. Usually, it is used before a training take place in order the trainer to evaluate trainee’s knowledge on Social skills and cultural awareness.

The accreditation scheme has been developed by the CS.Tour partner ACTA for the certification of skills, knowledge and attitudes of the Social competences and Cultural Awareness and Expression. The development of the accreditation scheme follows the ISO/IEC 17024:2003 standard. This international standard specifies requirements for a body certifying persons against specific requirements, including the development of a certification scheme for persons.

The overall accreditation scheme is in correspondence with the CS.Tour Curriculum, Trainer's methodological guide & toolkit and Trainees Syllabus, completing the whole package for KCs 6 & 8.

It includes 268 Questions and Answers. The pool of the testing questions (30 in total) cover the entire trainees’ syllabus and the training material in terms of the pre-defined knowledge, skills and attitudes described in the developed curricula.

The CS.Tour certification process took place in Greece and Cyprus in December 2017 and January 2018.