The ERASMUS+ programme launched its call for proposals on Alliances for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills. To boost innovation and sustainability, the focus will be on digital and green skills. Directly related to the Pact for Skills of the European Commission, tourism is one of the 14 targeted sectors. Only one 4-million grant can be awarded for each sector.

The call for proposals is now open for proposals trough the EU portal. The detailed conditions of this call can be found here.

• Deadline Applicants have to submit their grant application by 15 September at 17:00:00 (Brussels time).
• EU grant (and duration): 4 million euros (4 years project) - only one proposal per industrial ecosystem can be selected for funding.

Objectives

The Alliances for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills shall implement a coherent and comprehensive set of sectoral or cross-sectoral activities, which should be adaptable to future knowledge developments across the EU. To boost innovation, the focus will be on digital skills as they are increasingly important in all job profiles across the entire labour market. Also, the transition to a circular and greener economy needs to be underpinned by changes to qualifications and national education and training curricula to meet emerging professional needs for green skills and sustainable development.

Alliances seek to create new strategic approaches and cooperation for concrete skills development solutions in a specific sector or area, including tourism. This initiative will implement one major action of the European Skills Agenda for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience, the Pact for Skills by developing a sectoral skills strategy in one of the 14 industrial ecosystems. The one interesting to us is indeed Tourism with:

• Passenger transport and travel;
• Hotels, short term accommodation;
• Restaurants and catering;
• Events, theme parks etc.

Alliances have to choose for their proposal the single industrial ecosystem which their project will address.

The main objective of the Pact for Skills is to mobilise and incentivize all relevant stakeholders to take concrete actions for the upskilling and reskilling of the workforce, by pooling efforts and setting up partnerships, also at EU level addressing the needs of the labour market, supporting green and digital transitions as well as national, regional and local skills and growth strategies. Therefore, the deliverables of Alliances for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills, i.e. sectoral skills intelligence, skills strategies, occupational profiles, training programmes, and long-term planning, will be an important contribution to the work of the sectoral partnerships that have joined the Pact for Skills.

Each Alliance shall implement a coherent, comprehensive and variable set of interconnected activities to enhance innovation in higher education, vocational education and training and enterprises (including large, small and medium-sized enterprises and social enterprises) and the broader socio economic environment.

Eligibility

Any public or private body active in the fields of education, training, youth and sport may apply for funding within the Erasmus+ Programme.

Alliances for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills (Blueprint) must cover at least 8 EU Member States and third countries associated to the Programme and involve at least 12 full partners. The partnership must include at least 5 labour market actors (enterprises or companies, or representative intermediary organisations, such as chambers, trade unions or trade associations) and at least 5 education and training providers (VET and HEIs) as full partners. There should be at least one HE institution and one VET provider involved as full partner in each proposal.

Scope

Alliances for Innovation aim to strengthen Europe’s innovation capacity by boosting innovation through cooperation and flow of knowledge among higher education (HE), vocational education and training (both initial and continuous - VET), and the broader socio-economic environment, including research. They also aim to boost the provision of new skills and address skills mismatches by designing and creating new curricula for higher education (HE) and vocational education and training (VET), supporting the development of a sense of initiative and entrepreneurial mind-sets in the EU.