Having noted the three step process stated in the toolkit, stakeholder have arrived, through discussions during the partnership-building process, at the following objectives:

To establish a list of interested stakeholders
To establish a working group
To develop a preliminary website
To prepare a funding application
To set up a Tourism Learning Area for the region

1.6 Tourism Learning Area Algarve

Background
The regional project to improve the formal and informal education and awareness levels of all concerned with the tourism sector in the Algarve was launched in May, 2004. The Algarve, with 5 million annual visitors to its 300km coastline, is the only area chosen to represent the Southern European-style coastal tourism destinations in this phase of developing a Handbook on how to set up Learning Areas.

Aims
The Algarve Tourism Learning Area Project aims to use the European level work of DG Enterprise to establish coherent regional level development of the tourism sector's learning needs. The end result of the regional project will be to have a genuine stakeholder forum that will enable improved knowledge exchange in general, and act as a specific one stop system for tourism learning experience providers to collectively organise and market their work, with SMEs and the regional tourism workforce as key focal points. To achieve this, a coordination process needs to be developed in order to set up a regional knowledge network for the tourism sector. It will use a website Portal to bring the partners in the network together, so that people wishing to improve their knowledge and skills about all things to do with tourism can have a single point of contact to lead them to the information they need.

Progress so far
In June 2004, twenty five representatives of the leading regional administrative and private sector bodies attended a working seminar hosted by the regional tourism hospitality college, including the key organizations related to the sectors of employment, tourism, education and information technology. In the meeting, participants agreed to establish a working group to coordinate the project. The Euro Info Centre agreed to provide the administrative support for this phase. It was also agreed that existing Algarve Digital Portal should be the natural home of the Tourism Learning Area knowledge base, and that organisations present at the meeting will make the first small step by listing their websites in a unified web-page. A proposed mission statement reads:

'The Algarve Tourism Learning Area has been established as an informal open access partnership to improve the delivery of life-long learning to the tourism stakeholders in the Algarve through the development of improved regional level educational governance, networking of key stakeholders, and ongoing quality development of tourism sector learning experiences.'

Further Development
A small-scale funding application is underway to develop the coordination phase, centring on specific development of the Learning Area Portal. In this project there is a clear need for time to be spent on developing awareness, understanding, commitment and organisation of the Learning Area process. The working group will manage a technical worker who will execute and facilitate the necessary developmental steps involved in the project. A consultant from the ECOTRANS network involved in the European level Learning Area process will provide guidance, advice and monitoring throughout the work.
In May 2005 the University of Algarve 's School of Hotel and Tourism Management (ESGHT) undertook the role of learning area coordinator, and will continue the development of the process.

The Euro Info Centre has played a leading role in bringing both players and information together.

1.7 Historical Background to this initiative

Over the past few years the European Commission has gathered a lot of valuable information from all over Europe on how to improve the performance of the tourism and education sectors. Within the Commission, DG Enterprise's Tourism Unit is implementing a project that will bring together the broad processes of education and tourism using a systematic concept called a Learning Area. The idea is being applied to the tourism sector, so that the quantitative and qualitative development of stakeholder performance can be achieved by well-informed and motivated people, working together within coherent and effective educational and sectoral governance processes.

To achieve this, seven provisional learning areas are being established in different countries to see how the system will work in reality. The Algarve is one of these areas.

The move to implement the concept of Learning Areas for the Tourism Sector stems from the Human Potential debate, in which the process of Learning is seen as the key to improving our individual and collective performance, especially at work, but also with regard to social and environmental issues. DG Education and Culture developed the idea through CEDEFOP as Learning Regions or Learning Communities , which are now being disseminated through the R3L (Regional Life Long Learning) Initiative.

In 2001, t he Commission Communication Working together for the future of European tourism focused part of its attention on how t o improve training in order to upgrade skills in the tourism industry, where issues of attracting, retaining and developing skilled labour to the sector, and supporting micro-enterprises at regional and local level to improve competitiveness were both seen as causing difficulties for tourism sector stability and growth throughout Europe.