Resources

Please note that this is a long term process outside the scope of the Provisional Learning Area Project phase, but should be taken note of in discussions

Currently the resources of the Algarve PLA have not been listed. An inventory of Learning Area resources will be a useful step once the project is running. Initially though, resources to start the project have been thought to be the working time of the members of each organisation, plus what each organisation can offer in terms of expertise and in-house material goods and physical space within present development programmes and budgets.

To facilitate this process, a Technical Form for describing resources in a Tourism Learning Area is provided below.

Resources can be initially be divided into:

• Working Group Start up Resources
• Tourism Learning Area Physical, Technical and Financial Resources

Measuring, managing and improving on the resources a TLA has at its disposal are necessary tasks of a coordination body. Human, Physical, Technical and Financial Resources need to be quantified and qualified and kept up to date.

Working Group Start up Resources

• Commitment of initiator
• Commitment of coordinating partners
• Funding Applications in process

Tourism Learning Area Human Physical, Technical Financial and Natural Resources

The approach to filling in this form is to start to list all the fixed premises where formal learning experiences occur, then expand on the sources of more mobile and informal learning experiences.

1. Human Resources

Population description

• Numbers
• level of education
• economic classifications

  2. Physical Resources:

General Description of built infrastructure:

• Access routes
• Premises (number of fixed educational locations, educational facilities)

4. Financial Resource Potential

  A policy grid for potential fund identification is given below.

4.1. Tourism Learning Area Governance Papers Policy Grid

  NB Note that this has been presented in the new tourism Learning Areas Governance Grid format

The following policies can be explored to see what budget lines are available for resourcing the PLA coordination, and strengthening the Learning Resources in the region.

Learning Areas Governance Papers Policy Grid

Name of Policy Document

Target group SMEs /Micro enterprises

Co-ordination

Target group Workforce individuals

Administrative / Geographical Level

European

DG Enterprise Basic Guidance for the Orientation of Sustainable Tourism (Nov 2003)

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

National

Ministerio de Economia Plano de Desenvolvimento do sector do turismo

X

X

X

X

X

CNADS Programma National de Implementacao de Estragia National de Desinvolvimento Sustantavél

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

ICN Rede Natura 2000

X

X

Min de Seg Social Programma Rede Social

X

Regional

CCDR Plano Regional de Ordenamento do Territorio do Algarve

X

X

X

X

X

X

CCDR INOVAlgarve

X

X

X

Regio de turismo do Algarve Prot-Algarve PRTA

X

X

Regio de turismo do Algarve Plano de Agenda 21 do Turismo do Algarve

X

X

Local

Lagos Council Lagos 2020

X

X

X

X

X

X

5. Natural Resources

• Ecosystem inventory
• Biodiversity

Summary of Learning Area Experiences

Background

The Tourism Learning Areas initiative has been taken by the European Commission's DG Enterprise, who wish to resolve sectoral problems such as low skill levels, numerical lack of qualified personnel, low status and lack of coordination. 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 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.