DEVELOPING AND ALIGNING COMPETENCES IN THE TOURISM INDUSTRY. THE SMART PROJECT EXPERIENCE

The tourism sector is a leading socio-economical driver in most European countries, thanks to its relevant weight on the nationals gross income, to its potential impact on many strategic social drivers (inclusiveness, cultural heritage and cross fertilization, sustainability, and so on), to its indirect impacts on the local development and to the other economic sectors. This is confirmed by the fact that in the new EU strategic and programmatic framework tourism is considered a "no-sector", in order to valorize it in a multidimensional, multilevel and cross-sector approach. Matching "tourism competences" demand and supply and, then, dynamically aligning job market needs and VET offer represent a strategic employment and economic challenge addressed, both at EU and national levels, by institutional programs and initiative (such us the definition of a EU based structured model of tourism skills/competences within the ESCO frame) as well as by many research, and experimental, projects. Within this frame and research stream, SMART (Supporting dynamic MAtching for Regional developmenT; TOI project funded under the LLL Programme) aims at addressing these challenges with special refer to the competence dynamic alignment of the Tourism Industry (Hospitality, Catering and Travels) in Andalusia Region. The overall objective of the SMART system is to provide a methodology and a tool to harmonize the VET offer with the demand of the Labour market in a timely, effective and localized manner. After giving a short overview of the relevant challenges and evidences on skill matching, both at national and EU level, the paper will describe the main goals, finding and results of the SMART model and system carried on in the Andalusian tourism sector.