RTI - European Standards - European Curriculum

European Curriculum

Curriculum
As part of the Leonardo project “Hospitality in Rural Tourism” a European Rural Tourism training curricula for entrepreneurs has been developed. The curricula is based on an analysis of existing training materials and best practices in Europe and has been developed by the project partners in close co-operation with the Rural Tourism Training network. The curricula is a living document and will be further refined in the future.
Comments and suggestions regarding the proposed curricula are highly welcomed!

Motivation
The curricula should be seen as a reference and checklist for trainers and training institutions planning to develop a new training program or wishing to comply their existing program with the European standard. We believe that all themes and topics mentioned are part of the basic relevant knowledge of a rural tourism accommodation provider. However the curricula is flexible in it’s implementation, e.g. the time spent on a certain theme and the methodology used will strongly depend on the specific target group.

The Standard Curricula
The curriculum is divided into ten sections together dealing with all the relevant themes within rural tourism training:
1. Tourism and recreation
2. Hospitality
3. Accommodation
4. Food and catering
5. Activities
6. Nature, environment and local culture
7. Marketing and promotion
8. Legislation
9. Health and safety
10. Management

With regards to the curricula we define 4 levels:

• Pre-starter course
  The Pre-starter level is aimed those (potential) rural entrepreneurs which are considering to start with offering rural tourism services. After a pre-starter course the trainee should be able to make a well considered decision: go or no go
• Foundation course
  The Foundation level will teach the provider the foundation of being a rural tourism provider.
• Advanced course
  The Advanced level is aimed at making excellent providers of already experienced service providers.
• Specialized courses
  The specialized courses are aiming to provide a competitive advantage of the providers by creating specialization.

International partners
It is foreseen that international stakeholder organizations will recognise the European curricula and certificate. Contacts are presently being made with European farmers unions, training and educational networks, and Rural Tourism roof organizations.

Click here to download the complete curriculum