On 10 October 2015, dissemination and piloting of the project KeySkills4EUHotelStaff was prepared for a group of 1st year students, Romanian Language and Literature – English Language and Literature BA, at the Miercurea Ciuc campus of Sapientia University.
The presentation mainly focused on the FrontDesk programs and the mobile apps. All the participants of the presentation had been sent the apps and FrontDesk programs to install them on their tablets, PCs and mobile devices so that they could start using them. The students were shown how the FrontDesk programs worked and how they can be used on a tablet or a PC. They were also presented the smartphone apps.
All of them gained useful information on the project. All students present found the presentation of the project useful.
Regarding the smartphone apps all students present answered that they gained useful information. All of them use Android OS. All of them evaluated the design of the apps as being very good. They said it was very easy to use and said it was quite easy to find the information they were looking for in the apps. If the apps were available on their device, 4 of them would likely use it, other 4 would quite likely use it.
Regarding the usefulness of the apps for their university, they answered that the apps would be useful. 6 students would likely recommend the apps to others. All students answered the question about knowing any hospitality-based multilingual apps that this was the only one.
Regarding the FrontDesk programs, all students answered that they gained useful information and use Windows OS.
All of them evaluated the layout and design of the Front Desk programs as being very good.
If the FrontDesk programs were available on their computers, 4 would likely use them, 4 would very likely use them.
Regarding the usefulness of the FrontDesk programs for their university, all of them answered as being useful. All of them would likely recommend the FrontDesk programs to others. All students answered that they did not know any hospitality-based multilingual software programs.
All the students present were advised to feel free to contact project coordinator if they have any further questions regarding the apps.
Zsuzsanna Ajtony
Project team manager of Sapientia University, Romania
On February 9, 2016, a group of colleagues has visited the Faculty of Economics, Socio-Human Sciences and Engineering, Miercurea Ciuc of Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania from Höchere Fachschule für Tourismus (HFT) Tourismus Akademie, Luzern and Thun, Switzerland who were also interested in the activities of the Department of Humanities.
On this occasion Zsuzsanna Ajtony, lecturer of the Department, manager of the Sapientia team, presented the Erasmus+ international project the department is involved in, entitled “Key Skills for EU Hotel Staff”. Marcel Furer and Daniel Mahler were given leaflets of the project. After having been presented with both the apps and the e-learning platform, they showed great interest in our project and asked questions.
After the meeting, we agreed that in the near future Swiss students will visit our faculty for a study trip and we included a possible future collaboration in the domain of tourism and languages.
Zsuzsanna Ajtony
Project Manager of Sapientia team
From 26 February till 28 February, 2016 Turiba University presented the study opportunities in the annual exhibition “School 2016”, held in Kipsala International Exhibition Centre in Riga, Latvia.
This year “School 2016” gathered more than 18 thousand visitors. This exhibition is the most important event of the year in the field of education welcoming 140 participant education institutions from Latvia, the USA, France, Estonia, Canada, Russia, Great Britain, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Germany.
In Turiba University booth everyone interested could find information about the study possibilities in Turiba University, as well as information about the project “Skills4Hotels”. Two Turiba University team members worked at the booth and disseminated “Skills4Hotels” project. Attendants, mainly young students, their parents and teachers, were distributed project leaflets and brochures as well as they could get first-hand information from the project staff.
Anete Veipane and Evita Vecvagare
Project team members of Turiba University Latvia
After the teachers’ workshop held on February 10, 2016, Turiba University team has started course piloting with their students.
The first students who piloted the course were the first year tourism students studying English for Special Purposes. In order to learn how the platform functions, students did A2/B1 modules “Restaurant” and “Restaurant kitchen” which was a good practice for them and enabled the students to revise the vocabulary acquired during their regular studies. Next, we continued with B2/C1 module “Catering Service”.
The first impressions are positive. Students enjoyed the platform and evaluated the learning process as interesting, useful and they admitted that they had learnt many new things.
The course piloting will continue till the end of semester and Turiba University will pilot not only English modules but also modules in other languages, for example Russian and Spanish.
Dr.paed. Ineta Luka
Professor
Project manager of Turiba University, Latvia
On the 22 and 23 January 2016 the 8th Informativa – the fair for education and professions took place in Ljubljana. At this fair secondary school as well as faculties, universities and other types of education institutions from almost all parts of Slovenia present their study programmes and future professions to potential students. We took this opportunity to present our project to a broader public – students, teachers, parents and other visitors of the fair. We prepared brochures with the description of our project but we also presented the e-learning platform and the material on it so far. In addition we presented the Front Desk programs and showed how they worked. We also presented the mobile apps and how they worked. They were the most popular, especially with students. However, they also found the e-learning platform very interesting and useful – for individual studying but also for using it in class. We were also visited by Mrs Nataša Hafner-Vojčić, a representative of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, who is also involved in Erasmus+ activities. She was very enthusiastic and impressed by the work that had been done so far. The project is also listed in the catalogue published by the event organiser.
Erna Vöröš
Project manager of Ekonomsska šola Murska Sobota
On the 20 January 2016 the traditional event Najdi študij.si – Pomurje 2016 took place at Ekonomska šola Murska Sobota. This is a type of education fair on a smaller scale where educational institutions from all parts of Slovenia come to Ekonomska šola Murska Sobota to present their study programmes to potential students from the region. The event started a few years ago as this was cheaper for the students from our region than going to Ljubljana, where the education fair Informativa on a bigger scale takes place every year. This year about 30 different educational institutions presented their study programmes. We took the opportunity to present our project to students from all parts of the region and they were mostly impressed by the mobile apps which is not a real surprise considering that they spend a lot of time using their mobile phones. We also presented the Front Desk programs and the e-learning platform which they found interesting as well but their favourites were the mobile apps.
Erna Vöröš
Project manager of Ekonomska šola Murska Sobota
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.