Welcome to TEN-MT – A new Association for Tourism Educators

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Tourism Educators Network – Malta, in brief TEN-MT, is a new Association for persons involved in education and training in the Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Industry.

The foundation of TEN-MT is a direct result of a project funded by the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme – Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation.  This Project, entitled YES Employability, tackles the need of the Tourism Education and Vocational Training sector for a workable system of validation, transfer and recognition of skills and competencies achieved during formal, informal and non-formal circumstance, expressed in transferable units, and that can be linked to national and European frameworks presently in use.  The deliverables of the YES project include the development of an on-line database of minimum technical-professional competencies needed in the various sectors of the tourism industry and their related Learning Areas and Learning Pathways.  The on-line database is accessible at www.teempass.eu.

This is the official website of TEN-MT. Information is being added all the time. If you are interested in the work of the Association or want to join it please send us an e-mail.

Secondary school students’ perception of tourism and hospitality professions in Malta – Part 2

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by David Pace

Article published on 22 April 2012 – The Malta Independent on Sunday

Part Two: Sources of information

The EU YES Project questionnaire concerning the perceptions of secondary students to tourism and hospitality professions included questions that examined the way student perceptions are formed as shown below. The category labelled “other” includes the Internet, own work or life experience and government-organised information visits. It is important to note that the Internet option may have also been included with TV and other media.

It is not surprising that TV and other media, probably including the Internet, provide the greatest source of information concerning hospitality and tourism careers. Local TV cookery programmes are quite common and surely have an effect on imparting information although this also provides an unrealistic picture of how a real kitchen in a restaurant or hotel works.

Families have the second greatest effect on children, more so when many people work in the industry and these will surely influence students, especially parents that have hospitality or tourism jobs.

It is expected that career counsellors have quite an influence on students, but friends may also persuade students to choose certain career paths, especially if they know that they will be together once again in some higher educational institution.

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Secondary school students’ perception of tourism and hospitality professions in Malta

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by David Pace

Article published on 15 April 2012 – The Malta Independent on Sunday

Part One: Work values and popular professions

The Yes Project, an EU Leonardo Transfer of Innovation Project that was brought to the Institute of Tourism Studies by the hard work of Raymond Vassallo and his team consisting of David Pace and Martin Debattista, was finally concluded after three years of research.

The aim of the project was to construct a multi-lingual database for the description, comparison and promotion of qualifications and competences in the Hospitality Sector called the TEEMPASS (Tourism Education Employability Mobility). This can be accessed at www.teempass.eu by all hospitality and tourism workers as well as students who wish to check specific qualifications and competencies to work both in Malta and abroad.

The latest reports of the final YES Project meeting in Larnaca and specific research has been published in a book called Tourism Education, Employability and Mobility in Four Mediterranean Countries, edited by Mr Vassallo that can be downloaded as a pdf from http://ten-mt.org/articles-publications/yes-research/.

The most important part of the publication is a study entitled “Secondary School student’s perceptions in Malta”(Raymond Vassallo, 2012). This much needed scientific study collected invaluable data on how secondary school students view hospitality and tourism jobs to provide both the industry and the educational institutions a quantitative and qualitative analysis of student perceptions in these fields. This is a first for Malta and it is disappointing that it has never been attempted before to provide a much-needed snapshot of why students are/are not choosing tourism and hospitality jobs and what they expect from such professions. Continue reading →

Research on tourism perceptions officially launched

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MHRA CEO Andrew Agius Muscat (standing) and Raymond J. Vassallo, YES Project co-ordinator, at the launch of the book and presentation on TEEMPASS at the HR Forum.

The book “Tourism Education, Employability and Mobility in four Mediterranean Countries” published as part of the YES Employability Project, was officially launched at a meeting of the HR Forum of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) held on Friday 2nd March 2012 at the Grand Hotel Excelsior, Floriana, Malta.

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