The tourism and hospitality sector is structurally unsuccessful in attracting staff and retaining staff in the long term. The turnover in the sector is relatively high, which has increased further due to the COVID pandemic and the temporary closure of large parts of the sector. In addition, the student intake for education within the hospitality domain (Leisure, Tourism & Hospitality domain) is falling at the VET and Higher Education level.

The Dutch Taskforce for Cooperation in the Leisure, Tourism and Hospitality Sector has included 'Developing a (qualitative and quantitative) knowledge infrastructure for human-capital issues in the leisure, tourism and hospitality sector' in its new Action Agenda. A separate working group, consisting of representatives of industry organisations as well as the Ministry of EZK, CELTH and Breda University of Applied Sciences as one of the partner universities of applied sciences, has taken up this action. The parties work together – in a triple helix context – on a sustainable labor market, in which problems and solutions are identified and efforts are made to attract, train and retain (future) professionals for the domain in a sustainable manner. Since challenges and solutions can differ per sector and per region, insight, elaboration and implementation are needed at national, sectoral and regional levels.

Specifically, the parties raise the following points for attention, which should be involved in the approach and agenda development:

1. Provide data, knowledge and insight
2. Develop a common vision on sustainable employment practices
3. Develop a common vision on education, education and training
4. Ensure a joint approach to labor market communication.

Based on previous work done in the Next Tourism Generation project (https://nexttourismgeneration.eu), Breda University of Applied Sciences provided a research methodology to assess current skills gaps and future skills needs. The Skills Assessment Methodology (SAM) is a tool that has been designed to identify current and future workforce skills at a national or regional level. As a key element of the Blueprint Strategy, the NTG Skills Assessment Methodology was developed as a research-based, structural mechanism for the analysis of rapidly changing skills and skills needs to develop strategies for addressing skills gaps in the EU Tourism Sector. The focus of the SAM are the skillsets necessary for the future of the workforce, specifically: digital, green and social skills.

The benefit of the SAM is that it can be used at multiple levels: regional, national or international, adding flexibility and improving feasibility. Although it was developed for assessing digital, green and social skills needs in five tourism subsectors, it can be easily expanded and used to address skills needs in other tourism ecosystems.

The SAM has been used in eight European countries to create a skills profile of the tourism sector and to formulate a response strategy. This resulted in the production of eight skills reports on current skills gaps and future skills needs. The SAM will be rolled out in at least five other European countries in the coming four years. 

Additionally, new Skills Assessment activities will be carried out throughout the PANTOUR project where Breda University of Applied Sciences leads the research approach on Skills Intelligence. The goal is to ensure a continuous and sustainable supply of Skills Intelligence that feed into sector-wide curricula, integrating work-based learning in the tourism ecosystem and addressing urgent skills needs.

The sustainability of the PANTOUR project is partly based on developing a European Quality Framework that partner countries and other EU members can use to standardise cross-institute recognition of relevant modules and training content. 

Breda University of Applied Sciences develops and shares knowledge on current skills gaps and future skills needs, with an objective to develop a continuous and sustainable supply of Skills Intelligence that SMEs, educational institutions and other training providers can use to develop tourism-related curricula and practical courses to meet the most urgent needs. This Skills Intelligence Mechanism would be available for tourism training providers (as open access) by the year 2023.