©2007 Mario Galea

MHRA and MTA Lead EU Funded Leonardo Project

Delegates from five European countries have been in Malta for a conference, rounding up their involvement in an EU funded project led by the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association and the Malta Tourism Authority. The conference was held at the Victoria Hotel on September 14.

‘HOTSME’ was a 30-month project (2005-2007) which was being promoted by MHRA with the technical support of the MTA’s Industry HR Development Unit.

The EU contributed € 439,000 for this project.

The aim of HOTSME (acronym project title for Hotel SMEs) is to provide managers and employees of small and medium hotels with the opportunity of engaging in continuous professional development, through workplace learning. The focus is on the facilitation of new learning approaches aiming to create a lifelong learning culture at the workplace.

Malta was among a group of six countries participating in the project, the others being Denmark, Germany, Lithuania, Portugal and Spain. Malta focused on the 48 three-star hotels on the islands, with a total of 57 employees, chosen for the pilot study in Malta. The other partner countries had similar pilot studies, which led to the final programme.

A DVD-ROM, including written materials and a methodological guide in all the national languages of the participating countries, was developed.

The HOTSME project was nominated as one of the 50 success stories for the Leonardo da Vinci Community programme (Innovative projects contributing to the Copenhagen Process – Linking policy to practice).

For further information please contact Joseph Tanti, Head of HR Development, MTA on joseph.tanti@visitmalta.com / or visit the project web site at www.hotsmeleonardo.com