ZAGREB, October 27, 2019 – A 1.4 million kuna project “Experience multi-cultural tourism!”, financed entirely with money from EU funds, was presented at the Roma House in the village of Maglenca near Bjelovar on Saturday.
The Bjelovar-based Adepto Open University, in cooperation with a company which owns a hotel in Garešnica, has developed the project, designed to help vulnerable groups access the labour market in the tourism sector. The project is based on unique food products of the numerous ethnic minorities living in Bjelovar-Bilogora County.
Of Croatia’s 22 ethnic minorities, as many as 21 live in that county.
The main purpose of the 14-month project is to develop three new, unique market-based education programmes – for cooks of multi-ethnic food, hosts of multicultural events, and on-line sale and booking agents. The programmes are especially intended for vulnerable groups and job-seekers in the tourism and restaurant sectors.
Education programmes will be simultaneously attended by mentors so that they can perfect their communication skills.
Alen Kaminski of the Adeptio Open University said that as one of the strategic and fastest growing economic branches in Croatia and the rest of the world, tourism was faced with problems which formal education could not adequately respond to due to the speed of development and changes in the habits of users of tourism products.
The EU has recognised that problem and this project is a result of that, he said.
“We want to improve relations between the private market and the education sector, enable the transfer of competence and eventually develop three entirely new market-based training programmes,” Kaminski said.
More news about national minorities in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.
