With the aim of strengthening public education and modernizing the tourism sector, which is vital for the Greek economy, the possibility of placing graduates from the Higher Schools of Tourism Development in Departments of Higher Education Institutions with the main subject of tourism studies was announced.
With a provision in the Ministry of Tourism’s bill currently debated and approved entitled “Strengthening tourist infrastructures and tourist education, updating the framework for the exercise of the profession of tourist guides and timeshare rental”, a fair solution is provided to the issue of the educational level of ASTE graduates and a new perspective for this great human capital that equips tourism companies with vision, desire and specialized training.
Double the benefit
The benefits of this development are twofold. On the one hand, it allows us to maintain the professional nature of the ASTE curriculum, whose graduates are therefore highly sought after and absorbed by the tourism job market, while on the other hand, they acquire all the academic and professional rights enjoyed by FOREVER graduates. Regarding this legislative reform initiative, the relevant ministers stated:
Minister of Education, Religious Affairs and Sports, Kyriakos Pierrakakis said:
“A constant priority of our ministry is the maximization of educational possibilities and the greatest possible training of the human capital that our country has and of which we are proud. Future challenges require us to accelerate cuts in this regard and that is what we will do. We carry on!”.
The Minister of Tourism, Olga Kefalogianni stated:
“The new cycle we are opening in Greek tourism focuses on its qualitative development. At the heart of this development policy is human capital. Our strategic objective is therefore to update and modernize tourism education based on modern challenges. The legislative initiative we are promoting strengthens the sector as a whole, solving problems and broadening the perspectives of tourism market executives.”