Developing Communities of Practice in SMEs of Tourism Sector

Renée FiliusIvlos, University of Utrecht

Introduction

I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.

Albert Einstein

What do you want to know more about?

What’s a virtual CoP?Aims & motives of WLT project

What can we use a CoP for? (Functions)

Examples of CoP’s

Results of WLT project

Why focus on tourism sector & SME?

Major challenges

Benefits to learners, educators and other organisations

How to make a succesfull CoP?

Fundamental issues in the development of appropriate learning contexts and environments for SMEs

Appropriate models and ICT-tools for informal learning

Program

Project:• Informal learning

• SME’s

• Tourism sector

• International

We use Communities of Practice You can join us!

Why tourism sector/ SME?

Especially hard to get good support at reasonable profits

Research shows: SMEs do problemsolving by talking, but hard to find the right people and no training available

Particularly important with new challenges (e.g. the effect of low cost Internet based airlines on small travel agents).

Motives

Less possibilities for formal learning so create possibilities for informal learning

Bring people together to work together in different ways to find solutions to their problems and in the process learn new ideas.

Aim of the project

To setup and sustain virtual Communities of Practice (CoP’s)

of SMEs in the tourist sector in order to facilitate and support lifelong learning

of professionals in the workplace

What’s a virtual CoP?

Group whose members regulary engage in sharing and learning, based on common interest

Informal learning, often self organised and self selected

Online working group Through working and learning together, they

generate knowledge and constantly reinforce and renew themselves

A CoP in tourism sector can be used by, for example:

Communication Database Question Bank (FAQ) Sharing favorite links and documents Creating new knowledge Calender for events Bringing problems and solutions together

ResultsInsight into• Innovative developments• Learning needs

16 regional CoP’s5 international CoP’s

Webportal

Guidelines for:• Implementing COP’s• Relating CoP’s to vocational training

Knowledge dissemination :• 5 seminars (sector organisations)• Paper and journal articles

Tools & models to support COP’sSystem for monitoring & evaluating CoP’s

Organisation

2-years project: Oct 2005 - Oct 2007 Funded by the European Union (Leonardo da Vinci

program).

Example: CoP of this project

Example: CoP of CoPs

CoP’s are themes based

Thematically focused:• Rural tourism• Wellness• Hotel/ restaurant issues, e.g. starters

Chosen by the members themselves Not competitive, but work-related, rooted in daily-

work processes E.g.: Seasonal fluctuations, quality, collaboration,

customers, e-business, environment, tourism developments..

Every CoP will be supported

A moderator facilitates the process. Experts can be invited to participate. Researchers will monitor and evaluate the

process. In the end the group will belong to and be run by

its participants, with the project team in a supporting role.

Project Partners

IVLOS Universiteit Utrecht, Netherlands InfoWERK Schwaz, Austria IFS Innsbruck, Austria EBS Tallinn, Estonia Florida Centre Valencia, Spain CF&L Bologna, Italy Training 2000 Mondavio, Italy HBI Zoetermeer, Netherlands Maramures Baia Mare, Romania Rolnet Bucharest, Romania NTA Ljubljana, Slovenia Pontydysgu Pontypridd, UK (evaluator)

Current Status

8 out of 16 CoP’s are being created, 8 more to go

3 types of community emerging in design process Existing but dominant group (travel agents) Existing potential group (rural tourism

accommodation) Potential group: still to be created (small hotels)

Challenges

Can you ‘create’ a Community of Practice? How do you stimulate communication? Are people willing to share their knowledge? Both

national and international? How do you increase the likelihood of creating

knowledge?

How to participate?

Participation is free, although we expect you to spend time in participation. Furthermore you need to have a computer with Internet access to join our networks. Please send an e-mail if you are interested in participation: r.m.filius@ivlos.uu.nl

We will invite you to fill in a brief online questionnaire to investigate what your needs are, related to our networks. We will also inform you about the progress.

Final remarks

At first the community will irregulary communicate and perhaps share information. It takes time before it starts sharing and creating knowledge!

Be patient, the value of the community increases as the users are more inclined to see the community as a useful source and a place to communicate and collaborate.

You can lead the horse to the water, but you can’t make him drink.

Back to the introduction

I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.

Albert Einstein

Questions to you?

Do you think a CoP could be a good tool of sharing knowledge and learning from each other?

Do you think a CoP is an effective tool within the tourism sector?

Do you have any suggestions for this projectteam?

Questions?

More information: www.worklearntogether.org