VENI is the Visitor Economy Network Initiative that will bring educators and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) closer together, whilst creating opportunities for young people to develop work-ready skills and participate in and learn more about their local visitor economy.
The initial stages in the creation of a VENI skills prospectus involved the selections of a range of courses aimed at SMEs in the visitor economy, educators and students. The offer was required to be sufficiently broad to cover the needs of SME and adequately robust to meet the needs of aspirant labour still in education.
The project will involve consultation with stakeholders through feedback around concerns, comments and suggestions from the business community in order to reflect on the strategic alignment of content to the overall direction on the visitor economy.
A pilot study of will take place through the delivery of a series of courses where participation will be logged, before going onto evaluate the success of delivery through feedback forms and other means of follow-up. The project will be reviewed at regular intervals to assess overall effectiveness of programme, demand for individual course and the need to revise the course offering to meet ever-changing industry demands.
Newsletters will be produced on a monthly basis to promote existing courses and communicate any new course additions to support ongoing demand.
A draft version of the VENI skills prospectus has been created and shared with VENI partners for feedback, all of which has been extremely positive to date. Any builds have been incorporated into the final draft and the final version is due to launch imminently.
Selected courses have been offered to WSC students as part of a pilot study to measure uptake, from which several bookings have been secured for delivery in January. This is a positive start to the project, indicating the course offer is in line with current demand.
As a result of feedback and pilot uptake, additional course concepts are already being developed which are planned to form part of the follow up prosecutors, following the launch of the initial version.
Produce prospectus – work with SMEs; educators, and students to produce a skills prospectus which is sufficiently broad to cover SME needs, and adequately robust to meet the needs of aspirant labour still in education.
Consultation with stakeholders – write up concerns, comments, suggestions from the business community and reflect on the strategic alignment of content to the overall direction on the visitor economy.
Pilot study of courses – run a series of courses from the skills prospectus, log all participation, and evaluate success of delivery through feedback forms and other means of follow-up.
Review and refinement – assess overall effectiveness of programme.
Report on outcomes – produce a presentation on findings and report to internal FEPDG panel.
