Pilot applications have begun in the second year of the EU-supported ALTSO VOC-Test Center: Standards in Work, Quality in Service project, which aims to ensure the provision of formal and non-formal vocational education and training in accordance with the needs of the labor market, to support lifelong learning, to strengthen the relationship between education and employment, and to facilitate alignment with the European Qualifications Framework (EQF).
For this purpose, the pilot exam application was launched at Green Garden Apart Otel on Monday, June 11, 2012. ALTSO, which will provide certification for accommodation facility employees not only in our region but from all over our country, will be the organization that increases awareness of the National Qualification System within the regional tourism sector and takes the lead regarding this professional competence in the region.
Within the framework of these activities, a series of pilot exams are being conducted to measure and evaluate the feasibility of the national competencies in the Front Office Clerk (Level 4) and Front Office Manager (Level 5) fields—the preparations for which have been completed and submitted for review—in order to finalize them before presenting them to the Vocational Qualifications Authority Tourism Sector Committee. The theoretical pilot exams, which are the first stage of the pilot exams that will be conducted in two stages, both theoretically and practically, at 5 hotels of different scales in various regions of Alanya, are continuing. The purpose of these ongoing exams is to observe how these professions are performed in practice, to determine whether the prepared competencies meet the needs of the sector, and to identify how closely those working in these professions perform their duties in accordance with the standards.
Pointing out that in the first implementation starting at Green Garden Apart Otel, their own front office employees took part in the pilot exam, ALTİD Vice President Hayriye Sadullahoğlu Argun noted that a pilot application has begun for a project in which ALTİD is a partner and which will gain great importance in the future, and that at the end of the project, progress is being rapidly made toward establishing an examination and certification center in Alanya. She mentioned that the exams are of a testing nature for the implementation, and that potential changes within the scope of the prepared competencies and questions will be identified during these exams, and that the regulations determined before the start of the project will be carried out. She stated that through this ongoing project, the institution will become the organization that increases awareness regarding the National Competency System of the tourism sector in the region and leads in this professional competency in the region.