EcoSmart Hospitality has reached an exciting stage as the project begins piloting the Digital and Green Competence Framework and Curriculum. These resources are designed to support Europe’s hospitality sector as it responds to the growing need for sustainability, digital transformation, ESG awareness and crisis resilience.
At the heart of the resources is a clear goal: to identify the skills, knowledge and behaviours that hospitality professionals need to thrive in a greener and more digitally enabled future. The Digital and Green Competence Framework maps the essential competencies required by the sector, while the Curriculum translates these into flexible learning pathways that can be used in vocational education and training, online learning, blended delivery, workshops, or integrated into existing hospitality programmes.
A key strength of the EcoSmart approach is that these outputs are being tested with the people who will use and benefit from them. Target groups include hospitality SMEs and business owners, who can provide insight into day-to-day operational pressures; VET educators and trainers, who can assess how practical and teachable the materials are; learners and future hospitality professionals, who can comment on accessibility and relevance; and policymakers or sector support organisations, who can help ensure the outputs align with wider sustainability and skills priorities.
User testing is essential because high-quality resources cannot be built on assumptions alone. By gathering feedback from these target groups, the EcoSmart partnership can refine the framework and curriculum so they are clear, practical, sector-relevant and easy to apply.
Through this piloting process, EcoSmart is helping to ensure that its final outputs genuinely meet the needs of hospitality education, businesses and the wider sector.