Trainers Handbook

Festival and outdoor events are a huge economic sector but, as yet, still form part of the wider events management discipline in terms of education. In our research (pre-Covid), we found the majority of event management courses address sustainability issues in a very limited way: in the form of Corporate Social Responsibility or some “green” marketing, and the underlying profit-driven business models remain unchanged. Teachers, especially those with few links to real-world practice, need confirmation that other, inherently more sustainable, business models exist and real-life case studies and examples to illustrate this.

The overarching objective of the FUTURE FESTIVALS TOOLS Trainer’s Handbook for Vocational Education and Training is to ensure that the educational resources we have developed are not only useful and used widely among festival coordinators and events’ managers working today but are integrated into the EU VET education system so that the coordinators and managers of tomorrow develop improved environmental and entrepreneurial competences.

Our specific objective is to raise awareness and commitment to increasing the teaching of festival/ outdoor event sustainability in vocational education and provide teaching staff with practical resources. We have developed two essential VET resources to achieve this objective that helps trainers gain the most from our other Future Festival Tools resources:

1) TRAINERS HANDBOOK for Vocational Education and Training targets managers and teaching staff of post-secondary VET organisations providing taught courses primarily in the field of event management but also in hospitality, catering, and wider business and marketing courses. The Handbook spans an Educator’s Introduction to Future Festival Tools
• Future Festivals Self-Assessment Tool
• Green Festival Stories – A collection of inspiring examples from across Europe
• The Future Festival Tools Event Sustainability E-Learning course
• The VET Trainers Handbook

Educators will benefit from cutting edge insights and direction in the following sections:-
• Future Festival Tools key focus areas and the project’s relevance to contemporary VET
• Navigating the Landscape: current state and skill gaps in event sustainability across European nations, the UK, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, France. Each country is reviewed in terms of similarities, differences and opportunities.
• Interactive Guides and Classroom Applications
• A User Guide and Recommendations
• Applying the Tools for Classroom Use includes an Instructional Guide, Effective Teaching Strategies. Enhancing Engagement with Technology and Collaborative Learning.
• Finally, very user-friendly Assessment Methods, Sample Lesson Plans and Conclusions ensure the VET trainer is fully equipped to teach Future Festival Tools to its maximum pedagogical value.