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	For further information please contact us: World Tourism Organization Capitán Haya, 42 . 28020 Madrid Phone (34) 91 567 81 00 Fax (34) 91 571 37 33 educa@unwto.org

TedQual stands for Tourism Education Quality

It is a methodology aimed at improving the quality and competitiveness of
Education, Training and Research specialized in Tourism and Hospitality to meet the needs of the Tourism administrations and industry. It is especially useful for governments and industry as it gives them an opportunity to check the capacity of their human capital.

UNWTO.TedQual Certified Programmes and Institutions

WHY was the UNWTO.TedQual Certification System developed?

UNWTO is aware that there are new factors in the tourism industry that increasingly raise doubts as to the validity of using intuition or generic knowledge from other economic activities to support a professional career in tourism. These new circumstances in the tourism market generate a greater demand from tourism businesses and institutions for professionals with education, training and research capabilities in line with the requirements of the employers.

Today, some tourism education and training centres still offer rigid and static systems as they continue to respond to principles inherited from the past. The current scarcity of human resources prepared to meet the challenges of dynamic tourism markets, has led to the proliferation of specialized courses in different areas of tourism ran at different academic levels and given by a diversity of entities and organizations. This has caused a visible dispersion of efforts and a very big fragmentation in training supply with the consequent negative effects on the industry.

TedQual Certification

WHAT is the UNWTO.TedQual Certification System?
In this confusing situation, UNWTO has developed, the UNWTO.TedQual Certification System to contribute to the quality and efficiency of tourism education training and research. It proposes a methodology and voluntary standards with universal scope to more clearly define the quality of tourism education systems. The UNWTO.TedQual Certification System is a quality assurance system for tourism education, training and research.

The specific aims of the UNWTO.TedQual Certification System are:
- Establish a quality standard for tourism education and training systems.
- Smooth the way towards greater pedagogic productivity in tourism.

WHO can apply for the UNWTO.TedQual Certification? And HOW?
Universities, business schools, training centres and research institutions with permanent tourism programmes, wishing to certify any of them can voluntarily submit them to UNWTO.TedQual Certification. These programmes include the following:
- Tourism Education Programmes (TEPs)
- Tourism Training Programmes (TTPs)
- Tourism Education On-line Programmes (TEVPs)
- Tourism Academic Research Programmes (TARPs)
- Tourism Market Research Programmes (TMRPs)
The UNWTO.TedQual Certification has well defined stages all of which are necessary to be effectively fulfilled by the applicant. The stages are the following:

1) Request for information

All institutions wishing to certify their TEPs, TTPs, TEVPs, TARP or TMRPs according to the criteria established by the UNWTO.TedQual Certification System should make a written application to the UNWTO.THEMIS Foundation. Once the application has been received, the UNWTO.THEMIS Foundation will send free of charge, information concerning the UNWTO.TedQual Certification System, along with a pre-registration form.

2) Pre-Registration application

Any Institution interested in proceeding should request in writing its formal inclusion in the UNWTO.TedQual Certification System, attaching the Pre-Registration form duly completed. This form is not a mere bureaucratic formality, but rather it allows detecting, at this early stage, any possible incompatibility or problem that could affect the certification process. The UNWTO.THEMIS Foundation will check this application and decide, within a maximum of 3 days, whether or not to accept it.

3) Admission in the audit process

If accepted, the Institution wishing to certify the TEP(s), TTPs, TEVPs, TARP or TMRPs should pay the Pre-Registration fee, which will be deducted from the total cost of certification. Once the Pre-Registration form and fee has been received, the UNWTO.THEMIS Foundation will instruct an independent l auditing organization to proceed. They will directly contact the Institution and prepare an estimate of the cost of the audit. Finally, the UNWTO.THEMIS Foundation will directly advise the institution of the cost and conditions of the audit.

4) Audit
Once the audit conditions have been agreed, the Institution should proceed with payment to the UNWTO.THEMIS Foundation (deducting the amount of the Pre-Registration fee). As soon as the payment has been received, the UNWTO.THEMIS Foundation will send (usually in electronic format) the rest of the Manuals on the UNWTO.TedQual Certification System comprising the following:

- The Procedures Manual
- A Sample Case

Once the Institution has received all the information, it can choose whether:

- To proceed immediately.
- To halt the process for a maximum of 60 days to better prepare for the audit.
- To halt the process for a maximum of 90 days and to request UNWTO expert counsel to prepare better for the audit.
- To totally rescind the process before the audit begins, in which case if written notification is received by UNWTO.THEMIS to this respect at least three weeks before the audit is to begin, the payment of the auditing costs will be reimbursed deducting a 25% fee for administrative costs incurred and all bank charges.

Then, in the timeframe and conditions agreed, the external auditing organization will proceed with the audit. The Institution holding the TEP(s), TTPs, TEVPs, TARP or TMRPs should provide the necessary documentation and facilitate the audit as agreed. All information will be handled with the maximum confidentiality.

5) Certification

After having carried out the audit, the external auditing organization will send the audit report to the UNWTO.THEMIS Foundation, which in turn will forward it to the Certification Committee for its assessment. Once the Committee has issued its evaluation, UNWTO.THEMIS will prepare the post-audit report and inform the Institution holding the TEP(s), TTPs, TEVPs, TARP or TMRPs of the result of the audit. In the case of a successful outcome, the TEP(s), TTPs, TEVPs, TARP or TMRPs concerned will enjoy all the advantages and rights granted by the UNWTO.TedQual Certification System during the period of validity of the certification. Whether the Institution has a positive result or not, the UNWTO.THEMIS Foundation will issue a post-audit report with recommendations.

TedQual Goverment Network

Horizontal network connecting the UNWTO with government tourism liason officers in tourism education, training and research.

TedQual Centres Network

This programme offers UNWTO.Tedqual certified institutions the possibility to collaborate with other tourism institutions of the UNWTO. Tedqual Network in projects and knowledge sharing initiatives.

TedQual Mentoring Programme

UNWTO.EdC institutions prepare partner institutions in developing world UNWTO Member States to meet TedQual standards through seminars, workshops, online courses, faculty and student exchanges, and other forms of collaboration.

TedQual Volunteers

The UNWTO.TedQual Volunteers, organized by the UNWTO Education, Training and Knowledge Management Department, is a programme through which UNWTO Education Council (UNWTO.EdC) institutions assist developing countries in their sustainable tourism efforts. The programme is aimed at leveraging the expertise of UNWTO.EdC institutions in order to produce positive development outcomes.

The UNWTO.TedQual Volunteers programme takes place in a host country, whose National Tourism Administration has presented a development project, and involves graduate students from one or several UNWTO.EdC institutions teaming up with a local university to conduct 3-4 weeks of fieldwork in a developing country. Possible areas of focus could include marketing strategies, product development, business plan creation, development of community-based tourism plans, etc. Fieldwork is to be preceded by a ten-week course on development through tourism.

Benefits are enjoyed by all parties: the host country receives high-level consulting at little or no cost --the only expense, which may be assumed by a partnering development agency, will be in-country transport and accommodations for participants-- the UNWTO.TedQual Volunteers gain important tourism development field experience, local universities and the UNWTO.EdC learn through collaboration with one another.

This programme comprises a series of initiatives to help disseminate excellence in tourism destination development to UNWTO Members.

UNWTO.TedQual Fieldwork for Tourism Development (TQ.FTD) involves sending highly qualified UNWTO.EdC graduate students and faculty to UNWTO member countries to work on specific sustainable tourism development projects. Through this project, UNWTO Member States receive highly valued expert advice and tangible tourism development products.
UNWTO.TedQual Tourism Development Corp (TQ.TDC) is an extension of the programme in which TQ.FTD alumni spend extended periods in rural communities of UNWTO member countries to help propel their tourism product. Rural communities in UNWTO Member States receive extensive assistance in an area which they consider to be important to develop or improve their sustainable tourism product
UNWTO.Crisis Management Knowledge Volunteers involves sending retired crisis management experts, along with qualified TedQual institution students and professors to provide assistance in areas where recent disasters have adversely affected their tourism industry. Tourism destinations in UNWTO Member States will be given guidance towards a quick and solid recovery from crisis situations.

Previous UNWTO.TedQual Volunteers Programme: Tabasco 2005

UNWTO.TedQual Pre and Post-Audit Training and Consultancy

The Pre-Audit Consultancy is a specialized product carried out at the education institution/tourism organization before effectively carrying out the TedQual audit and is totally independent from the Certification process.

The Post-Audit Consultancy is a specialized product available to an education institution/tourism organization which has completed the TedQual audit to analyse the results obtained in order to take major advantage of the Certification process.