Employers in the hospitality sector should now find it easier to employ new staff. Just in time for the busy summer season, the European Commission has launched a new tool aimed specifically at facilitating contact between job seekers all over Europe and employers in the hospitality and tourism industry.

This new tool, the European Hospitality Skills Passport, is hosted on the Eures portal, a European Jobs network which has been active for a number of years.

The function of the Eures portal has always been that of providing access to job vacancies in Europe while at the same time providing advice to EU citizens seeking to exercise their right of free movement of workers.

The Skills Passport now goes a step further. EU citizens interested in employment in the hospitality or tourism industry can record all the skills and competences gained during their education, training and practical work experience in an easily accessible format. The Passport’s format permits jobseekers to easily add their skills by simply selecting them from a list and indicating the experience through which these skills were acquired. They also have the option of having their skills endorsed by former employers as well as that of attaching diplomas or recommendation letters. The Passport is available in all the official languages of the EU.

The tool automatically translates the skills of the jobseekers into the language of the employer seeking to engage new employees.

Employers too can select the skills they are looking for in an employee by ticking such skills on a list and the system will then match them with suitable jobseeker profiles from all over Europe. The Skills Passport will therefore give employers the opportunity to find employees with the right skills regardless of where in Europe such jobseekers are located.

The European Commission intends to extend this Skills Passport to other sectors in the future, particularly those sectors with high potential for labour mobility.

In April 2014, over five million young people under 25 were unemployed in the EU, with an overall youth unemployment rate of 22.5 per cent.

Given that the hospitality and tourism sector is a source of first-time jobs for many of Europe’s youngsters, the European Hospitality Skills Passport could serve as a stepping stone to improving youth employment prospects in the EU.

mariosa@vellacardona.com

Mariosa Vella Cardona is a freelance legal consultant specialising in European law, competition law, consumer law and intellectual property law.