Degradation of tourist guide training in Greece

Past brilliant - Present problematic - Future uncertain

With what kind of approaches is it systematically attempted to complete the obsolescence and ultimately the abolition of the exemplary vocational tourist guide training of Greece?

Who is - in the name of "upgrading" the training of tourist guides - ready to reduce the duration and the quality of the Guides’ Schools, instead of making real cuts in the spending budget of the Guides’ Schools on behalf of the Ministry of Tourism?

The Panhellenic Federation of Tourist Guides (POXEN) has been complaining for a long time now and sounds the alarm for the tourism diplomacy of our country.

Background- Guides’ School in Greece

The Guides’ Schools are public schools operating in Athens and Thessaloniki on a permanent basis and housed in buildings owned by the Ministry of Tourism, and also on Crete (Herakleion), Lesvos , Corfu and Rhodes islands , depending on the needs of the tourism market.

They formerly belonged to the GNTO (Greek National Tourism Organisation), later to the Schools of Tourism Professions (STE) and till a while ago to the Organisation of Tourism Education and Training (OTEK) which was recently abolished and since then the Guides’ Schools passed directly to the Ministry of Tourism. They are vocational schools, i.e. their studies are directly linked to the profession and the title of tourist guide, the tourism labor market and its needs.

The duration of studies is 5 semesters (1.090 hours), while students are first of all selected after passing the proficiency exam in one or more foreign languages, ​​which must be spoken before they study to become tourist guides. After a successful language examination, candidates are examined in history, essay and geography of Greece. Graduates of the University Departments of History & Archaeology are admitted without any examination in their field and they also have some exemptions from the courses that may have been taught to them at the University. Recently foreign languages ​​certificates and institute diplomas or degrees of foreign literature are accepted, without language assessment of the future guide, but this fact has lead to a lower level of foreign languages’ knowledge the tourist guides speak.

Without any exception, students have to attend classes and educational tours (field trips) of the Guides’ Schools and to take a written proficiency exam after each semester, while their final diplomatic exam is oral. After the successful attendance of the whole program, the graduates receive their guiding diploma and a professional identity of tourist guide for Greece by the Ministry of Tourism.

The courses include not only history and archeology of Greece of all periods, but also the necessary practice in field trips, as well as contemporary topics such as art history, geography, economy , traditions, national issues, religion, flora and fauna, etc. The aim is that the guide will be able to present the whole Greek culture and our country in general, answering frequently asked questions to our visitors, facing unexpected situations on a trip and to positively influencing our guests and the way they see Greece.

The Guides’ Schools operate based on a regulation of studies, which applies today as amended in 2002 (Government’s Gazette, Ministerial Decree 1375/25.10.2002)

Training models already applied

Operation models applied without problems in the past, under EOT and STE administration at the Guides’ Schools:

1) Guides’ Schools before 1978

Students paid for all their expenses on field trips, except from their transportation. Field trip arrangements were initially done by the secretariat of each School (under the Greek National Tourism Organisation), i.e. students’ rooms booked were in the state hotels Amalia and Xenia, wherever they existed. Later on, students asked to have a choice for a second, cheaper hotel. There was no subsidy from the state school at all for their food expenses. The school functioned each afternoon, so some of the students were able to work.

2) Guides’ School between 1986-1992:

A class committee of students took over themselves the booking of their rooms for the field trips. They asked for prices of hotels of 3*, 4* and 5* and they received a fixed grant per day per student for the hotel, after an GNTO decision. If the room prices had to be more, i.e. lack of hotels in the area, then the students themselves paid the rest of the amount for the field trip expenses. Neither at that time were any lunch and dinner reservations done by a travel agency and the State did not offer free meals to students on their field trips.

3) Schools Guides from 1992 to 2002:

Students received a State grant of 10,000 drachmas per day for each day of the field trips and they had to pay all their expenses, except from the bus which was paid directly by the Guides’ School , but it was booked by the students themselves. Each student undertook to find and book hotel and bus for a specific field trip each time, so this was a valuable practical experience for him . The hotels were usually 3* and meals were of free choice, without being paid by the State. Usually the amount given was enough to cover all expenses and allservices were offered at the lowest possible cost, but with decent conditions, as it should be done in an educational excursion. Field trips were made usually from October to end of April each year.

In short, there was no such situation as there is currently, after 2002 - when the operating regulation of the Guides’ School was amended for the worst. So far all field trip services are subcontracted by a single travel agency with charges which overcost services and a waste of money with the excessive consumption of big meals three times a day, all paid by the Greek State. The previously made ​​special offers by hotels directly to the students led them and the State to great savings on costs, organized by the students themselves.

The necessary liability insurance which is mandatory in all tours for travelers was done for all students of Guides’ Schools by the bus agency.

Solutions - Suggestions by the Panhellenic Tourist Guide Federation (POXEN)

► Regarding the subjects of the studies’ curriculum it is recommended to amend the Guides’ School regulation, as the ones of the pre-2002 period, meaning to form a similar Training Committee, which once had 5 members and consisted only of University professors – all of them specialists in their faculty - who taught the basic subjects of the Guides’ Schools, when it came to educational issues.

The currently valid Regulation of 2002 establishes a stiff 11-member training committee, that has just an advisory role to the Board of the Schools and in which some members are administrative staff.

► Due to the compulsory attendance and the high cost of the Guides’ Schools, mainly because of its necessary educational field trips, it is very important for the State not to operate simultaneously 3-4 Guides’ Schools, but the opening of each School to be rolling with one year difference and each time in a different region of the country, as it was previously very wisely done (before 2002). Instead, in recent years there has been admission of students in 4 schools of Guides simultaneously and only after the end of the whole training circle, namely after 5 semesters, the Schools function again to accept new students.

 Our proposal to restore the former rolling operation will achieve the following:

a) To have the potential interested parties who were unable to apply or take exams or to pass the exam in one Guides’ School to do it next year for another Guides’ School, while otherwise they do not have this opportunity for the next three years, until the previous students graduate,

b) To enable foreign applicants-already guides from other EU member-states to recognize their professional qualifications in Greece, by taking exams or by attending the field trips at regular intervals, not only every three years, as it is defined by the EU Directive EC/2005/36 and is an obligation of our state to do, so that such a time gap does not occur each time from the start of one training circle until the start of the next.

c) For a smoother absorption of the new guides who graduate and in order to meet the needs of the local tourism market, students should graduate from the Guides’ Schools in a different region of the country each year.

d) There can be more state financial resources and easier management of administrative and educational issues that arise.

► During their studies future tourist guides have the opportunity in their curriculum to visit almost all places of archaeological, historical, ecological or other interest within the 110 days of mandatory educational field trips, the costs of which is covered in recent years by the Greek State, but this is not necessary. The cost of these excursions is naturally the highest among the Guides’ School expenses. In order to mitigate these costs substantially for the State for the educational field trips of Guides’ Schools and to reduce the Greek State budget in general, the Panhellenic Federation of Tourist Guides proposes the following:

1) The students themselves, with the help of our union-members, the tourist guide associations of POXEN to take over the bookings for the bus and hotel rooms for all field trips. The Tourism Ministry will subsidize each student only with the granting of the necessary transportation, whatever the amount of transport (mainly bus and ferry boat, aircraft is rarely used) for all field trips for all semesters, while all other expenses (students’ accommodation and meals) will be covered by the students themselves, as in almost all countries of the world, where prospective guides pay handsomely tuition, whether attending state or private studies in Guides’ institutions.

2) The tours must take place from 1st October to 30th April each year, as the costs of hotels is lower this season than in the high season and there are of course constant offers by hotels, boat and airplanes tickets throughout Greece.

3) The Training Committee of the Guides’ School must decide on the training material to be given by the trainers or books or photocopies recommended to students. If every instructor each time individually issues for each Guides’ School his/her own notes, as it is currently done and these notes are distributed in hard copy free of charge, it rises the operating costs too much. The notes must be common for all Guides’ Schools and distributed electronically to students, as it is now customary in all educational institutions worldwide.

► The Panhellenic Federation of Tourist Guides has prepared for the Ministry of Tourism a detailed budget with all the costs calculated, aiming to significantly reduce the study costs for the Greek State, compared to what has been done in the previous 12 years, in order to try to reduce all unnecessary costs for the State step-by- step. There is a way - instead of abolishing class hours and days of educational field trips, as it is intended to be done by the Tourism Ministry - to reduce the costs of studies for the guides of Greece, but at the same time keep the high quality level. The most important and necessary part of the training for a future guide are the field trips and the practical training done during visits. This must be preserved at all costs, without cutting down on length and content. All is needed to be done is to save from the State expenses and ask the students to participate to part of the costs, without any legal impediment at all.

► It is obvious that the foreign tourist guides - EU citizens - who attend any educational field trips of the Guides’ Schools in Greece as their compensatory measures for the recognition of professional qualifications in our country, as defined by the Directive 2005/36/EC and the Greek legislation, they will have to pay their own costs for these excursions, like it’s done in the other EU member states, when the tourist guides of Greece have to pay for their expenses to be able to attend field trips for their practical training abroad. It is sufficient on behalf of the Ministry of Tourism to accept the foreign EU tourist guides as applicants for practical training in Greece, as is prescribed by the Greek law, without any further financial burden on the budget of the state Guides’ Schools . Moreover, in all the EU member-countries the Guides’ Schools have a high tuition for all and this is known very well.

In addition to the previous issues, more recommendations of the Panhellenic Federation of Tourist Guides are:

► The Guides’ Schools should remain state-owned and be operated in the afternoons, while the studies should last for at least 4 semesters.

► To enter the Guides’ Schools, the students must be strictly tested by the corresponding foreign institutes (British, French , German , Spanish, Italian, Russian or by the embassies for the rarely-spoken languages) based on pass mark 16/20, as it has always been, so only those who fluently speak foreign languages will be qualified to guide in them. Let's not forget that the objective is not for a guide just to possess just a qualification diploma or language certificate, but to really and essentially posses the language and be able to handle it perfectly. So the diplomas must not be sufficient, because they cannot certify the oral use of a language. The test should be done primarily orally, which is more important for the work of a tourist guide, but also have some writing test.

► The Guides’ Schools must be run as before, by the competent department of the Ministry of Tourism, but with a decisive and binding role of the Training Committee, which should consist only of University Professors and not by administration officials.

► The minimum recommended training for tourist guides throughout Europe is determined by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) in the drawn and voted European Standard called EN15565:2008. The curriculum of the Guides’ Schools of Greece should be adapted to this standard model, by adding some new common European theoretical subjects and more practical training on-site for the students. A detailed proposal for the program’s suggested hours, syllabus content and restructure of the educational field trips, in order to update the general studies’ program, to implement the EN1565:2008 and to reduce the Greek state expenses is the recent report done by the Training Committee of the Guides’ Schools, as it was sent to the Minister of Tourism, but this report seems to be systematically ignored.

► Recruitment of trainers to teach future tourist guides should not be by invitation only based on their qualifications, but distinguished professors and lecturers of universities should also be invited, as they are also paid by the hour. With the regular way of recruitment through “ASEP” regulations, the Guides’ Schools eventually exclude all the great teachers and end up with ordinary doctoral trainers, who might have no experience in teaching, who may have not even visited the places and monuments they are required to teach and they do not inspire the necessary respect to the students. The students of the Guides’ Schools are often already graduates of History and Archaeology faculties at postgraduate level, so they can often be more qualified than their teachers are. Some great historians and archaeologists (Andronikos, Zias, Pantermalis, Stambolidis, Doumas, Themelis) have taught at the Guides’ Schools in the past and have stood as example for tourist guides of the country, without being paid anything more than others, always from the budget of Guides’ Schools.

► Existing Operational Regulation of the Guides’ Schools must be amended, as it has been repeatedly proposed to the Ministry of Tourism by POXEN. Functioning under the previous regulation, the Guides’ Schools of Greece were reported by CEDEFOP as being the best vocational training for tourist guides in Europe in 1996, while its expertise and know-how suggested is suggested as appropriate to be exported to other countries.

Let's not forget that the Guides’ Schools educate the people who predominantly come in contact with our guests and they must be inspired in order to be able to inspire the others and gain confidence. Our Schools must be dealt with seriously and similarly to that of Schools for the Diplomatic Attachés and must remain under State management in order to maintain their level.

► Finally, we return to the very serious issue of educational field excursions of the Guides’ Schools, which are the essential and irreplaceable part of our vocational training as guides. These should be maintained (100 days of field trips throughout Greece is the new proposal to restructure and update the field trip program by the Training Committee of the Guides’ Schools) and re-introduce students’ own participation in the field trip expenses. The field trips are an indispensable asset for future guides and they attract high quality students, classifying our Guides’ School among the best vocational schools in the tourism sector at European level.

POXEN considers that the training of tourist guides is part of the tourism policy of our country and therefore supports its public and vocational character, in order to maintain a high level and to serve the goals of the State for tourism. For the reasons above the curriculum of the Guides’ Schools should necessarily contain visits to all places of tourist interest in the country, our monuments of cultural and natural heritage.

Handing over tourist guide training to the private sector, that will implement an easy, inexpensive and just theoretical curriculum with no evaluation at all, such as the ordinary academic study programs of colleges and universities, will gradually lead to the abolition of the profession of tourist guide in Greece.

For all these reasons, we believe that the Guides’ Schools of Greece should remain public, under the Ministry of Tourism and their operating regulation should be amended as suggested by this year's Training Committee report , as it has been addressed to the Minister of Tourism. We urge the leadership of the Ministry to work with us in order to develop the updated study program and the new budget for the Guides’ School, for which we can prove that can be vastly reduced than in previous years.

For the Panhellenic Federation of Tourist Guides

President - Eurydice Vlassi