Aeolis Cultural Development Society of Lesvos Island initiated and participates in the European project "Cultural Treasure Hunt" in the framework of the EU Programme of Vocational Training Leonardo.
This interdisciplinary project aims to prepare young and senior learners to welcome visitors in their home town(s) and act as hosts, so they explore new employment opportunities. The objectives are to learn about their own cultural heritage and history, to improve their skills, to involve local communities, and to create a network between social partners and stakeholders in order to create new employment opportunities. The target group is unemployed, socially excluded and/or other residents of a socially disadvantaged regions, mainly women, the seniors and active or former employees of tourist agencies. Trainees will act later as trained accompanying staff in tourist agencies and hotel enterprises. A research of main cultural resources of every region will be conducted and produced as an E-Book.

Partners will also design an original "Cultural Treasure Hunt" Digital Game with cultural content, conduct Research in training needs of learners, exchange experiences on the way every region welcomes their visitors, share European good practices on training effective guides and on welcoming visitors. Training in local history, geography and culture and in communication skills, presentation skills, intercultural skills, research skills and English language will take place by experts and professional guides.

We will create a digital brochure (CD-ROM) as a Good Practice Guide and an electronic Anthology of learners' essays and video interviews on their experiences, story telling techniques to present good practices as visitors of other European countries and as hosts in their own home town. Mobilities will act as practice after training. Dissemination activities will be crucial, as all organizations want to attract visitors to their regions and to create jobs for trainees.

The partnership includes:

1. Bildungswerk der Sachischen Wirtschaft gGmbH BSW (coordinator) , Germany, one of the largest training provider in Saxony with180 members of staff and 20 locations in Saxony. Its mission is to strengthen the competitiveness of SMEs by providing state-of-the-art training for a wide target group (vocational education and training, further training, general adult training)for nearly all sectors
2. Stowarzyszenie VESUVIO Poland, a non profit organisation which creates and supports alternative opportunities for vocational education including people without qualifications, disabled, seniors and people socially excluded to make them still professionally active, to improve their key competencies, knowledge and employability skills, to create new employment opportunities.
3. EESTI PEOPLE TO PEOPLE , Estonia, an independent NGO, affiliate organization of People to People International. They organise foreign Visitors Programme (home stay programme where foreign guests live at home with NGO members), member of the Estonian Round Table for Development NGOs
4. Foreign Language School - Ziger , Croatia, a private language school for English, German, Italian, French, Spanish, Russian and Dutch
5. CONSELL DE MALLORCA- DEPARTAMENT DE MEDI AMBIENT, Spain, a public local authority that works on Preservation of natural and cultural heritage of natural sites and education addressed to unemployed people linked to the recovering of natural and cultural heritage
6. Viska, Life long Learning centre in Westman Islands in Iceland, a further- and distance vocational and leisure education centre with programmes on learning by doing