The MAAS “Match, Attach and Sustain ": New methods for Europe’s Job Brokers project of the EU's Erasmus+ programme has successfully concluded with the final partner meeting and conference held in Sweden; hosted by partner Folkuniversitetet on February 18, 2026. 

The conference with the theme 'Bridging Job Brokers, Tourism & Hospitality, and Refugee Integration for a Digital Skills Future' featured various speakers on the topics of labour-market shortages in tourism and hospitality, how to support Ukrainian refugees as part of the job seekers included in the project, and the need for digital tools to empower job brokers. 

The project leaves a legacy of practical tools that address workforce shortages in the tourism and hospitality sector. A multilingual eGuide was developed, offering guidance and best practices for the tourism sector, along with the MAAS eTracker; a CRM-based digital platform that enables the recording of candidate profiles, monitoring of integration progress, and collaboration with employers.  

Meanwhile, H.I.R.E and SenDiTour continue to progress in their aims, with both projects running until 2027.

Partners of the H.I.R.E (‘Hotel Inclusive Recruitment Education’) project are currently in the process of organising a series of training workshops for hoteliers, and workshops to prepare deaf and mature persons (50+) for work within the hotel industry, whilst dissemination as per the Communications Package prepared by Larnaka Tourism Board continues. The aim of this project is to effectively support employers in the hotel industry in solving the problems of staff gaps through educational tools, and with an emphasis on hiring mature people aged 50+ and Deaf persons. 

Larnaka Tourism Board and St. Barnabas School for the Blind - as joint Cyprus partners of the SenDiTour (Tourism for Sensory Disabilities) project - are preparing to host the next Transnational Partners Meeting at the end of May, where the next steps and materials for the project will be discussed. The project has the goal of the ‘participation in tourism as an effective form of increasing the educational and social activity of people with a sensory disability’.