Project Output 1
Comparative assessment report
The blue economy’s rapid growth is outpacing tourism education. Most hospitality and leisure programmes still lack the specialised training — in marine conservation, circular economy practices, and sustainable coastal management — that modern coastal development now demands.
This Report maps the knowledge, skills, and competences the coastal and maritime tourism sector actually needs — and compares them against what higher education, vocational training, and lifelong learning programmes currently offered across Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Spain, and Portugal. Drawing on desk research, surveys, and stakeholder consultations, the report identifies the gaps that CodeBLUE’s future curriculum will be designed to close.
Project Output 2
A set of pathway reports and Consolidated Overview
where
Five EU countries
Five national pathway reports examining the integration of blue economy topics into vocational tourism curricula in Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Spain and Portugal.
Where
where
what
Skills Map
A consolidated overview identifying 24 competences spanning environmental and marine-science knowledge, technical and operational skills, digital tools, and business and innovation.
HOW
Flexible pathways
Building on the national reports’ findings, a set of flexible learning pathways and micro-credential models for integrating blue-economy competences into vocational tourism education.
This set of pathway reports detailing the integration of blue economy modules into vocational tourism curricula turns diagnosis into direction. It brings together five national pathway reports — from Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Spain, and Portugal — into a single consolidated overview of how blue-economy competences can realistically be woven into vocational and higher tourism education, guided throughout by the EU’s BlueComp, GreenComp, and DigComp frameworks.
At its core is the CodeBLUE Skills Map: 24 competences spanning environmental and marine-science knowledge, technical and operational skills, digital tools, and business and innovation, each linked to a recognised qualification level. Comparing this map against current provision across the five countries reveals a consistent pattern — general tourism, business, and communication skills are well covered, but the competences that most define blue-economy tourism, from ocean literacy to climate adaptation and marine spatial planning, remain fragmented or largely absent from curricula.
Rather than proposing new degree programmes, this Code blue output sets out a more agile route: embedding blue-economy learning into existing education through short, stackable micro-credentials that institutions can adopt at the pace and level that suits them.
Project Output 3
Code BLUE Modular cross-disciplinary curriculum
This innovative, modular, cross-disciplinary curriculum in blue economy for tourism is built to adapt — flexing to fit both existing and new courses across disciplines in higher education, continuing VET, and lifelong learning. In doing so, it drives the broader transformation of tourism education: deepening interdisciplinarity, raising course quality, and equipping academics, students, and practitioners with the skills to lead innovation and sustainability in coastal tourism.
