Tourism Ministry Pushes for Hospitality School

The Ministry of Tourism will be pursuing the development of a fully functional craft institute and a hospitality school.

This was revealed by Portfolio Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, in his Sectoral Debate presentation in the House of Representatives on June 15.

Mr. Bartlett said the institutions are crucial to enhancing training and educational opportunities for current and future workers in tourism. The hospitality school will train persons at all levels of the tourism sector, in order to allow Jamaicans to benefit from the far-reaching development of the sector.

The Minister said the Government has been in discussion with stakeholders, including representatives of various tertiary institutions, inclusive of the University of Technology and the University College of the Caribbean, in seeking to finalise arrangements to establish the hospitality school.

“We have long identified weaknesses in training and service delivery in the tourism sector. Consequently, interventions will be made to increase training and service excellence, improving perception, attitudes and buy-in to tourism at all levels,” he said.

Among programmes to bolster existing training and empowerment strategies by the Ministry and its agencies are Team Jamaica and tourism skills training; foreign language training; school-based programmes to promote tourism awareness; capacity-building programmes for middle- and upper-management workers in the industry; and the development of social and physical assets at the community level.

Meanwhile, Minister Bartlett said the Government remains committed to the January 2017 deadline for the establishment of the Tourism Workers Pension Scheme.

Several experts are currently fine-tuning the drafting infrastructure of the legislation.