UWI to Offer Courses for Tourism Stakeholders

The Ministry of Tourism is partnering with The University of the West Indies (UWI) in the delivery of specialised courses of study for hospitality industry stakeholders.

Portfolio Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, said that the courses that are being developed for possible introduction at the Mona Campus in October will focus on areas such as law, logistics, health, and security.

The objective is to educate personnel about the correlation between tourism and other professional areas in order to better equip them to carry out their roles, and ensure safe, secure and seamless operations within the industry.

Mr. Bartlett noted, for example, that law has become a very important area, particularly against the background of the numerous contractual arrangements forged between local stakeholders and international business interests.

He pointed out that in a number of instances “the average tourism worker doesn’t understand that they (too) are party to (those contracts and that for) every visitor who comes here, if we breach those contacts, we have to pay (penalties)”.

“So we are setting up those courses, now, with the Law (Faculty), hopefully starting in October, so we can have courses in tourism and law, tourism and logistics, tourism and security (and) tourism and health… and begin to understand a little bit more about how to relate to these key areas that are critical moving parts that make the industry happen,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Bartlett said consequent on the need identified for postgraduate research in various areas of tourism, the Ministry and UWI are also collaborating to create a graduate programme for existing and potential industry workers.

The Tourism Minister was addressing the closing ceremony for the 2019 Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) Summer Internship Programme (SIP), at the Courtleigh Auditorium in New Kingston, on Wednesday (August 14).

The programme, which commenced in 2007, introduces participants, aged 16 to 25, to the world of work and assists them to gain professional experience.

This year’s cohort of 646 high and tertiary students were employed to 90 public and private sector entities islandwide.

TEF also partnered with the Jamaica Association for the Deaf to facilitate the placement of 10 hearing impaired students.