How key is training to the success of the tourism sector?
Barbados is well known for its focus on education. It is also regarded as a leading tourism destination.
Over the years, though, questions have been raised about the emphasis on tourism education. Given the industry’s importance to the island, some individuals have suggested that tourism education should start from primary school.
But beyond that, others have also emphasised the necessity of continuous training and development for individuals who work in tourism.
Such views were shared by Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) secretary general Jean Holder in 2002.
“One of the by-products of our failure to deal adequately with tourism at an early point of our formal education system is that far too few students have enough information about the industry to see tourism studies later on as an option,” he said.
“Ultimately, therefore, there is not a wide enough cadre of high quality persons coming through to the tertiary level to provide the pool of Caribbean excellence we need at the top, to transform an industry which we are all agreed could benefit from change in important ways.”
He added: “We must equip our hospitality schools to provide the technical skills needed to provide quality service. We must, at university and other tertiary levels, invest the resources needed to provide cadres of excellence.”
His comments coincided with the publication of a book, Tourism And Hospitality Education And Training In The Caribbean, which was published by the University of the West Indies Press.
The publication identified the need for “a more structured approach to tourism education”.
“There clearly has to be a more concerted effort in education and training, with assistance from the private sector and regional governments to enable educational institutions to offer a better service to the tourism industry,” it recommended.
In the 14 years since then, there has been some progress in the area of training. Outside of educational institutions like the Barbados Community College and University of the West Indies, industry associations like the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA), CTO, and Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association have implemented various programmes focused on enhancing tourism industry training.
In terms of the BHTA, that organisation teamed up with The Potter Centre on an initiative funded by the Competency Based Training Fund.
Their training programme sought to help tourism workers who participated “develop tools and techniques to improve their performance management, communication, change management, problem solving and decision making skills”, “learn the fundamentals of and approaches to leading and sustaining a culture of service excellence”, and “understand the importance and contribution of effective supervisory skills to the development of positive employee relationships and departmental and organisational effectiveness”.
A 2009 Tourism Competitiveness Study sponsored by the BHTA had “highlighted occupational skills gaps and pointed to the urgent need for activities to improve leadership of the sector”.
Overall, effective leadership was seen as “critical to our capacity for consistent and reliable delivery of service excellence”, including in the tourism sector.
