UK body to upskill more Guyanese in tourism & hospitality sector

The Confederation of Tourism and Hospitality (CTH), a United Kingdom (UK) body, has been working alongside ActionInvest Caribbean Inc. to get more workers professionally trained for the growing tourism and hospitality sector in Guyana.

And this week, the two bodies will scope out the needs in the sector to determine what additional programmes can be offered to help upskill locals.

“There’s lots to be done in Guyana, there are lots of opportunities.

“We know there are challenges at the moment. There is a recognised shortage of local, skilled and qualified staff and there are staff retention issues,” CTH’s DIrector of Marketing and Business Development, Steve Beckworth said at an event at the Marriott Hotel in Kingston, Georgetown on Monday.

The CTH is a UK specialist awarding body for qualifications in the tourism and hospitality sector. The qualifications are offered to teaching centres globally; in Guyana, ActionINVEST is the local teaching centre.

These qualifications are internationally-recognised.

Already, ActionINVEST has been training about 100 students locally in hospitality/ tourism management. The training is also done through the government’s Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) scholarship programme.

ActionINVEST Executive Chairman Vishnu Doerga told the News Room that a majority of the students are people already working in the tourism sector. Their employers, he said, opted to have them trained since many workers are without qualifications.

“… we also have many people who applied on their own who are already in the tourism industry but also youngsters leaving (high school) because the entry requirement is that you have to be 16 years old,” Doerga said.

But with tourism expanding rapidly in Guyana, Doerga said more programmes could be offered. A series of engagements will be undertaken this week to glean what practical skills are in demand. Once the demand has been identified, Level II courses for skills training in areas like housekeeping, bartending and cooking can be offered.

“… based on the meetings that we will be having this week, we will understand how to prioritise these Level II courses and bring them to the market,” he said.

Meanwhile, on Monday, local companies were recognised as CTH ‘Gold Employer’ partners in Guyana. Those companies are the Grand Coastal Hotel, the Marriott Hotel, the Ramada Hotel and Evergreen Adventures.