Jamaica to launch new Hospitality Institute
The Ministry of Tourism in Jamaica will be pursuing the development of a fully functional craft institute and a hospitality school.
According to Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, the institutions are crucial to enhancing training and educational opportunities for current and future workers in tourism. Bartlett told Parliament that 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.
In his contribution to the 2016/2017 Sectoral Debate in Parliament , Bartlett 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 finalize 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 program to bolster existing training strategies by the Ministry are Team Jamaica and tourism skills training; foreign language training; school-based programs to promote tourism awareness; capacity-building programs for middle- and upper-management workers in the industry; and the development of social and physical assets at the community level.
