| Better
workers build tourist sector
(03-03-2006)
HA
NOI — A project to develop human resources in the tourism sector
has contributed greatly to improving the quality of workers
in the industry, and these workers are playing a major role
in realising the goals and maintaining the industry’s development
momentum, said Nguyen Van Luu, Director of the Personnel Department
at Viet Nam Administration of Tourism.
He
was speaking at a ceremony earlier this week when the programme,
the EU-funded Viet Nam Human Resources Development in Tourism
Project, handed over equipment to eight tourism schools and
15 provincial departments.
The
country’s tourism sector has also called on assistance from
international organisations as one of the measures to further
boost the industry locally.
At
the ceremony, the project’s management board announced its plans
for 2006. These included 70 additional training courses to be
presented in both English and Vietnamese, and providing 15 other
provincial tourism departments with equipment.
The
new courses are expected to start in May and will focus on six
occupations, namely hotel security, travel operation, tour guiding,
Western food preparation, bakery/pastry and computerised research
systems for hotels.
EU
Project Co-director Mr. Josef van Doorn said the project, learning
from experiences gained during previous tourism-worker training
projects in Viet Nam, has selected experienced tourism officials
or workers as trainees.
"At
the end of the course, trainees are completely able to make
a contribution to train staff at their companies," he said.
"I
think the most effective method for developing the tourism sector
is to combine two kinds of human resources training: on-the-job
training and at State schools."
Tran
Nu Ngoc Anh, a lecturer in the Ha Noi Open University’s Faculty
of Tourism, was among the 19 trainers that participated in the
"Trainer Development Programme for Food & Beverage
Services" organised last year.
It
was one of the first three programmes the Project has implemented
since May, 2005.
Her
eight-day course was aimed at trainees selected from tourism
units in the north, including the Sofitel Metropole, Sofitel
Plaza, Hilton and Hoa Binh hotels in Ha Noi, the Harbor View
hotel in the port city of Hai Phong, the Sai Gon Plaza Ha Long,
and the training schools of the Ha Noi Open University and the
Ha Noi Tourism College.
"I
was able to find the best teaching measures that combined both
practical and theoretical training for my students," Anh
said.
The
Trainer Development Programme was designed to improve the quality
of on-the-job training and, accordingly, staff performance in
the workplace, said Vu Quoc Tri, the project’s co-director.
"Targeting
experienced supervisors, managers and teachers who are currently
responsible for entry-level training in the tourism sector and
at institutes, the programme will help raise the performance
standards of trainers," he said.
So
far, 240 tourism workers nationwide have been trained by international
experts in housekeeping, front office and food & beverage
services.
The
project, representing a 12 million euros (US$14.3 million) investment,
was implemented by the Viet Nam Administration of Tourism.
Its
objectives are to upgrade the standard and quality of human
resources in the country’s tourism industry, and to enable the
Government and industry to sustain the quality and quantity
of training upon its completion. — VNS
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