HOTEL & TOURISM TRAINING PROJECT REAPS RICH DIVIDENDS

Objectives: Long Term and Immediate

The 36 month Hotel and Tourism training project in Sri Lanka has brought wide ranging benefits to both sectors and the country as a whole, while enhancing the image of tourism both in Sri Lanka and abroad. Funded by UNDP, the Project was implemented by the Ministry of Tourism and Rural Industrial Development through the Ceylon Tourist Board, with the ILO as the Executing Agency.

The long-term development objective was to promote tourism in general and improve the hotel and catering industry in particular. This was to be done by developing human resources through the provision of professionally trained manpower, thereby improving the overall quality and productivity of both sectors. The immediate objectives were two fold. The first immediate objective was to upgrade and expand the Ceylon Hotel School in the following ways: updating of curricula, teaching materials and teaching aids for both pre-service and in-service training; setting up three operational accelerated training (satellite) centres; raising technical and teaching skills of instructors; supplying and installing high tech equipment for demonstration and training purposes; developing local management capability to handle the training programs of the sector.

The second immediate objective was to amalgamate the sectoral training scheme into a single National Tourism Training Centre designed to implement the sectoral curriculum and training needs of both the hotel and tourism industries.

Overall Impact

One of the most positive outcomes was that a large majority of educated unemployed rural youth were absorbed into hotel and tourism oriented sectors on successful completion of their training. Overall, the project helped to revitalize the tourist industry, enabling it to emerge as leading foreign exchange earner, besides paving the way for the Ceylon Hotel School to be recognised as a Regional Training Centre for South Asia.

Achievements

Most of the targets specified by the Project in respect of upgrading and expanding the Ceylon Hotel School were fully or partly realised with very positive impacts on the target beneficiaries and the country as a whole. The completion of the Project thus saw the setting up of a Hotel and Tourism Management Training Committee for the purpose of directing training in the sector; the establishment of the three satellite operational accelerated training centres envisioned in the original project document; upgrading of modular curricular, syllabi and teaching manuals for both pre-service and in-service training: raising technical and teaching skills of instructors; and supplying necessary equipment for training purposes. In addition the Project also led to the expansion of core curricula and courses with additional job focused components such as the three-month training course to upgrade skills of tour guides. Furthermore, plans were laid to establish a National Training Centre to cater to the training needs of both industries.