Guyana’s expanding hotel industry can benefit from a range of multi-level training opportunities in the tourism and hospitality sector which are available under the 2007/2008 Scholarship Programme for the regional hospitality sector being provided by the Caribbean Hotel Foundation (CHF) .
Earlier this month the CHF announced that this year it will be offering scholarships to employees, educators and students wishing to pursue studies or professional development courses related to the tourism industry.
The announcement comes at a time when the local hotel industry is challenged to secure trained personnel to serve several new hotels constructed in Georgetown and elsewhere in the country prior to the 2007 Cricket World Cup competition in the Caribbean.
Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG) Executive Director Maureen Paul told Stabroek Business that while Guyana has benefited from previous CHF scholarship programmes, businesses in the local tourism sector need to take a greater interest in the training opportunities. She said that there was a particular need for the hotel industry to take advantage of training opportunities since the scarcity of trained hotel staff had become more acute following the recent construction of a number of new hotels and the renovation of existing ones.
Paul said that the CHF scholarship programme was designed to help create and retain in the region a pool of skilled workers for the tourism and hospitality sector, pointing out that beneficiaries of CHF scholarship programmes were required to ‘sign on’ to contracts that committed them to serving their employers for a particular period.
This year, the CHF has announced that, for the first time, its Scholarship Programme will include a new “online mentoring resource.” The new training opportunity which is being sponsored by Virgin Holidays facilitates a system through which past and present beneficiaries of training provided by the CHF will provide advice to persons and institutions in the tourism sector considering applying for scholarships this year.
A CHF release said that the mentoring initiative was designed to allow previous beneficiaries of scholarships to help prospective applicants make more informed decisions about career opportunities in the tourism and hospitality sector.
Apart from the new mentoring programme the CHF is also offering scholarships under which students will receive training with internationally recognized institutions in the tourism and hospitality sector. Virgin Holidays is offering a Tourism Management Scholarship valued at US$10,000,00 annually for three years while the Miami campus of the Johnson and Wales University is offering two scholarships worth US$5,000,00 each for four years, Another company, Interval International, is offering two scholarships worth US$7,000.00 each.
Last year the CHF provided 26 scholarships for training in the tourism and hospitality sector worth $US85,000.00 to students and industry professionals from 13 Caribbean territories. The CHF’s Scholarship Programme also caters for secondary school graduates seeking to pursue careers in the tourism and hospitality sector.
The CHF is a non-profit organization which was established in 1987 to provide scholarships and special assistance for the regional tourism and hospitality sector and for students wishing to pursue careers in the sector. Since its establishment the VHF has provided more than US $1M in scholarship funding.
Paul told Stabroek Business that information regarding the 2007.2008 scholarships can be found on the CHF’s website but that THAG was prepared to serve as a point of contact for persons and institutions wishing to access information on the scholarship programme.
