Roadmap charts course of Sri Lanka tourism’s lifeline

The private sector driven tourism industry believes they have found the answer to attract the new recruits in their roadmap for the next five years: Sri Lanka Tourism and Hospitality Workforce Competitiveness Roadmap 2018- 2023 - A Private Sector Approach.

The tourism industry is plagued with the prospects of a dwindling workforce as many are leaving the shores and few join hospitality as a profession failing all other options.

The roadmap details that the tourism and hospitality sector is struggling to find qualified people while at the same time youth unemployment is over 20 per cent and women’s participation in the workforce is only 36 per cent. The roadmap has been produced through the collaboration of the United States Agency of International Development (USAID), the Private Sector Tourism Skills Committee and a number of other stakeholders in education, training and tourism and youth.

In this respect they hope to design and manage an effective outreach campaign to increase awareness and build support for the creation of a more competitive, people-driven industry that would include: a nation-wide tourism awareness campaign reaching four million young people and their families in every district which would significantly improve the perception toward a career in tourism and hospitality.

In addition they would seek to outreach and engage from 25 private sector role models – 40 per cent being women who can talk with youth and work with teachers to explain what a career in tourism and hospitality looks like.

This outreach activity stream would also include supporting the initiatives of the tourism sector curriculum which the Ministry of Education is including in their 13-years guaranteed education programme.

The industry is planning to create a database of Sri Lankans working overseas in the tourism and hospitality sector and establish a recruitment portal to reach out to them. This portal would include job listings and information about the development of the tourism and hospitality industry in Sri Lanka with an emphasis on encouraging them to return.

A change in the mindset of the people would be brought to the fore by running a campaign on all media channels and particularly on social media as well to improve the awareness of what it is like to work in the hotel industry.

In addition, the general public would be informed through short video clips and testimonials of the benefits of working in the tourism industry in the long term.

Training has been identified in this roadmap as the core activity stream and that which could achieve even the most conservative employment projections to train as many people as possible as quickly as possible.

In this respect, training programmes should involve updating the curricula and teaching methods to prepare trainees for the most in-demand jobs in seven existing and six new courses.

Training should also ensure that at least 60 per cent of courses are short-duration courses or modularized, multi-stage courses suitable for small operators and will be a more flexible training/ career path for tourism and hospitality employees. Three months, six months and even three week courses would be planned so that new recruits could join the industry at an early stage.

In addition they also aim to train at least 100 school teachers to provide tourism and hospitality training in secondary schools.

This activity would seek to support comprehensive train- the- trainer programmes on new curricula for at least 200 instructors in vocational training institutes.

The private sector is keen on developing new four to six weeks’ intensive internship opportunities for youth who are not moving on to university. These internships will increase their marketable skills, generate a sense of responsibility, build confidence and self-reliance, enhance communication skills and expose them to the wealth of exciting career opportunities emerging in Sri Lanka.

The next aspect would be support activity stream that includes high quality research that identifies the current employment situation, emerging career pathways and best practices; generate work environments aligned with global trends; and create a youth and women friendly work environment.

In this respect, the roadmap envisions establishing a small research unit under the Tourism Skills Committee to work closely with the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority ( SLTDA) that would provide timely and useful strategic information to the industry and the training institutes.

Moreover, the roadmap also identifies the need to lead by example by constantly evaluating the work environments of member organisations to ensure that women and youth would continue to stay on. This is set to assess employee benefits, working hours, pay, workplace attitudes towards women and the potential impact of the availability of safe, affordable transport, housing, and child care.