Skills development programme for tourism sector continues amidst Covid-19

Commemorating a one-year anniversary on the MoU signed between the Ministry of Tourism and Swisscontact Cambodia on the skill development programme. Ministry of Tourism

The Covid-19 pandemic has undoubtedly triggered an unprecedented crisis in the tourism economy but the Skills Development Programme Phase 2 for the tourism sector is running smoothly despite the Kingdom being hard hit by the spread of the deadly virus.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the Programme (2020-2024) between the Ministry of Tourism and Swisscontact Cambodia, an expert in tourism development, celebrated the one-year anniversary on August 6.

The Programme is for disadvantaged young women and men and low-skilled workers from five provinces – Kratie, Stung Treng, Preah Vihear, Ratanakiri, and Mondulkiri, – to gain access to decent employment and increased income.

Despite the Covid-19 situation, the Ministry’s Tourism Development Planning Department director Chuob Ratana said the programme and activities were carried out successfully by shifting their approach from physical to via virtual and hybrid system to facilitate the implementation of the project at the national level and in targeted provinces.

Ratana who is also the Secretariat of the Cambodia Hospitality Training (HoKa) Project Management committee chairman told Khmer Times that their main activities were organising Hoka Trainer Training via Video and Hybrid System on food and beverage service skills, and chef; organising technical meetings; held Hoka Project Management Committee in tourism rehabilitation at the Northeast of the country and a technical meeting was held to finalise the Hoka training document to apply for approval as a national document of the Ministry.

“Even though we were hit by the pandemic, we still conducted skill training online for participants to be experts in the area of business they are pursuing in the tourism sector,” he added.

He said those in the Northeast area need this programme for them to excel in the tourism sector while provinces were more towards promoting eco-tourism.

According to MoU, the programme will cater for about 12,000 disadvantaged women and men, low-skilled workers and more than 900 trainers, staff and management of schools and companies will benefit from the four-year SDP.

Some 1,740 low-skilled workers will benefit from the training programme and 170 hospitality business owners/managers, Provincial Department of Tourism (PDoT) trainers, and industry trainers/assessors will be included in the capacity building activities.

A HoKa Steering Committee will be formed and chaired by the Ministry with the participation of the respective PDoT of SDP’s target provinces, hotel association and private sector to define objectives and review the implementation progress. It is instrumental for HoKa to be anchored in the national Technical and Vocational Education and Training system. Khmer Times