Vocational training vital for hospitality industry

by L. S. A. Wedaarachchi

A systematic vocational training program for the hospitality industry is vital to improve the unemployment problem among the youth in Sri Lanka and also to promote healthy growth of the industry.

Tourism is considered one of the major growing industries in the world. Last year 460 million international tourist arrivals were recorded worldwide. Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka also grow annually and six hundred thousand tourist arrivals have been targeted in 2006, according to the Sri Lanka Tourist Board.

Explaining the prevailing situation of the hospitality industry vocational training in Sri Lanka, chairman of the Asian International Hotel School Lalith De Silva said that essentially it should be improved and expanded to cope with the demand.

"The Hotel School which comes under the Ministry of Tourism conducts hotel management programs of a high standard.

Their selection criteria for the program is also high and it limits the number of intakes for the programs. No wonder the government hotel school and its branches are unable to produce the full complement of the industry, he said.

Despite terrorism and the 2004 tsunami, tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka have marked a sharp increase during the last twenty-five years.

The revenue in 2005 from tourism was over forty-five thousand million rupees and the arrivals were more than five hundred.

To keep pace with the growth of the industry it is estimated that Sri Lanka needs at least twenty-thousand rooms whereas only fourteen thousand is available. Whilst on the other hand, as leading hoteliers pointed out recently, one of the major issues affecting the tourist industry is the shortage of human resources.

It is vital to take effective action to retain the experienced and trained hands in this sector, he said. Lalith De Silva, a veteran in international affairs specially in Indian affairs and at present media consultant to the Ministry of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotions said that Sri Lankan youth have the inborn talent for hospitality.

"We know that guests invariably look for excellent service. Hotel Staff must make the tourists' stay memorable and Sri Lankans can do much better than their counterparts in other countries. Therefore as we did in the past, we must train our youth in the hospitality industry not only to serve Sri Lanka but also the rest of the world, he said.

Lalith de Silva set up the Asian International Hotel School at Nugegoda twenty years ago and it has done yeomen service in the multifaceted field of hotel education. Thousands of Sri Lankan youth who completed their training are now employed locally and abroad.

"Practical training with theory is essential to produce efficient hotel employees. Our programs are linked with leading five star hotels in the city. Ninety-five percent of our most valued students fail to gain admission to the local universities not because of their weaknesses, but owing to the under capacity of those local institutions.

As responsible citizens we have a national responsibility to assist them to build their future. Though it is difficult, the time is opportune for the hospitality industry vocational training to reach out at least to the main cities for the benefit of our rural youth, he said.