Tourism training for 15,000 unemployed youth

Chaminda PERERA

The Tourism Ministry will train over 15,000 unemployed youth in the tourism and hospitality trade in collaboration with the LCCI as a part of the program to upgrade the human resources sector to meet industry demands.

LCCI is an accredited body for awarding vocational and educational qualifications.

Tourism Minister Achala Jagoda said yesterday this program will help boost the quality and standard of the industry which underwent unprecedented challenges owing to the protracted conflict in Sri Lanka.

"We are planning to train more than 15,000 youth in the tourism and hospitality trade in 75 centres islandwide in collaboration with the LCCI.

This full course is entirely free," he said.

This is the first time the Government is implementing a massive project to promote the industry and we will start selecting prospective candidates through a thorough selection process," he said.

Minister Jagoda said priority will be given to children of war heroes and under privileged.

The Minister added that these youth will take the industry to new vistas and will play a pivotal role in changing the traditional attitude towards the industry. "These youth will receive internally recognized qualification upon completion of this course," he said. Minister Jagoda said the Ministry is taking a tremendous effort in promoting tourist destinations other than beaches and the sea and a concerted effort is taken to meet the target of 2.5 million tourists by 2016.

He said the Ministry jointly with other Government agencies and the private sector are in the process of upgrading the infrastructure to meet this target on President Mahinda Rajapaksa's directive.

The Minister added that the tourism industry is booming with the opening up of the Eastern province which is famous for the silver beach among tourists. He said the Ministry has focused on upgrading the services sector to meet this ever increasing number of tourists.