MONTEGO BAY, St James — Faced with a shortage of trained workers and a boom expected in the local hospitality industry over the next three years, the tourism ministry is offering free certification courses as it pulls out all the stops to find a way out of the problem.

The courses, being offered by the Jamaica Centre of Tourism Innovation (JCTI), a division of the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF), target youngsters who wish to pursue a profession in the sector, said JCTI director Carol Rose Brown.

 

“Our country is set to add 15,000 hotel rooms. You may not know this, but Trelawny is about to become the parish with the greatest number of hotel rooms in Jamaica. We have to find people to work in these hotels,” she said during the Tourism Product Development Company Limited (TPDCo) Youth Expo at Montego Bay Convention Centre on March 29.

 

“The current shortage of workers is an indication of our need for new trained, certified people ready to get into the sector,” she added.

https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/tourism-ministry-tries-to-train-its-way-out-of-labour-shortage_247475