|
H.E. Mr Borsengkham Vongdara, Minister of the Ministry of Information, Culture, and Tourism, presented Hospitality and Tourism Business Diplomas, earned at Singapore’s Temasek Polytechnic, to the Lanith (Lao National Institute of Tourism and Hospitality) core teaching team during a ceremony at Lanith’s 7th Quarterly Symposium held on 6 June, at Vientiane’s Settha Palace.
These teachers will be instructing participants from schools and the private sector during Lanith’s Curriculum Pilot Phase (CPP) from June-September 2012, which will offer 20-hour courses in 14 subjects from the Lanith Diploma’s four theory-based certificate programs.
“Earlier, I had the opportunity to meet some of the core team members, and I am very impressed by their professional appearance and attitude,” Minister Vongdara said.
He added that their role in leading the drive to strengthen human resources in the hospitality and tourism sector “must be a focus of our national tourism development plans.”
Minister Vongdara pointed out, “With the right mix of regional and international visitor arrivals and an increased focus on yield, Lao PDR could earn USD1 billion in tourism revenues in 2020.”
He emphasized this would require more staff with international-level service skills and managers with a much a broader education base, noting the Lao PDR Tourism Strategy 2006-2020 stresses the development of teachers and teaching materials, a refined curricula, and the establishment of training centres.
Minister Vongdara said the Luxembourg-funded Lanith initiative, which aims to advance service quality in Lao PDR, “is our answer to solving these major challenges we currently face in hospitality and tourism education and training.”
The Lanith Diploma will offer four, two-year international-level hospitality and tourism certificates at its under-construction Vientiane campus.
Lanith’s Passport to Success industry skills training programme, which recently won the Pacific Asia Travel Association’s 2012 Grand Award for Education and Training, presents short modules aimed at Laos’ current tourism and hospitality workforce. Construction of Lanith’s Luang Prabang training centre, with a restaurant and lodge, should be completed by the end of this year.
Also addressing the symposium, Scotland’s University of Strathclyde Professor Tom Baum, the world’s leading authority in human resource development for tourism and hospitality and a consultant to the Asian Development Bank, presented his case study, “The Current State of Play” based on his previous visits to Lao PDR.
“Tourism education presents diverse and complex challenges…and no one alone can solve the problems. Partnership has to be the keyword,” he said.
Professor Baum added, “Lanith is taking the first step in creating a partnership model…If it works, it will be a global first, but it demands responsibility from the private sector, as they play a vital role in the education and training process.”
He compared the current Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) method used in Lao PDR to being “locked in a box”, and stated, “This system has no impact on the quality of the tourism experience in this country.”
Also taking part in the event was Claude Jentgen, representing Luxembourg’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Temasek Polytechnic’s Lee Li Ng.
In 2009, Lao PDR’s Ministry of Education and the Lao National Tourism Administration secured an 8,100-square-metre plot of land on the Pakpasak Technical College’s campus to build the Luxembourg-funded Lanith educational facility, the operation of which will be financed in part by a public-private sector partnership with a four-star hotel built on a portion of the land.
|