By Politico staff writer
The Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs (MTCA) and the National Tourist Board (NTB) on Friday 10th May 2022 validated the draft national integrated tourism, hotel and hospitality management curriculum for the tourism sector.
The event held at the Family Kingdom Resort, Aberdeen in Freetown was supported by the Enhanced Integrated Framework Tier 2 under the Sustainable Tourism Development and Promotion Project.
Speaking at the event, the Director of Tourism, Mohamed Jalloh said that several reforms have been done to address the longstanding challenges faced by the sector, thereby enhancing its competitiveness within the African continent, saying that issues relating to the creation of an enabling environment for the sector to thrive, such as development of sites, robust and aggressive marketing among others are being addressed.
He added that in complementing President Julius Maada Bio’s human capital development initiative, the institution has embarked on improving the human resource capacity of the sector.
He said the training was conducted after a needs assessment which highlighted weaknesses in human resource capacity as one of the biggest challenges faced by the sector. Hence they hired a consultant to develop an integrated curriculum for the sector which will be utilized by educational institutions, thereby strengthening their capacity.
Explaining the gathering’s purpose, the General Manager of the National Tourist Board, Fatmata Hamid Carew said that despite the great opportunities in the sector, it continues to suffer from acute human resource limitations at all levels of demands.
She spoke about the issue of having the Lecturers,trainers, weak contemporary tourism-related curriculum, to inadequate modern training equipment which she said precipitated the need for the overhauling of the curriculum for the sector and the need to build the education infrastructure and capacity for the delivery of education in tourism and hospitality.
In her keynote address, the Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Memunatu Pratt said that a lot has been done in putting the sector where it is today, and that to actualize the gains, the human resource capacity must be developed. She maintained that the development of the human resource capacity is critical to the development of the sector, a reason she said they are providing a reference guide for the government of Sierra Leone through the Tertiary Education Commission, for higher learning in tourism.
The Minister noted that it was necessary to have a common template for tourism education in Sierra Leone. She thanked the EIF for their support in the development of the curriculum which she said will serve as a reference guide and a tool for tourism across the board. She added that they are working with the hotel association and other institutions to ensure the curriculum serves the short term courses and training needs .
In his presentation of the curriculum, the Consultant, Sylvanus Bisodu Betts said they took two international universities in Kenya and New Zealand and two universities offering tourism in Sierra Leone as case study for the formulation of the curriculum. He said after the completion of the courses, students will be able to understand the overall structure and operations of the tourism, hotel and hospitality industries in Sierra Leone and other parts of the world.
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