New Govt Policy Great Opportunity for Tourism

ARTICLE FOR INSIDE TOURISM

New Government Policy Provides a Great Opportunity for the Tourism Sector

The New Zealand Tourism sector is in an ideal position to capitalise on the newly announced government policy on education according to the New Zealand Hotel Council CEO Mark Oldershaw.

Prime Minister Helen Clark today announced that the Youth Apprenticeship programme being piloted this year will be rolled out to all secondary schools by the end of 2011. “With the chronic shortages in staff across the tourism sector at present this provides us with an ideal opportunity to start promoting general tourism and hospitality skills within the school system” Mr Oldershaw said.

“The New Zealand tourism sector needs to stand up and ensure that we remain on the radar as far as course options in schools. I applaud the government in taking initiatives that invest in up-skilling the future workforce and I can think of no industry that needs young, professional, focussed individuals more than the tourism sector. If we are to continue to market New Zealand as a premium tourism experience then we must start to engrain that service culture at a younger age” said Mr Oldershaw.

“It is up to all of us in the hospitality and tourism industry to do our bit. The New Zealand Hotel Council is soon to release a CD/DVD to all secondary schools in New Zealand promoting the hotel sector as a sustainable rewarding career option. “The catalyst for the CD/DVD was to interview a variety of hotel employees at various levels of their career path to show those interested in the hotel industry that there is such a thing as a structured career in our industry.” “What was extremely encouraging to me was to talk to the myriad of young people that are currently working in the hotel industry and can see a real future for themselves at the senior management level of a hotel.” “There are not many industries were you can potentially have such a quick rise to the top of your industry and be managing multi million dollar businesses employing in excess of 100 staff” said Mr Oldershaw

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