DOT, Canadian gov’t, ADB give grants to tourism sector

CEBU, Philippines - The Department of Tourism, together with the Government of Canada and the Asia Development Bank, gave out skills development training grants worth $1.8 million to stakeholders of the tourism industry.

Aimed to help improve the Philippine tourism, the $1.8 million funding was earmarked for the Tourism Industry Skills Development Program, of which the first batch of awardees for the Skill Training Development Support has been granted.

Chosen from the country’s main tourism destinations, the awardees are based in Cebu, Bohol, Davao and Palawan which serve as the program’s pilot areas. 

Established by the DOT, the grant’s scheme program forms part of the project “Improving Compe-titiveness in Tourism” administered by the ADB and funded by the Government of Canada. The program was designed to support the government’s effort to achieve inclusive growth and create employment opportunities in tourism.

Under the program that will run for 38 months, various accommodation enterprises submitted proposals to help their respective skills training programs. These include food and beverage preparation and service, front office, personality development, housekeeping, and leisure and entertainment activities.

“We were very lucky that we were granted a scholarship for our staff in Palawan. Our business is just beginning and we have not reached the peak yet of marketing strategies and I can say that in the area of competitiveness we cannot really compare ourselves yet because we are still very young in the business. On the other hand, with the help of the countries, particularly Canada, I think this will be a great help for us and a great push for us to be competitive,” said Julie Perlas from Coron, Palawan.

Rolando Cañizal, assistant secretary of the Tourism Development Planning Service of DOT explained that they focus on the skills of the people in the sector because tourism is a service oriented industry.

“Tourism is a people oriented business and so it’s a people’s business. The DOT decided that we should focus on building the capability of human resources and the role of the DOT is to serve the catalyst together with the different stakeholders and the different tourism industries to plan out a better program on skills development,” he said.

Some of the companies in Cebu included in the grant are Alegre Beach Resort and Spa, Cebu White Sands resort and Spa, Alpa Hotel Management And Services, Inc. as well as the Cebu Association of Tour Operators, being one of the largest groups of tour operators in Cebu City and the Olango Island Ecotour which is noted as ideal handlers of tour operations in the tiny island community.

After the first batch of grantees, the DOT intends to roll out the program to more areas.

Meanwhile, the DOT, ADB and the Government of Canada discussed their take on the unemployment rate in the Philippines, particularly of the youth, and connected it still to mismatch of jobs offered to courses taken in school.

Cañizal said the education system, both of the vocational and higher level, will need to have improvements to address the needs of the industry because at present, it is pointing towards managerial positions when in fact the industry requires more technical and practical capabilities.

“The most important infrastructure is the sub-wear infrastructure and that’s why we talk about skills development.”

But the DOT had already seen some positive actions undertaken by the Commission on Higher Education, one of which is the increase of hours required for tourism students during their  on-the-job trainings.

Also, CHED has made a policy for students taking up tourism management to learn a second language. (FREEMAN)