Raising the Bar within the hospitality and tourism sector

Mar 20 2008 By The Journal

PEOPLE and skills are critical to the future success and competitiveness of hospitality, leisure travel and tourism. It is one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing sectors as tourism alone contributes around £75bn a year to the UK economy. However, problems in attracting and retaining a skilled workforce undermine that success.

The national skills strategy is employer-led and sets out a clear vision for the industry to increase the existing workforce’s skills and become a career choice for those entering the workplace.

Within the region, the North East Tourism Skills Alliance (NETSA) is a group of key partners working together to support the national skills strategy and include: One NorthEast, Business Link, Learning and Skills Council, Jobcentre Plus, North East Employer Coalition, and with educational representation. The group benefits from directional input and support from People 1st, the Sector Skills Council for the Hospitality, Leisure, Travel and Tourism industries. By working together NETSA aims to help raise productivity, skills levels and economic competitiveness through effective partnership alliances.

A regional plan outlines initiatives that partners aim to deliver, with one example being to endorse and support the use of the UK Skills Passport.

The Skills Passport is an accurate skills and training log of an employee on which they can record:

::National vocational qualifications

:: Formal company qualifications

:: Informal learning

:: Employer references can also be added to the records.

The online passport provides a life-long facility to keep records of training and skills acquired throughout an individual’s full career.

Some regional partnership initiatives have already incorporated the Skills Passport into training projects for unemployed clients at Pinchinthorpe in Teesside and at The Alnwick Garden, through the Tourism Academy. To support take-up further, an awareness session for partners and training providers alike has been arranged by Karen Couzins from People 1st and chairman of the NETSA group.

Karen said: "I am really pleased to have the opportunity through the North East Tourism Skills Alliance group to help co-ordinate regional activity, as this is a key sector to the local economy in the North. The UK Skills Passport offers a great opportunity to document achievements by employees and the awareness event to be held this month will give clearer understanding of its benefits to partners and training providers alike."

:: Further information regarding the Skills Passport can be obtained from www.people1st.co.uk