RWANDAS WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY TAKES AIM AT HOSPITALITY SECTOR
Hoteliers in Rwanda have called upon the Workforce Development Authority to step up their training in the hospitality sector to equip staff already in the workplace with better skills and sensitize them to the needs of customer care, according to information received from Kigali yesterday. WDA is presently constructing a training facility for courses in hotel management and hospitality and has sent nearly a dozen trainers to Switzerland to acquire additional abilities then to be shared with colleagues and taught to students upon their return.
WDA presently has 12 trainers available in Rwanda with 11 more presently studying in Switzerland, but sections of the hotel industry feel that number needs increasing if the demand for courses is to be met. WDA says they have trained over 800 staff in Kigali and upcountry so far but it is clear that can only be a start. Many workers in the hotel industry and in restaurants are not formally trained and then there are new hotels and lodges coming up all the time. Therefore existing staff must be given a chance to acquire proper skills and get their certificates and diplomas and those joining the industry should have to train before entering the workplaces. It is not the big hotels, they have their own training programmes to complement what is there, but it is the lot of smaller hotels which employ staff lacking certain skills. RDB has done a great deal to promote training and if tourism continues to grow like in past years we really need to do much more training now than before. We compete with our neighbours and service standards there are high, and we need to match that, and do better a regular source from the hospitality industry in Kigali said in a mail on this subject.
RDBs Rica Rwigamba, head of the department for tourism and conservation, has in the past repeatedly spoken out on the need to train staff and during last years function awarding star ratings to a number of hotels and safari lodges also reiterated that those hotels, lodges and restaurants with poor services could be named and shamed if they do not train their staff and improve their skills. Visit www.wda.gov.rw for more information on the institutional set up and mandate of the Workforce Development Authority or www.rwandatourism.com for updates on the countrys tourism developments.
4 Responses
As you complained in a previous post…the hosipitality training should extend to the airport staff as well. The airport should be the place to begin with. First impressions matter most.
Thank you very much for your constructive feedback and comments. I know that Rwanda is keen to extend training to staff at all levels of the hospitality and tourism sector but this is a long term task and has many components to put into place, including creating added training capacity.
As you also point out, security staff at Kanombe International are in urgent need to get some ‘do-over’ to put smiles on visitor’s faces from the moment they step on Rwandan soil – in fact, I never had a single issue entering Rwanda which has been courteous, friendly and swift at every single one of my many visits – to the point of departure, which is where the problem has arisen more than once. I believe that this can be addressed adequately and will be keen to see on future visits how the points raised have been absorbed and action been taken.
Rwanda has gone through a lot and they punch above their weight with the progress the country is making. As a proud and patriotic Rwandan I can’t do more but express my thanks for what you are doing to help in Rwanda’s progress. Thanks for being part of the country’s amazing transformation. Having said that however, we still have much much more to do and your continued help is still much needed. Thanks!
PS: I enjoyed your coverage of the launch of the Congo-Nile Trail. Top top blog that!
As you pointed out in a previous blog the service at the airport is not up to scratch. RDB and WDA should address this problem first and foremost before anywhere else. First impressions matter the most. For insitence why should departing passengers be subjected to more than two checkpoints where we have to remove shoes and belts and our luggages pass through two scanners? What is the use of all those CCTV cameras then?
You can enjoy all the good things Rwanda can offer but then everything can be jeorpadised by a small thing on your departure.