SEYCHELLES TOURISM ACADEMY SIGNS MOU WITH MALTESE COUNTERPARTS
In recent weeks did the Seychelles Tourism Academy sign MoU’s with counterpart institutions in Oman and Shanghai, before now embarking on their latest mission to do the same with the Maltese national tourism and hospitality training institute. According to a source in Victoria this will pave the way for students to find industrial training opportunities in these countries with leading hotel and resort companies but also permit the exchange of lecturers and additional training opportunities for Seychellois lecturers from STA finding a warm welcome from Shanghai over Muscat to Valetta. ‘Seychelles Tourism Academy is now recognized by our government as the back bone of job creation through tourism. Finally can our own institution train young people seeking a career in the hotel and travel industry to standards acceptable to employers. In the past this was always an issue that investors would claim there are no qualified Seychellois to do a job and brought in expatriates. Now that is changing to the better. Years ago you could have a resort employ 70 or 80 percent of staff from foreign countries and now in some cases that has reduced to 50 percent and less. And it is not just staff but also management. Our STA management programmes which are offered together with Shannon in Ireland, have been very successful. Graduates know often in advance they will return from industrial attachment to a job at home. They can build a career. The industry is behind these courses because they have opportunity for input on course content from their members represented on the STA committee. This way Seychelles can offer much needed employment to young people and give them a career path in life’ said another source this morning when discussing the impact of the new courses at STA on the tourism sector.
At the same time did a site visit establish that the phase one of the re-building of the academy has suffered slight setbacks vis a vis the ambitious time frame and opening of the currently under construction buildings is now expected by middle of this year or in Q 3 of 2013.
Watch this space for regular updates from the Seychelles islands on all matter concerning tourism.
