Online training for hospitality sector

WINDHOEK ELLANIE SMIT The Namibia Tourism Training Web-Platform, which is designed to address the training needs of the tourism industry, was launched at the e-Learning Africa Conference in Windhoek last week. The German Society for International Co-operation (GIZ) and the Ministry of Environment and Tourism - together with other stakeholders - initiated the development and establishment the online tourism training platform, which can be found at www.tourismtraining-namibia.org. The platform also offers a fully-functional online training system that allows training service providers to run online courses, which enables participants to learn anytime, anywhere. The Deputy Minister of Environment and Tourism, Pohamba Shifeta, said that qualified and skilled staff is needed at all levels in the sector, enabling them to understand the needs of visitors and boost efficient and friendly customer service. He said the main objective is to develop to develop the platform and make it an innovative provider of tourism training platform in Namibia, in order to ensure a transparent tourism market and to build the capacity of the various stakeholders involved. The platform brings together major and smaller players from within the tourism industry and the education sector and offers opportunities to widen training access, improve quality of training and increase training opportunities in the sector, explained Shifeta. The project will have different components, ranging from the gathering of tourism training and employment information, pilot course development, marketing and process concept development, stakeholder networking and training of stakeholders and partners. The platform can be seen as a clearing house mechanism for the Namibian tourism sector in that it will make information about training and job opportunities available online. This becomes important, especially for learners and job seekers, as they will have a one-stop shop where they can find all the information regarding training and job opportunities in one place. According to Shifeta, the ministry and relevant stakeholders involved in the implementation of the project stand to gain additional skills in training management, training development and technical human resource development. The Ambassador of Germany in Namibia, Onno Hückmann, said that well-trained people are the foundation of success for tourism establishments, and therefore also a growing tourism industry. Using modern e-learning applications, the platform will link all players from the tourism industry and the education sector. Through this linkage the platform will add value to existing vocational training activities and improve the quality of teaching. The platform will be a quality assurance mechanism in tourism training in co-operation with the Namibia Training Authority (NTA) and Namibia Qualification Authority (NQA).