ROSE HALL, St James — Sandals Royal Plantation spa therapist Simone Folkes walked away with the 2016 Tourism Service Excellence Programme (TSEP) National Individual Champion award Saturday night.

Folkes, who had topped the Ocho Rios area going into the finals, won from a strong field which included scuba instructor Granville Edwards of Negril Adventures; Kingston area representative Wilfred Chambers, a tour guide at Bob Marley Museum; Troy Thaxter, a lifeguard at Trident Hotel in Port Antonio, Portland; and Montego Bay’s Winsome Wynter, a customs officer.

There were no individual nominees from the South Coast.

Couples San Souci took the coveted National Organisation Champion prize over Kingston area ambassadors Jamaica Pegasus; VIP Attractions from Montego Bay; Sunset at the Palms Resort, Negril; and Appleton Estate Rum Tour from the South Coast.

The awards ceremony, held at Hyatt Ziva Resort and Spa, Rose Hall, Montego Bay, was addressed by Tourism Minister Ed Bartlett, who said that the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) will be repositioned to develop human resources in the sector.

“We are determined that the resource that we must build to the highest level in tourism is our human resource, and to that extent, training and development of the workers of the tourism industry are going to be central in this strategy,” Bartlett said.

Godfrey Dyer, who chairs the TEF, concurred.

“TEF has been investing in the development of workers in tourism through programmes that start even at the high school level,” Dyer said.

For just over a decade, the TEF has been driving infrastructural improvements in keeping with the goals set out in the Tourism Master Plan.

Bartlett said that talks have been ongoing between the Ministry of Tourism and the education ministry to widen the high school curriculum to include a tourism certification programme.

“The Team Jamaica Programme is to be expanded to do more for entry level into the industry. We are having discussions with the Ministry of Education to broaden the activities and the curriculum in the schools, to enable for, in time, a certification programme in schools so that graduates at the level of the high schools can enter into the world of work with a certificate in hospitality activities,” Bartlett said.