MONTEGO BAY, St James – President of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) Clifton Reader is calling for cruise operators who pull human resources from the local labour force to contribute towards the training of unskilled workers in the hospitality sector.

During a telephone interview with the Jamaica Observer West recently, Reader noted that there are “quite a bit” of untrained workers in the hospitality sector who the JHTA is seeking to be trained, “but not at the expense of necessarily losing them to foreign workforce or to the ships”.

“So we want to make sure that we include the ships as well so that they can contribute to the training and development of these unskilled labourers,” Reader expressed.

He suggested that the cruise lines could provide scholarships or support to the local training partners in bringing these untrained workers up to par.

The JHTA, he stressed, is looking at viable options to get the pool of unskilled workers in the sector trained.

“They (cruise lines) can provide scholarships or they can support some of these training institutions around Jamaica because ultimately that is where they are getting a lot of their labour force from. I think it’s only fair that they should be part of the development of these workers as well,” Reader argued.

“It cannot be that the Jamaican Government alone or the private sector, develop these people and they’re just taken…the best of the best at times, to go work on the cruise ships and whatever. Yes, we want people to go but there has to be some kind of reciprocal arrangement that is made. You can’t just be taking labour from our source. We are in a privileged position that we have quite a few people looking for jobs but some of them are not skilled. So if they (cruise lines) can help to get those people to say a level one, level two situation, then when they take some, we will have the others in the sector to utilise…”

The JHTA, he underscored, has been working with foundations to secure scholarships for the training of the sector’s workforce.

“We have to provide practicums and we have to make sure that we assist with the training,” he stressed.

He suggested that more emphasis should be placed on practical training in the courses.

“I think too much is being spent on the theoretical part of the training courses. If the course is say six months, then three months could be inside the institutions and the other three months be inside hotels, or attractions or any of the other entities within tourism,” he reasoned.

Reader noted that his association will be meeting shortly with representatives of the HEART/NSTA Trust for a follow-up meeting in regards to the training of hotel workers, adding that representatives from the hotel school at The University of the West Indies (UWI) will also be at the meeting.