Zambia Institute of Tourism and Hospitality (ZITHS) Governance Council Board Chairperson Mulemwa Moongwa is concerned with the existing skills gap and industry demands in the tourism and hospitality sector.
Ms Moongwa said the tourism and hospitality industry has over the years fallen short of relevant industry skills, adding that there is need for various stakeholders to collaborate in developing new and improved programmes of study.
She lamented that the lack of proof for skills and competence in the industry is a huge challenge as some individuals are mostly trained by the employer in-house.
ZANIS reports that Ms Moongwa further said some of the skill gaps include foreign language skills, fine dining and food production.
“In order to close some of these gaps, we are running a project on culinary skills upgrade, primarily looking at capacity building because some investors claim there are no certain skills that they need in the country and thereby creating a labour issue,” she added.
She called for curriculum reviews in the travel and tourism career pathway and the need to standardize certifications in the tourism and hospitality education sector.
Ms Moongwa was speaking at a ZITHS Stakeholders Consultative meeting in Lusaka.
Speaking on Zambia’s tourism development, Ms Moongwa said tourism is potentially one of Zambia’s best prospects for economic diversification and growth through job creation, foreign exchange earnings, entrepreneurial and infrastructure development as well as improvements to rural areas.
“The economic power and potential of tourism is evident,” she added.
The ZITHS Board Chairperson however bemoaned the lack of researched evidence of the impact of the tourism sector across the country, saying this poses significant challenges when engaging policy makers.
She disclosed that Zambia will next year host the Travel, Hospitality and Education Summit from April 7 to 9, adding that the United Nations Secretary General is expected to attend as well as 500 other international delegates.
And Ministry of Education , Education Administrator Ireen Bwembya advised ZITHS to develop the needed programmes that can serve as core elements and let them be adopted by other colleges and universities so as to increase professional skills in the tourism and hospitality industry.
“So, we will develop these core elements together for the different learning programmes and other learning institutions will adopt those programmes, so that we have these professionals trained in various higher education institutions,” she said.
Also at the meeting was Senior Lecturer in the Graduate School of Business at the University of Zambia (UNZA) Bupe Mutono-Mwanza disclosed that two programmes have been developed under her school, which are looking at tourism and hospitality.
“So, we have developed the Bachelor of Science in Business and Hospitality, as well as Bachelor of Science in Business Management and Tourism, these have been approved by the Senate and we are yet to develop a curriculum to send to the Higher Education Authority,” she added.
