Vol. 470 No. 3
56 Mr. O'Donoghue asked the Minister for Tourism and Trade if his attention has been drawn to a recent statement by a spokesperson on behalf of CERT that the tourism industry will have a shortage of 16,000 trainees in the next three years; the action, if any, he intends taking in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18716/96]
57 Mr. B. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Tourism and Trade his views on the perception by school leavers that tourism does not provide good career prospects; and the remedial action, if any, he proposes in this regard. [18756/96]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 56 and 57 together. CERT, the agency with responsibility for training and recruitment in the tourist industry, has recently commissioned a number of studies to gauge perceptions, including school-leavers' perceptions of employment and career prospects in the industry. The results of these studies showed that teachers, parents and pupils all considered tourism highly important for the economy, for employment and for regional development. Tourism was considered a good industry to work in by the vast majority of those interviewed.
However, the study also highlighted that a significant proportion of pupils lacked awareness of training requirements and career prospects. CERT and the industry are conscious of the need to address this information gap and are promoting a visible and attractive career path for prospective entrants.
CERT mounts nationwide publicity and promotion campaigns to attract school leavers and unemployed adults into training. Initiatives include media campaigns, including weekly updates of training vacancies on Aertel; workshops for Career Guidance Counsellors; raising of public consciousness regarding job opportunities through radio, interviews, press releases, etc. career talks in schools and career exhibitions. In addition, in 1995 CERT set up a national recruitment committee representative of industry bodies to co-ordinate and implement local promotion campaigns by industry. The work of this committee is ongoing and these promotion campaigns are being extended countrywide.
CERT also assists employers to promote employment and training opportunities by allocating training places to employers who wish to nominate staff for training. In addition, CERT encourages employers to provide quality industrial experience for young people who aspire to careers in the industry. As part of the transition year curriculum at second level CERT provides a Tourism Awareness Module. Allied to this is their hotel, catering and tourism programme which is now part of a number of post leaving certificate programmes. This year, for the first time, hotel, catering and tourism studies are included as a subject on the applied leaving certificate.
All these initiatives are designed to focus the future workforce on the benefits of a worth-while career in the tourism industry. I can also inform the Deputies that at the meeting of the Tourism Council in Ballintubber last week, the Irish Hotels Federation informed the council of a proposed programme to highlight the attractiveness of careers within the hotel and guesthouse sector which the federation will launch later this year.
Deputy O'Donoghue in his question says that a spokesperson for CERT stated that the tourism industry will have a shortage of 16,000 trainees in the next three years. I have been informed that Deputy O'Donoghue is referring to an apparently inaccurate report of a statement made by the Chairman of CERT, Mr. Jim Nugent, at the launch of CERT's 1995 annual report. What Mr. Nugent actually said was: "The challenge facing CERT and the industry is to recruit an additional workforce of 16,000 in parallel with the massive ongoing investment in accommodation, catering facilities and in tourism's expanding range of cultural, activity and information projects."
