Tourism company, COSTAATT sign deal for hospitality sector

Tourism Trinidad Ltd (TTL) has partnered with the College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts of TT (COSTAATT) to build a relationship that will help deliver training and professional development activities to support people seeking employment in the tourism, hospitality, and culinary sectors in Trinidad.

The agreement came after TTL interim CEO Carla Cupid and president of COSTAATT Dr Keith Nurse signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on January 26. . Both agreed that training programmes should be aligned to a strategic agenda to build capacity and skills.

In a release, Cupid said, “We must always note that while there is ongoing international promotion to encourage persons to visit Trinidad and our mantra is we are always in season, there is a need to ensure that our visitors get the best experience. In order for them to get the best experience, we must constantly address our service delivery. This agreement to firm up skills training therefore fits well within our strategic agenda.”

The agreement also included the conduct of a joint strategic research to understand industry workforce requirements which can be used to develop and redesign academic programmes.

Nurse said, “We must always look at the overall and holistic development of personnel who operate within the tourism sector locally. It is an ever-evolving industry and whatever we can contribute as an institute of higher learning will also affect positively our fortunes and economic growth. Agencies like ours must be a leading example when it comes to strategic partnerships, in the hope that others will see the benefit of synergy. Specifically for this project we are looking at the long-term reach of education and how it ties in with economic development.”

The MoU is for five years and will involve high-level tracking and monitoring since both parties will share information on its progress and execution.