The President of the Institute of Hospitality (IH) at the Kumasi Technical University (KsTU), Matilda Asamoah-Appiah, has called on the government to help the technical and vocational institutions particularly those within the hospitality and tourism department.
According to her, the hospitality and tourism industry are an integral part of the economic development and growth of the country. Mrs Asamoah-Appiah explained that the sector plays a role in boosting the nation’s economy and as such, proper investment in the sector will increase tourism flow and employment opportunities.
“The government must help the technical and vocational institutions especially the hospitality and tourism department because the hospitality and tourism industry are an engine of economic development and GDP growth. In many countries, the tourism industry remains an important source for the generation of employment and income in formal and informal sectors. The Association is making all efforts in finding other ways of bridging the gap between academia and industry at large, so that our youth will meet the demands of the industry and make them more profitable for the growth of the nation”.
Matilda Asamoah
Call for investment in tourism sector
On his part, a Guest speaker, Dr. Joseph Mensah-Ansah, appealed to employers in the hospitality and tourism industry to train their employees to add value to services. He indicated that while the industry can give a plethora of reasons for not training or allowing their staff to be trained, it is time they consider innovative ways to encourage learning and improve the training experience.
Dr Mensah-Ansah expressed that approaches such as on-the-job training and peer-to-peer coaching delivered with the aid of technology can be adopted to break the syndrome of there being no time to train.
“As for the excuse of when we train, they will be poached, it’s only a myth and we deceive ourselves as employers by not training our staff and yet complain of their low service quality. If you don’t train them, who do you expect to train them? I believe that if we train them and remunerate them fairly, they will be loyal to us”.
Dr. Joseph Mensah-Ansah
The Head of Food Technology Department at KsTU, Prof. Felix Narku Engmann, equally advised players in the hospitality and tourism sector to introduce tourists to local dishes when they visit the country. He emphasized that food plays a vital role in promoting tourism in the country.
“We think tourists may not enjoy our local dishes but if you travel outside the country, it is what they have that you’re served with but it’s the reverse in our case. We want to please them and give them what they’re used to, but we need to introduce our local dishes to them and I believe they will enjoy it”.
Prof. Felix Narku Engmann
Commenting on the need to provide ample teaching equipment to the department, a senior lecturer at the Department of Hotel, Catering and Institutional Management, Dr. Owusu Darko, revealed that this will help in training students in the hospitality sector.
“We have very few working equipment, and due to that when the students go into the industry, they don’t know some the equipment they’re working with. I would like to plead with policy makers and the government to resource and equip the labs that will train students”.
Dr. Patricia Owusu Darko
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