Regional partnership to give Wide Bay economy a shot in the arm
Friday, 1 February 2008
The Wide Bay Institute of TAFE is part of a new community partnership that will boost jobs and inject more skilled workers into the state's tourism industry.
The new organisation, named GREET stands for Growing the Region's Economy by Empowering Tourism, will be officially launched at the WideBay TAFE's Maryborough campus tomorrow.
WideBay TAFE's Regional Development Manager and GREET founder Pauline Rees, said the partnership included the public and private sectors, all levels of government, the peak business and tourism bodies for Bundaberg, Cooloola and Fraser Coast/South Burnett.
"It's a very exciting development because we're all working towards the same goal to create more jobs and lift the skill level right across the tourism industry," Ms Rees said.
"There are many wonderful tourism attractions throughout the region with potentially huge dollar values but this promise is not being realised because fully trained personnel at the entry level and beyond are still hard to come by," Ms Rees said.
She said tourism and hospitality courses at the TAFE were the training incubator for the tourism industry but they must stay relevant to the times.
"We have a skills shortage that must be solved if we are to arrive at a new level of prosperity for the region."
"The Institute needs to listen to industry to produce the right mix of graduates reaching all the way from today's entry level to the next generation of managers and owners."
Three new training initiatives already in the pipeline with GREET Advisory Groups are the Welcome Project, the Ambassador Project and the Job Readiness Project.
The Welcome and Ambassador Projects concentrate on customer service skills while the Job Readiness Project will work with school leavers to introduce them to the tourism industry.
"In different ways, they all drive home to students the benefits of the tourist dollar and the importance of becoming a customer service ambassador for their business, town and region," Ms Rees said.
Other languages