Jordan needs more, better qualified tourism workers

Jordan’s tourism industry is the second largest employer in Jordan, and as hotels, restaurants and other tourism facilities mushroom around the country, the number of jobs offered up by this industry is growing rapidly. It is expected that more than 25,000 workers will be needed by the tourism sector over the next five years.

The current number of graduates from tourism and hospitality programs does not meet the demand, and the capacity of these graduates is below market needs. The reasons stem from a local culture of shame about working in tourism or hospitality, which leads to few students entering into tourism, and many who do study tourism and hospitality do so as a result of it being the only choice left to them. A similar problem applies to tourism workers, where there is a lack of skills and motivation as most see it as a transitory career until they find work that they want.

To begin to address this issue, the Jordan Tourism Development Project teamed up with the Ministry of Labour (MoL) and worked with the Vocational Training Corporation to upgrade the tourism and hospitality centers around Jordan. This project was successful: the number of students entering into the VTC centers has tripled and the number of women entering such programs has gone from negligible numbers to about 30%. The follow-on Jordan Tourism Development Project II is now continuing work with MoL and partnering with other education institutions from vocational to university level in order to upgrade tourism and hospitality curricula around the country. 

These efforts will be combined with awareness campaigns to change the attitudes of students towards tourism and encourage more interest in the sector as well as presenting it as a good career choice.

The private sector has supported efforts to upgrade the VTC centers, taking in interns from the centers for six-month training periods. How can the role of the private sector be expanded and is this necessary for meeting the needs of the tourism sector?