Selection process for tourism trainees starts

Mr Somphong Mongkhonvilay (left) briefs Ambassador of Luxembourg to Laos Marc Ungeheuer andworkshop participants on the Lao tourism industry.

Twenty Lao National Tourism Authority (LNTA) officials will be trained as teachers and administrators at a new Tourism and Hospitality Training Centre in Vientiane, officials told a workshop yesterday.
The fast-growing tourism industry is set to benefit from a government of Luxembourgfunded project with the launch of the project’s hospitality and tourism skills workshop.
The workshop takes place from November 3-7 and brings together 62 participants from Vientiane and the provinces. LNTA Chairman Somphong Mongkhonvilay said in his opening address at the workshop this was an important opportunity to improve the tourism industry and develop hospitality standards to the highest quality.
The opening ceremony was attended by the Ambassador of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to Laos, Mr Marc Ungeheuer, who also delivered an opening address.
Assistance under the project began in July this year and gives officials the chance to receive specialised training from experts from Luxembourg.
The project is a bilateral development project between the Lao government and Luxembourg, with the objective of strengthening human resources in the Lao hospitality and tourism sector.
According to a workshop Selection process for tourism trainees starts Mr Somphong Mongkhonvilay (left) briefs Ambassador of Luxembourg to Laos Marc Ungeheuer and workshop participants on the Lao tourism industry.
handout, the training centre will be a comprehensive vocational education facility and will give trainees handson experience. The first intake of students is slated for early 2011.
Chief Technical Advisor of the project, Mr Peter Semone, said those who succeeded in gaining entry to the core team would be given a unique opportunity to develop their personal and professional skills beginning in January 2009.
“We intend to provide our core team with a variety of opportunities over the next two years - both in-country and overseas - which will hone their skills in the technical and theoretical aspects of hospitality and tourism training,” he said.
Of 200 people who applied to the training course, 62 were accepted and invited to attend the hospitality and tourism skills workshop.
European and regional evaluators have also been invited to the workshop to assess the candidates and decide on a core team of 20.
National Project Director Veunxay Malavong said it was important to recruit bright, energetic and enthusiastic people from all parts of Laos to help manage and lead the training centre.
The project began in July this year. The government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, through its executing agency Lux-Development, will provide financial and technical assistance to the project until 2013.
The LNTA will provide technical and counterpart support on behalf of the Lao government. The training centre will eventually be transferred to the Lao government, which will continue to operate it as a centre of excellence in hospitality and tourism training.

Souknilundon Southivongnorath
Vientiane Times, November 4, 2008.