UG Tourism Studies Unit consults with tourism industry on curriculum
Coordinator of the Tourism Studies Unit at the University of Guyana, Donald Sinclair, has said that the consultation exercise held with the tourism industry last Thursday was aimed at improving the tourism curriculum at the local university. The Project '99 consultation was held at the Park Hotel and according to Sinclair who spoke with Stabroek News after the workshop, the curriculum review project was aimed at third year students. "Essentially, we were asking the tourism industry how the university programme could be better". Sinclair said stakeholders of the tourism industry itself had been involved in the consultation since students would be employed by this sector after graduation. In his presentation to the workshop, Sinclair said that field work was important for the students to be well-rounded, and as such the curriculum review was important both to the Tourism Studies Unit and the tourism industry. He stated that attachments would allow for the proper grounding of students in the operational realities and requirements of the industry, and that "cooperative education" was necessary. He explained that the Tourism Unit, in an informal and not too structured fashion, has had industrial attachments before, but not on a compulsory basis. Students, he explained, were sent on two weeks' attachments to hotels or resorts, "but what we want to do from next year is structure those attachments in a more formalized way". He also explained that after the fourth year at university, the students would spend a certain period of time in the industry as part of their tourism education. Sinclair disclosed that an initial proposal had been made for the students to spend 180 hours doing practical training, but based on feedback from the stakeholders this would now be increased. According to the Coordinator, tourism experts had recommended that the students spend six months to one year in the field, "so we're looking at those proposals which are sensitive to the industry; it will be a good time for them to ground the students in those very realities." He said that other recommendations had been submitted for more input into the curriculum. According to Sinclair, travel agencies had called for attention to be paid to world geography and forecasting. According to Sinclair, the students must be able to conduct forecasts on the trends of the industry: "they must be able to tell what the industry can expect six months from now, a year or five years from now." He said other areas which had been focused on were customer care training and collaboration between the industry and agencies such as the Iwokrama Rain Forest Centre and Conservation International. He explained that in the programme emphasis was placed on eco-tourism training. He added that the above-mentioned agencies could provide the type of field experience and exposure that an eco-tourism manager should possess. "It is a challenge for us to construct these collaborative arrangements with these agencies," he said. So far tourism students have visited several tourist resorts in Guyana and overseas and have held interviews with various artists from the Rastafarian movement and Amerindian craft producers. According to Sinclair, the students have also conducted research in far-flung Amerindian communities around Guyana. He said that arising out of the one-day workshop, there would be more "one on one" meetings with agencies like Iwokrama, Conservation International and the Tourism and Hospitality Association. "Having heard from the group itself, it is now time to structure person to person and agency to agency communication to further refine what we want to see on the curriculum", Sinclair said, adding that this would be done over the next month so that the curriculum could be forwarded to the University's Academic Board for final approval.
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