A boost for tourism as cadets complete training
The Tourism Monitors Programme is part of the broader government intervention that involves training, mentorship and deployment of unemployed youth in identified tourism attractions and sites.
MBOMBELA – Two hundred and ten graduates will join the tourism sector as tourism monitors after successfully completing their training in safety and guiding.
A ceremony, presided over by the deputy minister of tourism, Fish Mahlalela, was held last Friday at the Communio Auditorium in collaboration with the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA).
Addressing the graduates, Mahlalela emphasised on skills development. He said skills are an essential instrument to eradicate poverty and to create employment. The Tourism Monitors Programme is part of the broader government intervention that involves training, mentorship and deployment of unemployed youth in identified tourism attractions and sites.
The Department of Tourism, through its Working for Tourism Programme, launched the Tourism Monitors (TM) Programme in 2017/18 financial year as a pilot programme in Gauteng Province, in partnership with the Gauteng Tourism Authority.
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Currently, the programme is being implemented in all nine provinces, including identified protected areas through partnership with organisations such as the South African National Parks (SANParks) and the South African National Biodiversity Institute (Sanbi). Monitors obtained National Certificates in Tour Guiding NQF 4 and were taught customer care, tour guiding and communication skills.
“The tourism monitors are graduating at a time when we ready ourselves for the festive season in December, and we believe that through their deployment, the multitudes of tourists from within our country and abroad will have memorable and safe visitor experience over the 2019 festive season,“ he concluded.
