A GLOBAL EDUCATION PROGRAM FOR THE HOSPITALITY SECTOR IN ANDALUCÍA

Guest service, service techniques and protocols, unprofessional workforce are well-known weaknesses of the Andalucian hospitality sector. A lack of professional education may annihilate part of the extreme richness provided to the region by history, culture and nature as key factors for a pole position in the tourism race. An absence of regional skills development system, an absence of training awareness, an absence of workforce accreditation system, the labor instability due to high turnover, the employment of unqualified employees to cut costs are some of many challenges that Andalucia will have to front very fast in order to find issues to the economical crisis.

In 2002, the Egyptian Tourism Federation faced a similar challenge with the help of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and of the American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute (AHLEI) through what they called the Egyptian Cascade Model of education. This training approach generated local workforce development skills and provided sustainable training with both immediate and long term results for the sector.

The current article analyses how a global program of education, based on both seminars and online courses, could help the regional authorities or, by default, some municipal authorities, to overcome workforce education weakness in hospitality sector.