BUSINESS SPECIAL

Training the Tourism Worker

By Nikita Savoyarov

Special to The St. Petersburg Times

Russia lacks modern pedagogical techniques that prepare workers for the practical reality of the tourism business — this claim made by industry representatives was recently uncovered by an EU-project, “Tourism Development in Northwest Russia,” which itself is attempting to ensure the sustainability of competence in the sector.

Educational establishments do not deny the problems facing the industry. Instead, they are looking for assistance to develop new methods of learning and to integrate practice with theory. They are looking to the project to help train workers, particularly from small businesses, in everyday, operational skills. This bottom-up approach requires a partnership between business, employee organisations, local vocational institutes, universities and public sector agencies.

An important part of this project was the 10-day training session completed on February 14 in ENGECON in St.Petersburg. The project’s key protagonist, Peter Saabye Simonsen, selected a range of prominent international lecturers representing both educational and tourist bodies from various countries.

Training courses were linked to programs such as “Cross Cultural Understanding,” by Assistant Professor John Hird from Aalborg University, Denmark; “Service Policies and Attitudes,” by Falko Nurr, managing director of the consulting company “Falkonsult;” “Product Development: Active and Cultural Tourism,” by Benjamin Carey, director of the consulting firm “Dunira Strategy,” and “Internet Marketing” by Alastair M. Morrison, Professor at Purdue University, U.S.

This course helped equip around 150 Russian instructors with the tools to train local tourism workers.

One of the biggest challenges in the training component of the project was to secure the further training of local tourism workers in both the public and private sectors. The challenge of spreading training programs into the regions is key to ensuring a proper quality and sustainability of the transfer of knowledge, and thus improving the competency of the local tourism sector.

The next stage of the project is currently underway — experts will supervise the dissemination of knowledge in the regions.

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