SKILLING KASESE YOUTH FOR PRODUCTIVE INVOLVEMENT IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT PROJECT (SKYPITH)
Alliance for Children and youth Uganda (A4CY-U) in partnership with Kasese District Local Government and with support from ENABEL, is implementing a one year project with a goal to empower the youth in Kasese to harness their social economic potential for Employment and job creation.
On the 27th December 2021, Alliance for Children and Youth Uganda signed a grant agreement with ENABEL Uganda under the Skills Development Fund (SDF), where we committed to identify and train 120 adolescents in Tour Guiding and Hospitality Management.
This project intervention was born from a reality that majority of vulnerable groups in Kasese District especially the youth live in conditions of extreme Poverty due to limited skills and unemployment, thus continue to live a diminished life that restricts the full enjoyment of their human, economic, social, and cultural rights.
In response to this challenge, A4CY-U developed a project titled “Skilling Kasese youth for Productive involvement in tourism and hospitality” (SKYPITH). Tourism and hospitality within Kasese District is a major foreign exchange earner and contributes towards revenue growth, job creation and a reduction in the vulnerability of the poor by increasing a range of economic opportunities to individuals and households.
Vulnerable groups cannot fully benefit from the tourism and hospitality sector due to: Inadequate skills training in Tour guiding and hospitality administration, Lack of credentials for tour guides as most of them are trained on job, Lack of tailored market intelligence, limited digital marketing skills, Language barrier to ably speak and express in international languages, inability to meet customer expectations and safety concerns and poor coordination between the tour operators and the existing tourism training institutions
In bid to harness skills, the project uses a twined pedagogical model in which participants undertake three phased classroom sessions of 20 days each alongside three sequential hands on work based practicum of one month each at selected relevant tour institutions to create a connection between memorization and accumulation of knowledge.
A4CY-U is working closely with St. Joseph Mixed Day and Boarding Technical Institute Kasanga as a Co-Applicant, who is mandated to deliver a six months training and liaise with the Directorate of Industrial Training for assessment, examining and certification of trainees at the end of the training period.
Our project target is Youth aged 15-35 years already engaged in tour guiding and hospitality administration with tour operators in Kasese District. We intent to reach out to 50% of the beneficiaries being females.
To empower the youth in Kasese to harness their social economic potential for Employment through tourism, the following are the expected results:
- Identify and train 120 youth in marketable skills of tour guiding and Hospitality administration
- To support trainees to undertake worked based practicum to enrich their experience and employability chances.
- To provide toolkits to 120 trained tour guides to accelerate their employability and efficiency at work
- To equip 120 Youth tour guiding trainees with soft skills in life skills, financial literacy, ICT Skills. And Hospitality administration equipped
- To ensure that 120 Youth Certified by DIT and awarded certificates
A4CY-U identified and selected 120 youths from across Kasese district, of which 56 are females and 64 males. Training went on smoothly with trainees in practical sessions going on in different tour companies in Kasese district which include: Rwenzori Turaco View Camp, Rwenzori Mountaineering Services, Ruboni Community Camp, Rwenzori Coffee Snow Peak, Rwenzori Trekking services, Elephant Home – Kikorongo and Palm Tours and travels.
With the classroom based training and practicum experience being gained in the field, we are confident that A4CY-U is grooming and preparing a skilled and experienced Tour guides who understands their work and are set to cause meaningful change into the hospitality sector.
Out of the 120 trainees enrolled on program, 117 were registered and assessed for DIT, out of these 103 passed successfully, 14 were unsuccessful (failed) and 03 never turned up for registration. These trainees have been clustered and supported with startup tools to help them practice the skills attained and improve their livelihoods.
103 out of 120 targeted have been awarded their end of course DIT certificates, 34 out of the 103 who passed and got certificates have been employed by different tour companies and businesses (06 trainees are now working with Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), 02 are at Rwenzori Treckers in Kilembe, 12 are working at Rwenzori Coffee house, 12 at Rwenzori Tours Company (4 are on full contract while the others are part time workers) and finally 1 at RMS. A4CY-U will continue following up on all trainees to ensure they get the best out of this training opportunity. All thanks to Enable for the support and entrusting us with the finances to reach out to vulnerable Youths in the community.