25 January 2010

ATF: Asean to agree common work qualifications

BRUNEI - Professionals working in South East Asia's tourism industry will be able to work in other member states with greater ease once Asean becomes a single community by 2015.

Chairman of the Asean Task Force on Tourism Manpower Development, I Gusti Putu Laksaguna, told The Brunei Times that the framework for the Asean Common Competency Standard for Tourism Professionals (ACCSTP) has been drafted and that Asean officials are to review it this year.

The common standard will undergo design changes every year until 2014, added Laksaguna, Indonesia's deputy minister for cultural and tourism resources development.

The deputy minister explained that the need for the standard and the facilitation of mobility of tourism professionals within Asean was to address the issue of a lack of human resources in member countries where tourism is picking up.

"Some countries are experiencing increasing numbers of tourists, and of course they need more hotels (and other tourism facilities) to be built, but they don't have enough people," he said.

"So that's why with this (standard), they have the opportunity to invite people from other member countries to work in their country.

"We do hope that for the people in Asean, because they would already have the Asean standard competency, it would be easier for them to move around.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœSo like a cook here in Brunei, they can work in Jakarta because we have similar standards," he added.

Last year's ATF in Hanoi identified some 33 job titles as tourism professionals, including those working in the food and beverage industry, front office, housekeeping, travel agents and other sectors related to tourism, Laksaguna explained.

He said that every year running up to 2015, they will train "master trainers" and "master assessors" in the various professions from all member states so that there will be people in those countries who have knowledge of the competency standard and can teach and assess others operating in that particular line of work.

Source: The Brunei Times