Training: A total of 46 participants completed a four-month training on housekeeping and front office know-how under the Youth Employment Skills (YES) programme yesterday. The programme is part of Guaranteed Employment Programme.

The 22 candidates in housekeeping group and 24 in front office management comprised of class X and XII graduates who are looking for skills in hospitality and tourism management.

Bhutan International School of Hospitality and Tourism in Taba, Thimphu provided the participants with both theoretical and practical lessons on the hospitality management.

To help familiarise participants with the hospitality environment, the institute also provided on the job training, hotel orientations and internship programmes at some of the prominent hotels in the country.

The institute also organised campus interview for the trainees with the hoteliers where most of them were recruited. So far, 76 percent of the housekeeping and 66 percent of front office trainees have been placed in various hotels and restaurants in the country.

The principal of the institute, Kalpana Sunwar, said that the remaining trainees will be employed within a month. “The institute is responsible for the full employment of all the trainees for at least two years,” she said. “However, there are a few individuals who have their own preferences in terms of location and hotel environment.”

One of the trainees, Kinley Choden, said that the training was very helpful. “Generally, housekeeping job is looked down upon but it is just like any other job,” the 22-year-old said. “At times it’s very tiring and requires a lot of physical strength to carry on, but it has it’s own reward in the end. I like this job.”

This is the second batch of trainees under the YES programme organised by the labour ministry. A total of 261 jobseekers are being trained under this batch in various fields such as sales executives, tally, marketing, PC technicians, store and inventory, hardware and networking, commercial cooking, F&B services, housekeeping, front office, and bakery.

The training is conducted to foster gainful employment and to achieve the government’s full employment target of 97.5 percent. The training also aims to promote gainful employment of Bhutanese youth in the economic sector and to meet the critical human resource requirements in the country.

The third batch of the YES programme that will begin November will train about 500 jobseekers.

Younten Tshedup 

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