The Ministry of Tourism is looking not just to increase the total number of workforce engaged in tourism industry but rather to expand the number of trained and experienced professionals. To achieve this goal, more jobs will be created for tourism students. Currently, aroud 800,000 people are imployed in the tourism sector of Cambodia hence there is a vacancy of about 200,000 jobs to help the country cope with handling seven million tourists expected to visit Cambodia this year.
Yet the existing education centres often fail to supply specialists in demand. While Cambodia has great tourism potential with abundance of historical and natural attractions, there is an obvious lack of skilled human resources. A scheme when students receive theoretical bases at a vocational institution on hospitality and then simultaneously start working part-time in hospitality industry – hotels or restaurants – to get practice can prove successful, many believe.
According to the estimate, only around 65% of the current number of people in the industry can be qualified as 'skilled' meaning that they did receive professional training of some sort. The remaining 35% or about 280,000 people are unskilled and do not have any accreditation for work in the tourism sector.
Cambodia Needs More Skilled Tourism Professionals
News in Asia
A growing number of tourist arrivals to Cambodia makes the domestic tourism sector face a severe lack of professionals. To meet the demand, the tourism industry workforce should reach one million people by next year, according to the announcement made by the Kingdom's government recently.