Angela Wilson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (July 26/02) - It's estimated that about 400,000 new jobs in the tourism industry will be created in Canada alone by the year 2005, says Shelda Hutton, manager of the Tourism Education Council.

That's why she believes a new pilot program funded both by the NWT Tourism Education Council and the Department of Education, Culture and Employment will be a great benefit to both staff and employers in Yellowknife.

"What we're trying to do is introduce a training culture within the tourism industry," says Hutton. "And these programs assist staff and management in providing exceptional service which is very essential to the success of any business. We focus on providing individuals within an occupation the skills and knowledge that are needed for them to be viewed and given professional recognition for that occupation."

The Gardens (formerly the Garden Apartments) will be the first business to go through the training process.

If successful, the staff of The Gardens will become the first nationally certified team of tourism professionals in the Northwest Territories.

Tammie Sorensen, manager of The Gardens, says she foresees the training being very beneficial for the business and employees alike.

"We can advertise the fact that the service you receive here, would be the same quality of service you would receive in Vancouver or Toronto. Because people feel that because they're coming to the North, they expect the level of service to be lesser. We're committed to actually improving our level of service."

Sorensen says 100 per cent of her full-time staff will be taking part in the training. She has 12 full-time employees in total. The training will be completed during the employees' regular working days.

There are three occupations staff at The Gardens are registered for. They are front desk agent, housekeeping room attendant and sales manager.

Sorensen says she's expecting the training to take three months to complete. The program is developed in three parts. The first part consists of a performance review, workbooks and videos relating to the training.

The second part is the exam, and the third part is an on-site evaluation which will ensure staff are following through with their training.

Easy to understand

The program is written in a comprehensible and easily understood manner to assist those for whom English is a second language, says Sorensen.

"The program is written at a Grade 3 level, with the option for an oral exam as well."

Hutton says The Gardens was an ideal environment to put the pilot program into practice.

"Because the Northwest Territories Tourism Education Council just opened its door in April, we are looking at a number of small pilot projects that we can do with industry over the next three to four months," she says.

"We looked at small properties such as The Gardens so we would be able to have a real ability to monitor the results from beginning to end and it's a small enough staff that we can have that kind of control over the training program itself and, of course, the outcomes.

Hutton stresses the program was designed for industry by industry.

"It wasn't developed by academics or consulting groups," she says. "It was developed by the best industry people from coast to coast in Canada."

She says her staff are excited about the new training program.

"We're always talking about what we expect from staff," she says. "And now we need to look at what we can give back to our employees. They're very excited about the project. I'm proud of my staff. All good things come from your staff."

Sorensen says it's important for other tourism businesses in the area to look at becoming certified.

"We need to make businesses aware that it's really important to start taking tourism seriously. There aren't many businesses out there that aren't touched by tourism in one way or another. You just need to get that cycle started."