The Growing Demand for Trained Tourism Professionals Will be Met by the INA.

During the first months of 2007, the Costa Rica government was asked to modernize and restructure the National Learning Institute’s (INA) curriculum by the private sector. The Institute, which offers classes at no cost to almost any citizen interested, was lagging behind in its schedules and not offering enough spaces for highly-desired classes like English. In the past year and a half, though, INA has picked up the pace, and will be starting two new courses this month.

English language learning is very important in Costa Rica, as its highly educated public is largely employed in sectors where English is a requirement. Call centers, customer service, technology, and tourism are huge industries here, but the talent pool for truly bilingual speakers is small. For that reason, INA announced recently the start of free English language courses for up to 25,000 Costa Ricans, which began throughout the country on Sept. 1st. With these classes, Costa Ricans will improve their language skills, hopefully priming them for work in English-only job positions.

Similarly, INA recently announced plans to admit 1200 Costa Ricans into their tourism classes, which will be taught around the country. Carlos Lachner, president of the Costa Rican Hotel Chamber (CCH) explained, “it does us very little good to have good and very nice hotels, be them small, medium, or large, if the personnel that is meant to provide attention and service do not adequately understand the guests’ interests.” Indeed, though Costa Rica is home to many wonderful hotels, guests whose hosts do not fulfill their needs often leave frustrated and unsatisfied.

The National Chamber of Tourism (Canatur), Costa Rican Association for Tourism Professionals (Acoprot), the Costa Rican Small Hotel Network, and the Costa Rican Institute of Tourism (ICT) have teamed up with the CCH and INA to provide high-quality tourism courses. The INA courses will focus on important hospitality themes, specifically restaurant bars, hotel cuisine, bartending, wait service, and hotel reception. “We’re working to make our tourism sector adequately competitive,” chief of INA’s Tourism Division, Eduardo Araya, explained.

In addition to preparing the industry’s professionals for better service, Costa Rica is acutely aware of its competition and ways to attract more tourists. “It is true that there are many threats to the way in which our regional tourism has been growing, which is why if we do not create new products and if we do not go above and beyond, this great [tourism] well could run dry,” INA’s executive president, Carlos Sequeira, said. “Tourism must be permanently changing and renovating itself.”

INA’s courses are a step in the right direction for the Costa Rica Tourism industry, arming its workers with the necessary skills to perform well. Tourism alone generates more than $2 billion annually, with over 2 million annual visitors and 400,000 Costa Ricans employed in its ranks. The English-language sector, which is difficult to measure because of its sheer size, is also incredibly important to the Costa Rica economy, and a prudent government cannot let such opportunities slip through its fingers.

For more information on INA and its no-cost courses, see its website (http://www.ina.ac.cr/) or call 2255-4254 ext. 110-108.

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Filed under: Business on September 4th, 2008