Education Minister Shaik Baksh recently announced that sweeping changes will be made at the Carnegie School of Home Economics to meet the challenges of the current demands of the country.
And in this regard, the institution will be equipped to train students in hospitality skills-a recommendation which was made by the feasibility study done by the Caribbean Development Bank.
This is indeed a most appropriate recommendation and it is good to see that the minister has responded so promptly; because in many instances, some government officials take too long to act on recommendations for accelerating our socio-economic development, which is way behind what it should have been. Of course, this situation is mainly  a result of a very long period of economic stagnation which this country went through under the PNC government.
The move to convert the school into a hospitality training institute is a wise one, because Guyana is currently pushing tourism development and expansion aggressively, and therefore the demand for skilled hospitality personnel is expected to significantly increase in the next few years.
We are already seeing tremendous growth in the hospitality sector as the number of entertainment centres, hotels, restaurants and resorts have burgeoned in recent years. This take-off has been prominently noticeable during the preparations for the hosting of World Cup Cricket in 2007.
In recent years, tourist arrivals have been increasing. In fact, for this year there have been two visits already by cruise ships, and others are scheduled to arrive later in the year. So there are no ifs and buts about the need for training in the hospitality sector and the Carnegie School is ideal for conducting such training. On this note, the possibility of establishing branches of the institution in rural communities, similar to what has been happening with our technical institutes, should be explored, because there are a large number of students who are interested in pursuing studies in hospitality, but are deprived of the opportunity because of the financial and logistical constraints involved in travelling to Georgetown.
The global tourism industry is a growing one, and is also becoming increasingly competitive; and therefore our tourism sector, which is still in relative infancy, has a lot of catching up to do; and in this regard, having an adequate number of trained hospitality personnel is of vital importance.
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), worldwide employment within the tourism industry is estimated at 192.2 million jobs (one in every 12.4 jobs in the formal sector). By 2010, this should have  grown to 251.6 million jobs (one in every 11 formal sector jobs).This includes employment created by fixed capital formation activities and by providers to the tourism industry. Direct employment for tourist consumption amounts to about three per cent of total employment worldwide. In some countries, however, the proportion is three times higher (Spain – 8.3 per cent; Mauritius – 10 per cent; Barbados – 10.5 per cent). The industry is heavily dominated by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs): in Europe, for example, there are 2.7 million SMEs operating in the sector, representing almost all HCT enterprises. Some 94 per cent of this segment are micro-enterprises employing fewer than ten people.SMEs employ over half the labour force working in the industry.
From the above, the magnitude of the role of the tourism industry in economic development is abundantly clear, and also underlines the role our tourism industry could play in our economic transformation. Hence, the need to give the sector all the necessary attention and support if it is to fulfil its potential role in the economic advancement of our country.