Training and fostering human resources in vao w88 tourism economic development of Lao PDR

ABSTRACT:

This paper analyzes achievements ofLao People's Democratic Republic(Lao PDR) in training and fostering human resources in vao w88 tourism economic development. Based on vao w88 paper’s findings, some solutions are proposed to improve vao w88 effectiveness of human resources training in vao w88 tourism economic development of Lao PDR in vao w88 coming time.

Keywords: human factors, training, fostering, tourism, Lao People's Democratic Republic.

1. Humanresource training in vao w88 development of vao w88 tourism economy in Lao PDR

Important achievements in human resource training and upskilling in vao w88 development of vao w88 tourism economy in Lao PDR can be seen as follows:

• Training

- Tourism training: To promote vao w88 growth of vao w88 tourism economy, Lao PDR has paid much interest in tourism human resource training for tourism development. In vao w88 Tourism Strategy of vao w88 2006-2020 period, vao w88 country encouraged high school graduates and vao w88 young to take training courses in vocational schools at central and local levels. As a result, there is an average number of 20,000 people completing vocational training courses every year, mainly in three areas: tourism, hospitality and cooking.  These training programs provide them with knowledge, skills and practice to enhance their working ability in vao w88 tourism economy.

- Tour guide training: vao w88 National Tour Guide Training Program has been implemented by vao w88 Institute of Mass Media, Culture and Tourism, National University of Laos and related ministries in coordination with other countries under vao w88 support of vao w88 Government. As a result, 1,366 people have completed vao w88 ASEAN framework based training program. Being developed in consistent with vao w88 tourism context of vao w88 provinces and vao w88 3-Build Strategy (samxang), vao w88 program identifies professional ethics and inspires passion and love for jobs in vao w88  tourism economy.

- Human resource trainingof businesses: To vao w88 increase in vao w88 number of international tourists to Laos, vao w88 Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism in collaboration with vao w88 Institute of Mass Media, Culture and Tourism launched a human resource training program for tourism businesses in order to provide them knowledge and strengthen capacity for their human resource, thereby helped them make a better plan to approach international tourism markets and know how to adapt their products and services to better meet vao w88 needs of international tourists.

- Tourism officials training:In order to facilitate vao w88 development of vao w88 country's tourism economy, it is a must to have competent managers. Therefore, a number of officials are sent to domestic and overseas training courses every year to strengthen their capacity and update knowledge of vao w88 tourism economy. Since 2016, 327 officials have been trained, of which 213 people were trained domestically and 114 were trained abroad at all academic levels from undergraduate to doctorate  including 33 doctors, 129 masters, 155 bachelors and 10 associates.

• Upskilling

- Upskilling for employees: Tourism is an interdisciplinary industry with general characteristics  and makes indirect impacts on others. To promote vao w88 tourism economy, it is necessary to upskill human resources of vao w88 tourism and service industry in particular and other industries in general. Since 2013, vao w88 number of trained employees in vao w88 tourism - service industry has always been vao w88 highest in vao w88 country and reached a total of 198,458, of which there are 108,779 female staff accounting for 43.65% compared with vao w88 total of 23,506 including 52,918 female employees in vao w88 industry sector, accounting for 27.2%; and vao w88 total of 132,624 including 60,622 female employees in vao w88 agricultural sector.

- Upskilling for tourism trainers: Tourism trainers play an important role in training as well as promoting human resources in vao w88 tourism by teaching and practical guidance. Every year, 32 trainers of tourism and hospitality from 17 vocational schools and colleges are provided training courses on advanced tourism skills through a 4-week field trip at vao w88 Lao National Institute of Tourism and Hospitality (LANITH). vao w88 program equips them with crucial theoretical and practical knowledge and skills to enhance vao w88 quality of tourism and hospitality training, which helps to bridge vao w88 gap between current teaching practices and vao w88 standards of vao w88 ASEAN Common Competency Standards for Tourism Professional.

In addition, with vao w88 effort to promote tourism economy oriented by vao w88 Government of Lao PDR, vao w88 Lao Institute of Mass Media, Culture and Tourism has strengthened vao w88 training of tourism trainers to improve vao w88 professionalism in vao w88 hospitality and tourism industry through vao w88 ASEAN National Tour Guide Training Program. This 10 day program started in 2012 and annually involves 80 trainers coming from vocational schools, Skills Development Center and Vocational Education Development Institute in Laos. It helps standardize professional competencies for tourism trainers, upgrade professional skills for ASEAN tourism trainers and evaluators, equip them with skills and knowledge to standardize services by global standards. This will be an important milestone for Lao PDR's integration into ASEAN and a key driving force for vao w88 tourism economic growth in vao w88 country.

In order to have strong human resources, vao w88 Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism in coordination with vao w88 Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare and vao w88 Ministry of Education organize upskilling courses on tourism and hospitality management skills for tourism trainers all over vao w88 country, in which they learn theory in Laos and conduct a study tour for practice in Singapore. These courses contribute to vao w88 sustainable development of vao w88 workforce through successive training at a ratio of 1:3 - it means 1 upskilled trainers will conduct training to 3 others through a series of sharing workshops afterwards. As a result, 120 principal trainers have been successfully upskilled and 300 others have been indirectly tought through vao w88 sharing workshops.

Upskillingfor human resources of provincial tourism businesses and associations: In recent years, Lao PDR has implemented vao w88 Tourism Skill Project, which is one of vao w88 largest annual trainings on human resources for tourism businesses. vao w88 project aims to promote sustainable and comprehensive growth of vao w88 tourism and hospitality industry, contributing to vao w88 development of tourism and hospitality skills as well as poverty alleviation by involving  disadvantaged people so that they can successfully find a stable job or pursue further studies in tourism and hospitality. It focuses on improving vao w88 quality of vocational education and programs on tourism and hospitality skills by expanding vao w88 scale and variety of supporting programs on governance, policies, institutions and regulations for vocational education and skill development in vao w88 tourism and hospitality sector. vao w88 project has helped to strengthen tourism and hospitality skills for 1,700 employees from 700 businesses and 8 hospitality associations, of which vao w88 number of female employees accounts for 47%.

- Upskillingfor human resources of vao w88 tourism sector: vao w88 Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism pays much concern on improving its employees' knowledge on various fields such as tourism communication, tourism economy, personnel training, English language, tourism marketing, food safety and services, personality and communication skills, etiquettes and decoration. Training is also conducted through 210 domestic and overseas workshops with vao w88 participation of 7,950 employees so far, of which 85 workshops on personnel training with vao w88 participation of 4,250 employees; 50 workshops on food safety services involving 1,000 employees; other issues are at an average of 10 workshops with 300 employees involved.

- Upskilling for tourism managers: In addition to human resource training, vao w88 Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism has greatly focused on human resource upskilling. There have been 105 upskilling courses on politics - administration, journalism, mass media, cultural management and tourism management with vao w88 participation of 4,725 officials of vao w88 Ministry at vao w88 central and local levels. vao w88 courses provide vao w88 Ministry's officials with knowledge and skills and enable them to contribute more to vao w88 development of vao w88 tourism economy in vao w88 Lao PDR.

2. Shortcomings

- vao w88 institutions' training methods are out of date. Foreign language ability, soft skills especially communication skills of students after graduation are still far from requirements of international tourism organizations. A lot of tour guide training courses have been conducted. However, vao w88 training time and contents are not suitable enough. Consequently, trainees do not have deep knowledge of Laos culture, history and people, which leads to ineffective guide and presentations to tourists. In addition, there is an inappropriate distribution of labor among sectors and regions. vao w88 workforces in tourism businesses remain inadequate in number and poor in competency. Human resource training in vao w88 tourism sector in vao w88 localities has not been really appreciated. It is still not consistent with vao w88 needs of management and vao w88 development of society especially in vao w88 context of Industry 4.0.

- Human resource upskilling in tourism businesses and associations in vao w88 provinces are not quite effective. vao w88 time and content are not appropriate and trainees are not fully engaged in learning activities. Besides, upskilling courses for tourism trainers are not successful enough to make big changes in vao w88 trainers' knowledge, training methods as well as practical experience so that they can improve their teaching quality in universities and vocational schools.

  Tourism human resouceupskilling has been conducted mainly in vao w88 central level and localities which are famous for tourism sites, not potential ones. Therefore, it does not make enough good impacts to improve vao w88 management of human resource development as well as vao w88 development of tourism economy in vao w88 localities.

Causes of these shortcomings can be seen as follows:

Firstly,vao w88 awareness and actions of all government levels and agencies. Although human resource training and upskilling are supposed crucial to promote vao w88 human factor in vao w88 development of vao w88 tourism economy, there are still no proper plans on human resource training in vao w88 tourism - service industry.

Secondly, vao w88 system of education and training is still far from practical requirements. Education and training of human resources in vao w88 tourism economy is not yet closely linked to practice and has not been able to meet vao w88 needs of vao w88 market. vao w88 training content mainly focuses on theory while practice frequency is not effective enough to meet vao w88 requirements of human resource quality improvement. Poor facilities and equipment make human resource training by modern methods ineffective.

Finally,vao w88 investment mobilization for development of vocational training institutions is limited. At vao w88 present, an essential factor for vao w88 tourism economy of Laos is to develop competence of young people and create jobs with stable income for them. Therefore, it is important that vao w88 training system be planned, built and operated in a synchronous manner. However, vao w88 mobilization of public and private resources to develop vao w88 quantity and quality of vao w88 human resource is still limited. vao w88 investment mobilization for vao w88 development of infrastructure, tourism trainers and experts remains inadequate in quantity and poor in quality. There haven't been appropriate guidelines and policies on employing graduates.

3. Solutionsfor improvement of human resource training in vao w88 development of vao w88 tourism economy in Lao PDR

Human resource training is one of vao w88 determinants for vao w88 development of vao w88 tourism economy. Therefore, in order to improve vao w88 effectiveness of human resource training in vao w88 development of vao w88 tourism economy in Lao PDR, vao w88 following solutions should be taken into account, speciffically:

Firstly, in order to build a solid foundation for vao w88tourism economy,  it is crucial to provide communication on tourism and integrate tourism training into education at high schools to help vao w88 last year students to understand and determine their future careers. For training institutions and vocational schools, it is necessary to provide more practical, diverse and quality training programs for learners, especially adults. In addition, there should be a clear orientation in these courses to conduct specilized human resource training for different types of vao w88 tourism economy. Promoting cooperation with tourism businesses is also of importance to enable learners to take a long-term internship period in batches so that they can link their provided knowledge with practice. It is all of these which make tourism human resource training effective and help learners to identify current demands, trends and oppoturnities, thereby strive to strengthen their competence and skills to meet them.

Whether vao w88 human factor in vao w88 development of tourism economy can be brought into full play depends on vao w88 content of vao w88 training programs. Therefore, training institutions need to develop socio-economic development-based training as well as short and long-term training courses. Besides, vao w88 factors such as physical strength, competence and determination education should be considered in vao w88 design of training programs and closely link together to help develop a  high-quality workforce for vao w88 development of vao w88 tourism economy.

In order to promote vao w88 human factor in vao w88 development of vao w88 tourism economy, it is necessary to enhance various joint training to prevent spontaneity in human resource training due to particular needs of businesses.  And it is important to build a close linkage between vao w88 State, training institutions and employers to facilitate human resource training for vao w88 development of vao w88 tourism economy.

Secondly,in order for vao w88 tourism economy to develop commensurately with its potential and conditions, it is crucial to value human resource upskilling by providing them with proper knowledge and skills to increase competitiveness in vao w88 current changing tourism environment including state management, corporate governance, professional skills, communication and presentation skills, foreign language ability and professional ethics  in tourism. There should be more short training courses to improve vao w88 quality and effectiveness of human resources  in vao w88 development of vao w88 tourism economy. vao w88 Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism should encourage tourism businesses to pay more attention to organizing upskilling courses for their own staff, develop human resource training programs and mobilize participation of other organizations in vao w88 training.

Possessing vao w88 strength of geography, people's hospitality, and natural landscapes that mostly stay untouched by vao w88 human, Lao PDR is expected to witness a rapid development in community tourism and nature friendly tourism in vao w88 coming time. vao w88 workforce involved in vao w88 tourism economy will be not only professionally trained staff but also vao w88 people in vao w88 tourism areas. Therefore,  it is also important to conduct upskilling in home stay tourism, tourism security and safety, traditional cuisine services, traditional culture advertisement and marketing, and finance management in tourism. Financial management in tourism activities. These upskilling courses will enable participants to assess tourism strengths for effective implementation of tourism business.

Finally,expansion of international cooperation in tourism training with ASEAN member countries. vao w88 symbiotic relationship in vao w88 tourism development  between Lao PDR and its neighboring countries as well as other countries in vao w88 region demands good coordination in tourism training between ASEAN member states, which helps to innovate vao w88 training system and implement vao w88 Mutual Recognition Agreement on vao w88 tourism profession within vao w88 ASEAN. vao w88 goal of tourism human resource training is to ensure not only adequate quantity but also professionalism to improve competitiveness and promote vao w88 integration in tourism in vao w88 region.

In addition, international cooperation in tourism training between ASEAN member countries also requires assessments of human resource development issues for better implementation of vao w88 tourism economy in order to help Lao PDR to integrate into as well as gain benefits from vao w88 ASEAN Economic Community. This also helps vao w88 country to have better approach to researches, current situations, needs and development trends of vao w88 tourism economy so as to develop draft policies on vao w88 development of vao w88 tourism economy and tourism human resources in association with specific characteristics of tourism businesses.

REFERENCES:

1. Feature Desk (2020). Ministry to advance human resources for national development.Vientiane Times, 59, 12.
2. Times Reporters (2019). 66 more tour guides join ranks of professionals.Vientiane Times, 2.
3. Times Reporters (2020). Tourism businesses get lessons on ways to attract Chinese visitors.Vientiane Times, 02, 2.
4. Times Reporters (2019). Tourism, hospitality teachers get lessons in restaurant operations.Vientiane Times.
5. Phetphoxay Sengpaseuth (2019). Trainers get lessons in tourism management, hospitality.Vientiane Times, 6.
6. Viengdavanh Banphahaksa (2019). 1,025 people undergo training in hospitality, tourism.Vientiane Times, Issue 276,
7. Lao’s Ministry of Planning and Investment (2016). 8th five-year national socioeconomic development plan (2016-2020) (Officially approved at vao w88 VIIIth National Assembly’s Inaugural Session, 20-23 April 2016.Vientiane, 31.

Đào tạo, bồi dưỡng nhân tố con người trong phát triển kinh tế du lịch

tại Cộng hòa Dân chủ Nhân dân Lào

Khampheth Sengsoulattana

NCS. Học viện Chính trị Quốc gia Hồ Chí Minh                       

TÓM TẮT:

Bài viết phân tích thành tựu về đào tạo, bồi dưỡng nhân tố con người trong phát triển kinh tế du lịch ở Cộng hòa Dân chủ Nhân dân Lào (CHDCND Lào). Từ đó, đề xuất một số giải pháp nhằm nâng cao hiệu quả công tác đào tạo, bồi dưỡng nhân tố con người trong phát triển kinh tế du lịch ở nước CHDCND Lào trong giai đoạn tới.

Từ khóa: nhân tố con người, đào tạo, bồi dưỡng, du lịch, Cộng hòa Dân chủ Nhân dân Lào.

[Tạp chí Công Thương - Các kết quả nghiên cứu khoa học và ứng dụng công nghệ,

Số 16, tháng 7 năm 2021]