Basseterre (18 July, 2022) – The Ministry of Tourism and the St. Kitts Tourism Authority continue to invest in the future of the tourism sector with programs that are created to inspire, educate, and expose the youth to dynamic career opportunities within the tourism industry. Ten students from six high schools across the island have been selected to undergo an eight-week course of intensive French classes facilitated by the Alliance Francaise.
The participating schools include:
- Basseterre High School
- Cayon High School
- Charles E. Mills Secondary School
- Immaculate Conception Catholic School
- Saddlers Secondary School
- Washington Archibald High School
The aim is to enrich students with the ability to accurately and confidently interact with French travelers who visit the destination. By the end of the program, successful candidates will become French Tour Guide Youth Ambassadors who can volunteer to translate tours for tourist groups and support taxi operators in their day-to-day activities. This will increase the destination’s marketability and overall global appeal.
“The only way we can secure the future of tourism is to ensure that we train, develop and provide experiences to the younger generation so that they can continue to pave the way for a more robust and vibrant tourism sector,” said Carlene Henry Morton, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism.
“Multilingual individuals are an asset to any destination. The partnership of the Alliance Francaise is critical to our efforts to build our human capacity in their knowledge of the French language. Additionally, through hands-on experiences we can expose the youth to different career paths within a thriving tourism industry,” said Ellison “Tommy” Thompson, CEO of the St. Kitts Tourism Authority. “They are the future, and we are making sure that they are ready to lead.”
The St. Kitts Tourism Authority and the Ministry of Tourism places an increasingly high value on knowledge of more than one language and will continue to support the Alliance Francaise in its effort to raise a generation of multilingual professionals on island.
