A national tourism careers programme highlighting the wealth of employment opportunities in Irish tourism was launched today by Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, 

Patrick O’Donovan, TD. The industry-led programme is designed to enable second-level students aged 15-18 to explore the full range of career paths and options available throughout the country. It is being run in close collaboration with tourism and hospitality businesses, which currently need to recruit over 6,000 entry-level employees each year across all areas of their operations. 

Minister O'Donovan is pictured with IHF president Joe Dolan and IHI ceo Natasha Kinsella at the launch.

Targeting over 800 post-primary schools and youth reach centres, the initiative is being run by the Irish Hotels Federation  and the Irish Hospitality Institute  in partnership with Fáilte Ireland. It includes an interactive online programme for students and teachers (Tourism Insight) developed by the Institute of Technology Tralee and a free digital and print magazine on tourism career options (Get a Life in Tourism). This is being supported by a student work experience programme, school talks by industry professionals and a series of regional careers events.

 

 

This continued growth in tourism is creating thousands of additional employment opportunities for young people. With tourism now on track to create a further 40,000 new jobs by 2021, there is an increasing need for the industry to attract skilled employees – which continues to be a challenge for many tourism businesses, including hotels and guesthouses.