KIGALI - A group of Canadian investors, the Consortium Canadien de Development Touristique et Hotelier en Afrique (CCDTHA) on Friday opened the School of Tourism and Hotel Management of Rwanda in Kigali. The school is a partnership between the Ministry of Education and CCDTHA.

It also exemplifies a partnership that has been created between the government of Rwanda and the private sector aimed at improving Rwanda’s tourism industry.

While officially opening the school, the Minister of Education, Dr. Daphrose Gahakwa, said that the opening of the tourism school was long overdue. She called on the students to create their own jobs after their education because Rwanda’s tourism industry is still virgin.

"Don’t undervalue this profession. The only job that is bad is one that is done badly. Take the training as valuable because we are all servants and what matters here is being a good servant,’ she said  

The school will offer training programmes in tourism and hotel management that have been tailored to suit the Rwandan market and tourism industry.

"Rwanda has made efforts to attract investors such as the CCDTHA, which will help the country attain its long-term development goals as formulated in Vision 2020,” said the Canadian Ambassador to Rwanda, Ross Hynes.

The school will be the first of its kind in the country, and it will help train Rwandans to respond to the rising demands for qualified professionals to work in Rwanda’s tourism and hospitality industry, Hynes added.

It will train students to be client-oriented, and there are future plans by the school to include eco-tourism and sustainable and responsible tourism into its programme.

A news release from the Canadian embassy adds that the school will intensively use information technology (IT) and adopt the "cooperative teaching approach”, a strategy that alternates studies and work to enable students gain much needed practical experience.

In addition, the school will put an emphasis on international standards, especially in the hotel sector where quality is highly concerned with authenticity, professionalism and the respect of local culture and environment, the press statement explained.

"Our educational project is as much concerned with the acquisition of intellectual knowledge and abilities as by the preparations of our students for the work market and openness to the world,” the Rector of the School of Tourism and Hotel Management of Rwanda, Luc Laferrière said.

"Rwanda has a high potential to be a leading tourist destination in the continent, and we hope that the school will develop the skills and the talents to enable the country to achieve this,” he added.  

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