THE bad image of tourism jobs is causing recruitment problems in the industry and could jeopardise future growth, the chairman of CERT, the State tourism training agency, has warned.
Mr James Nugent said that widespread perceptions of tourism as an industry with low pay, long and unsocial working hours and inadequate training opportunities were "hitting recruitment hard".
This problem coincides with an unprecedented boom in tourism, and chefs and qualified waiting staff are in particularly short supply.
CERT research had revealed "significant levels of dissatisfaction" on pay and working hours among hotel and catering staff, Mr Nugent said. There were also "pockets of dissatisfaction" over work in the fast food industry, pension provision and employment in smaller establishments.
At the introduction of the CERT annual report yesterday, Mr Nugent claimed the image of the industry was "often undeserved". He urged school-leavers to consider vacancies in tourism training courses and said there was a "vast" employment potential in the industry. All 2,000 CERT college graduates enjoyed a 100 per cent employment rate last year, and a record 11,829 people followed CERT training courses in colleges and industry.
But he admitted that half of those who formally applied for training in 1995 did not follow through. The number of applications is also falling, at a time when the school-leaver population is rising.
CERT acknowledges the negative connotation attached to, working in the industry, but maintains the problem is largely one of perception. "There is an unsocial nature to the industry. After all, it's a 24-hour business. But so are many others which have dealt with this problem," Mr Nugent said.
The CERT chairman insisted that the absence of a minimum-wage agreement for Dublin hotel, and catering workers was "not a big problem". "Wage rates tend to be dictated by the growing rates around town."
The aim now was to encourage the industry to implement "enlightened management policies" by providing access to quality training facilities which would allow staff to follow well-defined and satisfying careers.
According to the report, the industry favours more training but at less cost, in management, communications and customer relations, marketing and sales, and computer skills for older staff.
"The industry needs to be more assertive in its recruitment and pro-active in selling its job product," Mr Nugent said.
Research has also shown that 75 per cent of tourism businesses had no staff with foreign-language abilities. Yet it was estimated that at any one time in the peak season those on holiday in Ireland with little or no English could number 105,000 Germans, 95,000 French, 55,000 Italians and 30,000 Swiss.
In response, CERT has introduced a series of audio courses in French, German, Italian and Spanish.
