B.T.B and Florida University Offer Diploma Courses in Tourism

A two-day training for stakeholders in the hotel services and culinary arts industries will conclude on Wednesday at the Princess Hotel and Casino in Belize City. The workshop will be offered again in the coming months through the Belize Tourism Board’s Elevate Tourism Training Academy and the Florida International University Chaplin School of Tourism and Hospitality Management. The sessions give Belizeans who are engaged in different sectors of tourism am opportunity to earn diplomas in various related courses, depending on the number of programs they complete successfully. News Five spoke with Alec Dalton, who was one of the presenters today, and also with Varsha Clarke-Martinez, the Manager of B.T.B.’s Cruise & Capacity Development.

Alec Dalton

Alec Dalton, Executive Director, Accelerating Leaders

“In partnership with the Belize Tourism Board, the Ministry of Tourism and Diaspora Affairs and Florida International University, we’re really excited to develop hospitality training programs to enhance on an already amazing culture of Belizean hospitality here. So we’ve got a large variety of training that we’re offering, at current pace, about 60 different courses. They range from hotel and lodging management to culinary arts, tourism management, and so basically we’re inviting Belizeans from across the country to come together. Each course is three hours long and successful completion earns a certificate. After they complete multiple courses in a series, they can earn a full diploma, both jointly offered by Florida International University as well as the Belize Tourism Board. All of the courses are delivered in person throughout the year. This is our first set here in Belize City. We’ll be back in July and then in September in conjunction with Belize tourism boards, Elevate Training Expo, and then on an ongoing basis after that. We’ve got a fantastic faculty of worldwide experts. Just in the other room, we’ve got a chef who worked for a three Michelin Star restaurant. He’ll be doing a ceviche demonstration later. We’ve got experts in Caribbean tourism and marine studies who will be coming later in the programs, some mixologists bartenders, other culinarians. It’s a great way for the population to be able to have the world come to them and to be able to lift up Ian hospitality at the same time.”

Varsha Clarke-Martinez

Varsha Clarke-Martinez, Manager, Cruise & Capacity Development, B.T.B

“We’re actually launching our first diploma programs under the Elevate Tourism Training Academy. This first diploma programs are both in Culinary Arts and the Hotel and Lodging Management. It is an opportunity for those that are working in the tourism sector to elevate their skill set and to have access to internationally and locally recognized training opportunities, and secondly, and I think most importantly, it is a chance for us to build excitement and for us to engage younger Belizeans that may be looking at tourism as a potential career path.”