SKILLS FOR TOURISM / Lao 029

Project completed

In Laos, tourism is the sector with the highest potential to create jobs for the poor. Switzerland and Luxembourg join hands to allow 5’000 youth (by 2020) to acquire the skills needed to work in hotels and restaurants, at least 50% of them women, and 50% from poor families. Dual Cooperative Training (apprenticeships) will provide for work place orientation of skills and facilitate an easy transition of trainees into gainful employment, with salaries that move their families above the 2 US$/day international poverty line.

Country/region Topic Period Budget
Laos
Vocational training
Employment & economic development
Vocational training
Employment creation
01.12.2014 - 31.12.2022
CHF  9’750’000
Background

Tourism is the sector with the highest potential to create additional income for the poor in Lao PDR. No other sector has an equally positive combination of high GDP contribution, high employment generation, and high growth rate. From 1990 onwards, the total number of visitors grew on average by 20% annually, to 3.7 million in 2013. With indirect and induced impacts included, the total contribution of tourism stood at 18% of GDP in 2013, and it directly and indirectly provides for half a million jobs, accounting for 16% of the total employment in the country. The main pro-poor income from tourism is generated in hotels and restaurants (salaries of employees and sale of agricultural products for meals); sale of handicrafts; and community based services (guiding, home-stay). However, people coming from poor families currently profit marginally from tourism. The main potential to increase poor peoples’ share in tourism-related income is increased participation in the tourism labor force.

Objectives

Increased employment and participation of disadvantaged groups in the  tourism and hospitality sector

Target groups

The project has three target groups:

1.  On macro-level, the project will engage in policy dialogue, capacity development and coordination support to the 3 involved ministries (Education, Labour, Tourism), the National Training Council (NTC), tourism employer associations, and projects funded by other DPs, enabling them to improve the framework conditions for hospitality skills development.

2.  The main support provided by the project will be capacity development for meso-level organizations to improve the scale and quality of the skills development training offer, both on the regulatory side (National Qualification Framework, curriculum development, competency assessment, training of trainers and teachers => VEDI and LANITH as main target organizations), and on the skills development provider side (20 new private training organizations, 50 hotels/restaurant with apprenticeship schemes as main target organizations; sub-contract to specialized company for managing the affirmative action scheme).

3.  On micro-level, the project will provide affirmative action support to 2’500 disadvantaged youth from poor families, by eliminating access barriers, allowing them to access hospitality skills training and find gainful employment.

Medium-term outcomes

1. The quality of skills development programs in Tourism and Hospitality is improved (2020 target: 75% pass rate of students in competency assessments; 65% satisfaction rate of employers).

2. The scale and variety of good quality skills development programs in Tourism and Hospitality is expanded (targets 5’000 new workers trained by 2020 and 20’000 by 2025; 20 new private training providers and 50 companies with apprenticeship programs by 2020).

3. Transparent and effective support measures for inclusion of disadvantaged groups are established (2’500 by 2020 and 10’000 by 2025).

4. An enabling governance, institutional and regulatory framework is in place (government contributes at least 150’000 USD to LANITH’s budget by 2020).

Results

Results from previous phases:  

The project builds on the results of a successful project funded by the Government of Luxembourg over the past seven years. The project supported the creation and building up of LANITH (Lao National Institute of Tourism and Hospitality) as an autonomous, para-statal center of excellence in hospitality skills training. An independent evaluation confirmed the relevance of LANITH and the quality of products developed. The evaluation also highlighted two key weaknesses: support provided has pilot project character and did not allow yet reaching the scale needed to have an impact on the entire hospitality sector and only very few trainees come from poor families => those are the challenges tackled with the new project. The project approach is built on SDC’s good practice example, the Employment Fund in Nepal.


Directorate/federal office responsible SDC
Credit area Development cooperation
Project partners Contract partner
Private sector
Foreign state institution
  • Central State of South East
  • National State Institute North
  • Foreign private sector North


Budget Current phase Swiss budget CHF    9’750’000 Swiss disbursement to date CHF    9’106’766
Project phases Phase 2 01.01.2023 - 31.12.2027   (Current phase)

Phase 1 01.12.2014 - 31.12.2022   (Completed)