Promoting vocational education and training as the best choice for young people and as a safe and fast-track route for their career development and integration into the labour market, remains one of the government’s top priorities for continued improvement of standards in the vocational education institutions across the country.

Prime Minister Edi Rama today visited the newly-reconstructed Hospitality and Tourism School in Tirana, currently in the process of certification by EHL Hospitality Business School, formerly known as École hôtelière de Lausanne, a hospitality management school in Switzerland consistently regarded as the best hospitality school in the world, which will support the hospitality and tourism sector needs as Albania is experiencing an incredible tourist inflow, while around 80% of hospitality and tourism management take up high paying jobs well before their graduation.

“This school is embarking on a very important transformation stage for the very fact that it serves a sector which is already facing new challenges. It is a fact that Albania’s tourism sector has ushered in an advanced stage of its development and in order for us to meet these challenges it is crucial that we built proper capacities and human resources, a part of who are here today. The good news in the context of what we already said, namely the development challenges of hospitality and tourism and tourism sector as a whole is also about the recently-signed agreement with the École hôtelière de Lausanne, one of the best hospitality and tourism management schools in the world,” the Deputy Finance Minister Olta Manjani explained.

The government head toured the newly-rebuilt school venues and encouraged Hospitality and Tourism school students to succeed academically, learn and enhance their skills at school as a way to lead a successful career and best integrate into the labour market.

“I met several representatives of tourism and hospitality operators in the coastal area of Dhermi and they said that it is no longer a matter of high wages, but it is all about skills and professional capacities of the individuals they hire, because the wages are absolutely very high. Therefore you should succeed academically and learn skills,” he encouraged them.

A total of 12 vocational education schools across Albania offer training in hospitality and tourism management.