Minister Shirley Bond (centre) with Room Keys students David Quewezance, Bonnie Wisla and Maeve Neary -photo 250News

Prince George, B.C. – It is a program aimed at  preparing  people for jobs in the hospitality sector and the first  round has proven  to be so successful,  a second intake has been announced.Called  ‘Room Keys’  students  spend  classroom time  at the Canadian Vocational Training Centre in Prince George, learning  about the hospitality industry, then  they  are linked to  the industry  to put that information  into  practice.

The program initially  had 7 students,  but the second intake has been announced  and Prince George -Valemount MLA Shirley Bond says  this time,  a minimum of ten students will be  taking part.

“We have  students who are excited to take a program that will likely lead to employment fairly directly,  and I can tell you from the tourism statistics in the Province, British Columbia recently  got very  good news that our international numbers were up over  5% this past  year for overnight stays  from international visitors.”  Tourism revenue is important to the BC economy, generating almost $14 billion dollars annually says  Bond, with more than 130 thousand people currently employed in the hospitality industry. “We know that with an  aging demographic, and growth in the tourism sector, we’re going to need great people to work in the hospitality sector” says Bond.

Cal Purcell,  President of the Canadian Vocational Training Centre where students  get the procedural education  says  the program  links  text books to worksites  “They  actually put into play the  procedural learning,  on site  with the different partners that we have.  A big part of it though is what to do   moving forward. A lot of the hospitality industry is transient workers,  they come in, do a bit  of work, then move on to something else, or back to university.  One of the benefits  of the  program  like Room Keys, is  we have students who want to be here,  they want to work in the hospitality industry and gives it a longer term opportunity for  them.”