The Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO), through an agreement with Canadian e-learning software Velsoft this week inked an agreement to develop a virtual training and development programme as it seeks to upskill the region’s tourism and hospitality sector.

The virtually established campus, Caribbean Tourism Institute, is an open online educational, training and development learning centre designed to provide affordable access and training opportunities for everyone who works, or aspires to work, in the Caribbean tourism and hospitality sector.

“Velsoft has been working closely with us to help us realise one of our key human resources development objectives of increasing the access of Caribbean nationals to high-quality training and educational opportunities,” said Neil Walters, acting secretary general of the CTO.

“This partnership has allowed us to develop and offer this virtual training hub and will continue to help us in our mission to develop and design relevant e-learning content, which will benefit our tourism and hospitality sector,” he added.

CTO, a regional tourism development agency, has since its inception been a strong proponent of human resource development in the industry advocating through its strategic objectives to assist member countries in developing and strengthening their human capital, to better enable them to offer high levels of professional service.

The launch of the online training platform and courses is an important step in achieving the entity’s objective as it supports ongoing training and the building of regional and institutional capacities.

“What the Caribbean Tourism Institute presents us with is a blended approach to learning, utilising synchronous and asynchronous delivery methods as the online platform allows for self-paced instruction through real-time training and development sessions,” said Sharon Banfield, CTO’s director of resource mobilisation and development.

As part of the agreement, Velsoft will provide all of the resources to convert CTO courses into e-learning activities and will allow the institute full access to its non-accredited courses, which will be promoted under the institute’s brand.

“Our intention is to release at least two new online courses each month as a way of ensuring the Caribbean Tourism Institute maintains its commitment to ensuring the latest and most applicable training is made available to the over 2.5 million professionals in the Caribbean’s hospitality and tourism sector, “ commented Jim Fitt, a chief executive at Velsoft.