Thiès, Oct 12 (APS) – Tourism stakeholders in Thiès deplored, on Friday, the difficulties encountered by young graduates in this sector in finding internships, let alone jobs, in tourist structures.
They took part in a symposium organized by the National Organization for the Integration of Senegalese Tourism (ONITS) to raise awareness among tourism structures of the importance of facilitating internships and the professional integration of young graduates.
“Tourism students have difficulty finding an internship after their training, let alone a job,” said the president of the Board of Directors of the Society for the Development and Promotion of Coasts and Tourist Zones of Senegal (SAPCO), Doudou Gnagna Diop, during this meeting.
“Students, during this symposium, raised the issue of their employability after their training,” he underlined, noting that at “the university or in tourism training institutes, the young people learn theory, but do not have the opportunity, at the end of their training, to put this knowledge into practice through internships”.
He indicated that in hotel schools, students in training combine theory and practice through application exercises and service provision. “Which is not the case for tourism,” he argued.
Doudou Gnagna Diop, explained that universities and institutes do not have logistics to allow young people trained in tourism professions to practice in the field and gain experience, considering that this situation is “worrying for them”.
Ibrahima Seck, member of the collective of young graduates in tourism in Senegal, declared that “graduates in this sector struggle to find an internship, let alone a job” after their training.
“This situation of graduates in the tourism sector pushes some to retrain in other fields to get a job,” he added.
BT/ADL/AB/SK
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