UNESCO holds Training for Tourism Vocational Education in Timor-Leste

On behalf of Minister of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS) Timor-Leste, Chief of Cabinet, Mr Raimundo Jose Neto, express that the training will be very critical and significant to help the integration of sustainable development to tourism vocational education.

UNESCO Jakarta Office organized a Training for Tourism Vocational Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Dili, Timor-Leste on 1-3 October 2020. This training aimed to provide capacity building to curriculum developers and teachers to action-oriented tourism vocation education for sustainable development which can enable them to share expertise and experiences in an institutional change in vocation education in tourism.

On behalf of Minister of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS) Timor-Leste, Chief of Cabinet, Mr Raimundo Jose Neto, express that the training will be very critical and significant to help the integration of sustainable development to tourism vocational education. The training was an excellent opportunity for the teachers to enhance their capacity as one of Ministry Education Youth and Sports priorities under the current government that are participating in the definition and implementation of qualification and vocational training policies and strengthen teaching and learning conditions. The opening session was also attended by National Director of Technical Vocational of MoEYS, Mr Joao Maupelo, and Secretary-General a.i. of Timor-Leste National Commission for UNESCO, Mr Francisco Barreto.

Around 40 tourism vocational school teachers from eight tourism schools in eight municipalities in Timor-Leste participated in the training. All the participants have completed training for the integration of sustainable development to four subjects of tourism vocation education which are Tour and Travel, Hospitality (Hotel Accommodation), Marketing and Communication, and Communication in English for Tourism, and will be implementing these to classroom practices.

The training is part of UNESCO Project “Action-oriented Capacity Building Training for Institutional Change in Tourism Vocation Education for Sustainable Development in Indonesia and Timor-Leste through South-South Cooperation” supported by Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). Since its initiation in 2019, the project has been promoting Education for Sustainability through the integration of Tourism Vocation Education and Education for Sustainable Development to contribute to the achievement of SDG 4 – Quality Education.