Kosovo’s Hospitality Skills Gap Holds Back Tourism Growth and Decent Jobs for Youth

The report, The vocational education and training system in Kosovo: addressing skills needs in the hospitality sector, calls for changes that connect classroom learning more closely with working life.

Kosovo's hotels, restaurants and tourism businesses have the potential to create productive jobs and support economic growth, but the training available to young people does not fully match what employers need. A new International Labour Organization (ILO) assessment finds that gaps between vocational education and training (VET) programmes and workplace requirements are limiting opportunities for young people to secure decent employment and holding back the sector's development.

The report, The vocational education and training system in Kosovo: addressing skills needs in the hospitality sector, calls for changes that connect classroom learning more closely with working life. Its recommendations cover updated qualifications, practical training, better information about graduate employment and stronger participation by employers and workers in decisions about the skills hospitality businesses require.

Training Needs to Reflect the Work Young People Will Do

Existing qualifications and training programmes do not fully reflect the hospitality industry's changing needs, leaving room for more flexible curricula with greater attention to customer service, digital, green and entrepreneurial skills. The assessment recommends using labour market information more systematically when planning education, helping training providers make decisions based on demand for skills and employment opportunities.

Governance arrangements and limited opportunities for employers to contribute to training development and delivery make that connection harder to maintain. Kosovo's expansion of dual vocational education and training represents progress, but the report identifies other forms of work-based learning as valuable routes to practical skills. Clearer agreements between schools and businesses about how young people will be trained, supported by closer links to curricula and expected learning outcomes, could make existing schemes more consistent and relevant to workplace needs.

Better Equipment Must Come With Better Access and Evidence

Modern training facilities and equipment are part of the solution, with investment decisions needing to consider functionality, occupational safety and health, energy efficiency, accessibility and effective use of resources. The report makes clear that facilities alone cannot bring more young people and young adults into hospitality careers, calling for sector-specific career guidance and stronger measures to reach groups currently underrepresented in training. Recognition of prior learning would give experienced workers without formal training certificates a route to an official qualification.

Understanding what happens after training is another weakness that needs attention, because fragmented data systems and the absence of systematic graduate tracking make employment outcomes difficult to assess. Stronger quality assurance, better VET data and closer connections with labour market information would help training providers update curricula and give the government a firmer basis for deciding which vocational programmes to offer. Tracking graduates would make it easier to judge how effectively training supports young people's move into employment.

Employers and Workers Need a Lasting Role in Skills Planning

A comprehensive skills strategy for the hotel, restaurant and catering sector, known as HoReCa, is central to the report's recommendations. Public institutions, training providers and representative employers' and workers' organizations would shape the strategy together, using labour market information to identify priorities and guide training provision. This shared approach would bring the experiences of businesses and workers into decisions that affect both employment opportunities and the sector's development.

The assessment calls for a stronger HoReCa tripartite Sectoral Skills Council to provide a regular channel for employers and workers to identify skills needs and help shape qualifications, training programmes and work-based learning. Kosovo already has important foundations to build on, according to the ILO, with stronger coordination, greater involvement of these organizations and targeted investment in relevant, high-quality training offering a way to make hospitality's employment potential more accessible to young people.