The Caribbean Tourism Organisation, (CTO) with the full endorsement of the CARICOM Heads of Government, established the Caribbean Tourism Human Resource Council (CTHRC) in 1998. It's a regional body made up of senior representatives from business, labour, government, industry associations and education and tourism related organizations/groups who meet twice annually to collaboratively address the Caribbean's tourism education, training and career development needs and to give direction to the Council’s programmes and activities.
The Council’s mission is to develop and promote a systematic and coordinated approach to human resources planning, research, education and training in Caribbean tourism to meet the demands of a globally competitive tourism environment. Since 2008, this regional body has become the Technical Committee for the CTO's Human Resources Department and gives technical input and guidance to its work programme.
The Caribbean Tourism Learning System Project was a joint project between the Caribbean Tourism Human Resource Council (CTHRC) and Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States Education Reform Unit (OERU). It was funded by the Canadian International Development Agency, (CIDA) through its Caribbean Regional HRD Programme for Economic Competitiveness (CPEC). The project began in November 2001 and ended in November 2003.
The Tourism Internship Exchange System (TIES) is an initiative originally developed in 1999 under the European Union/CARIFORUM Lomé 1V Convention. It was called the Regional Tourism Exchange System and has since undergone a name change and had its mandate broadened. The programme aims to enhance the overall competitiveness of the Caribbean region by providing an experiential learning experience to students pursuing tourism and hospitality studies as well as tourism workers. The School of Hotel Management of the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM)is acts as regional coordinator and there are national coordinators in thirteen (13) CARIFORUM countries.
These include training modules and guides, workbooks and worksheet on subjects ranging from customer relations and supervisory management to managing sites and attractions. There are also CDs and children's tourism magazines.
Download the list of available Human Resource Development publications published by CTO.