Representatives from all member states of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) participating in the OECS Network of Excellence for Tourism and Hospitality Training and Education (NETHTE) project, assembled in Antigua and Barbuda from February 22 – 23, to discuss and validate the curriculum framework for the proposed Eastern Caribbean Institute of Tourism (ECIT).
The curriculum framework is particularly important, as it will serve as a guide to ensure consistency and quality across all member states in the design and development of any program offered by ECIT’s network of partner institutions. Ultimately, the curriculum framework will set standards for ECIT’s curriculum and provide the context in which appropriate syllabi would be developed.
The curriculum framework will therefore seek to harmonize and standardize all curricula developed for the ECIT, making it another milestone at the regional level, supporting the integration arrangements in the context of the OECS Economic Union.
The curriculum to be developed by member states for ECIT programs will be centered on the competency based training and education approach. This approach was found to be ideal, as it best facilitates the needs of the sector in terms of equipping tourism industry personnel with not only the knowledge, but also the skill sets and attitude needed to effectively perform at all levels in the region’s highly service-oriented and very diversified tourism industry.
The OECS member states of Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, the British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, were represented at the workshop in Antigua. The OECS NETHTE project is being implemented with funding support from the European Union, through its tenth EDF Program of Economic Integration and Trade of the OECS region.