Maine Workforce Conference May 29 to Focus on Developing, Honing Skills for Tourism Industry
Contact: Harold Daniel, (207) 581-1933; George Manlove, (207) 581-3756
HALLOWELL, Maine — In the last year, educators and stakeholders in Maine’s tourist industry have identified some of the training needs to develop and sharpen the skills of workers and managers in the hospitality industry. Now, they’re meeting in Hallowell May 29 to discuss how to make that happen and who should be doing it.
The Maine Workforce Development Conference, being held from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Maple Hill Farm in Hallowell, has attracted an estimated 50 participants, ranging from representatives from the tourism industry to educators, state and municipal policymakers and people working in the business of accommodating vacationers and visitors.
“The conference takes on even more urgency as we contemplate a transition from manufacturing jobs to service sector jobs in the current economic environment, and how we can provide for that with regard to the tourism industry,” says Harold Daniel, a University of Maine associate professor of marketing and director of the UMaine-based Center for Tourism Research and Outreach (CenTRO).
Options for educating and training tomorrow’s tourism workforce may be done through community colleges or universities, private contractors or professional development certificate programs. The conference will be a work session to determine how to implement the strategies and ideas that stem from previous assessments and evaluations of current and future needs in the industry.
“We’re really trying to take it to the next step of designing a system to meet these needs,” Daniel says.
Speakers include John Richardson, commissioner of the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development, Laura Fortman, commissioner or the Maine Department of Labor and Kenneth Bartlett, editor in chief of “Advances in Developing Human Resources” at the University of Minnesota, and Charles Colgan, associate director of CenTRO and professor with the Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine.
Additional information about the conference, including a schedule, is available on the CenTRO website.