A new partnership between the Tourism Industry Association of New Brunswick (TIANB) and the Department of Education is aiming to show students in the province the careers possibilities in the tourism and hospitality sector.
The partnership, which will include all New Brunswick students K-12 (Francophone and Anglophone), involves different activities such as presentations, tourism-specific job fairs, as well as video projects where students will interview different people who work in the industry.
“We’re going to be doing a video project with Grade 11 and 12 this year, and then K to 12 next year to get the kids out and doing interviews with people that work in the industry,” said Carol Alderdice, president and CEO of TIANB. “We want them to find out why people work in the industry in the hopes that it will trigger some interest in the students to consider tourism as a career.”
The partnership will expose students to a wide variety of different jobs in tourism and hospitality, many of which Alderdice says offer room for growth.
“As a start-off, it could be the front desk. It could be working in a restaurant. It could be working at a hotel. It could be working at different activities and the different parks. There’s a whole bunch of jobs that would definitely interest young people,” she said.
“Another great thing about tourism jobs, especially in the hotels, is how quickly you can move up the ladder. You can start as a front desk person this week, then six months down the road you could be the supervisor of the front desk because it is an industry that allows moving up in different jobs. There’s a lot of motivation for us to get the schools interested in tourism at a young age.”
According to TIANB, the tourism and hospitality industry in New Brunswick employs around 32,000 people in New Brunswick (pre-covid) and contributes around $520-million to the GDP. In 2019, the industry brought in $1.6-billion into the province.
“That is a lot of money for the province. Our tourism industry is extremely important to the province,” said Alderdice. “Out of the $1.6-billion, $800-million [came] from outside New Brunswick.”
Tourism is a big economic driver for New Brunswick, yet it’s experiencing a labour shortage that’s only been made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic. On the flip side, New Brunswick’s handling of the pandemic has brought the province positive attention from around the world. This is why the province wanted to form this partnership with TIANB.
“Tourism is a really important part of our provincial economy and we’re looking to try and grow that,” said New Brunswick Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development, Dominic Cardy. “Coming out of Covid, people around Canada and around the world are seeing that New Brunswick is an awesome place to come and visit. Hopefully, a lot of people will want to move here and set up shop and help grow our province.”
Cardy said the partnership is an example of how the department is partnering with different sectors to show students the job opportunities out there.
It’s also part of a broader initiative in the department to reach out and build partnerships with all kinds of different groups from industry associations, the arts, across the board,” he said.
“We want to try and break down the walls of schools and make sure students have an opportunity to engage in all kinds of different areas of life, which is supposed to be the whole point of the school to begin with.”
Many people associate the tourism and hospitality industry with seasonal summer work, but, Alderdice says the partnership aims to get students to think of the industry beyond that.
But if it does end up helping some students get a summer job, that’s great too.
“People think of tourism jobs as a summer job, but it’s a lot more than a summer job. I’ve had a career in tourism for 17 years. It’s definitely something to consider as a career,” she says.
Cherise Letson is the associate editor of Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
