Derek Johnson, CEO of the Yele Haiti Foundation

HVS Caribbean recently joined forces with the Yele Haiti Foundation to raise hospitality service standards, and thus tourism, in Haiti.

Yele Haiti is a non-profit organization founded by Haiti native, politician and Grammy-award winning musician Wyclef Jean. One of the organization’s main objectives is to lift people across Haiti’s most impoverished communities into self-sufficiency through education and vocational training. The hospitality industry is its latest focus.

It’s challenging, notes Parris Jordan, the managing director of HVS Caribbean, to find qualified and experienced hotel workers outside the capital Port-au-Prince. That’s why the two organizations are piloting a new hospitality training program in the Caribbean country of 9.7 million people. The initiative helps both hotels and local economies. And, if successful, it can be exported to other Caribbean countries.

Known as Hospitality Education and Training (HEAT), the six-month training program will debut September 2011 with 120 students in the coastal city of Jacmel, one of Haiti’s renowned tourist and resort destinations. It starts with three months of general customer service training, followed by specific training in housekeeping and other specialties.

The curriculum was developed after talking with general managers, government officials and more. “It’s different because we’ve included all of the stakeholders and gathered their input,” says Jordan. “We reached out to every hotel company and talked to managers throughout the Caribbean region. They talked to us about the issues they face and gave us input on how they could be solved.”

Parris Jordan, the managing director of HVS Caribbean

“This isn’t a cookie cutter program,” he notes. “Every island is different, their needs will be different.”

Hotel operators are supportive of the emerging program. “We have already lined up commitments from employers that would account for 80 percent of the initial class,” says Derek Johnson, CEO of the Yele Haiti Foundation. “That could have a humongous impact in a country where people are living, for the most part, on something bordering $2 per day. We’re overwhelmed by the success the program is projected to have and the impacts it can have at a modest, local level.”

Jordan is encouraged by attention to the program. “One of the things that stood out to me is that people want to learn, they want to work. Attitude is so critical. They don’t have the training yet, but that attitude is there.”