Tourism Service and Cooking Training Started
Tingri County is rich in tourism resources and also home to Mt. Everest. The number of tourists coming to QNNP is increasing rapidly year by year. Tingri County town and neighboring villages like Baiba are on the way that tourists go to the base camp of Mt. Everest. Food and beverage and hotel service is one of the biggest income sources for local economy. Although the number of restaurants and hotels is increasing, local people can only find basic jobs such as dishwashing and labor work. Additionally, local people’s capacity of running restaurants and hotels is also low; they lack of specialties to attract tourists compared to businessmen from inland China. Therefore, enhancing local people’s capacity in cooking and service skills becomes important, and it is also one of the key components of project funded by LAO NIU Foundation.
Social organizations help governments in many a way, and they also contribute to building a harmonious society. Endorsed by the Tingri County Chief, Mr. Dunzhu, the Pendeba Society partnered with County Human Resources Bureau to organized a one-month tourism service and cooking skill training since July 3, 2013. On the opening ceremony, Mr. Nidun, County Human Resources Bureau Chief, addressed the importance of the training, encouraging the participants to cherish the opportunity, learn carefully and gain experience to increase income, and change their life. In the meantime, the participants will also contribute to the human resources pool for the county’s tourism development. To ensure training outcomes, the Society has invited well-known chef Mr. Mima Tsering as the trainer. Mr. Mima Tsering once worked for the 10th Panchen Lama and also served as trainer in the past trainings held by the Pendeba Society. Mr. Mima Tsering, with decades of experience, is very responsible and hard working in passing on his experience and expertise to our participants, and we were happy to have him to be our trainer again. In terms of participant selection, we also demanded high and have carefully selected 20 tourism practitioners in QNNP for the training. The training was extended to a month from original 10 days. With previous experience, we aim to equip our trainees with pragmatic skills and know-how, hoping to bring positive outcomes for the tourism development as well as increasing employment in Tingri County. During the training, the participants also learned about ecotourism and hospitality service manners. This will contribute much to the tourism human resources pool for the Mt. Everest National Park, fulfilling the strategic goal of putting people first.
After the training, all the participants were required to undertake one-week internship. The Pendeba Society would contact and arrange receiving restaurants in Baiba village to let our participants practice what they have learned during the training, and have them understand the needs and development space in their future employment. In order to put learning into actions, the Society and County Human Resources Bureau will build follow-up service system within the Society, where the Society will build partnership with catering businesses in Tingri and other counties. The Society will help build human resources pool where businesses will provide employment opportunities, therefore forming a bridge between enterprises and trainees. The Society will recommend our training for employment with our partner enterprises. In the way of alleviating poverty, we try to put the idea of “Teaching to Fish” into actions, contributing to building a harmonious society.
The training was held in the Pendeba Training Center’s big bright kitchen where participants could learn and practice cooking skills in real. This will help underline the role of the training center in terms of its value and strategic position in terms of human capacity building in Tingri and QNNP. We hope the training center will continue contributing to the improvement of livelihoods of local people and sustainable development in QNNP.