300 schoolchildren get career guidance from Deputy Minister of Tourism, Elizabeth Thabethe

The Hilton Hotel Sandton hosted a career expo for about 300 schoolchildren looking to get involved in the tourism and hospitality industry.

The event is hosted to give youngsters an idea of the opportunities that are available to them in the industry and give them some insight into what they can expect. Deputy Minister of Tourism, Elizabeth Thabethe was present at the expo to motivate the attendees to get involved in the industry.

“The world is your oyster and you can be whatever you choose to be,” she said.

“The hardships you experience now or in the future are necessary to craft resilient, smart and productive citizens.”

Team members of the hotel were also available to talk about the various departments in the hotel industry such as culinary arts, security and finance.

Koray Genckul, the vice president of human resources for the Hilton group in the Middle East, Africa and Turkey said there was diversity in the industry as they dealt with a wide variety of people thus making it essential to ensure that the people they employed were just as diverse.

Thabethe added that in the tourism industry they wanted to ensure that at least two per cent of jobs were given to those with disabilities to ensure that there were opportunities available for everyone.

Gert Venter, the hotel manager at the Hilton Sandton said there were ample opportunities in the industry for young people as well as people with disabilities. He added that there were many mentorship and internship programmes available to youngsters to develop their skills in the hotel business.

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