The Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Economy of Georgia, Association of Mountain Guides, and the MOUNTAIN RESORTS DEVELOPMENT COMPANY have signed an agreement to establish the country's first school of adventure tourism.
The school will open in the resort of Gudauri. The purpose of the school is to provide highly qualified personnel in the field of adventure tourism and other high-risk professions related to the work in the mountains - in particular, it would prepare mountain guides, ski instructors, security specialists. In addition, it is planned to carry out re-training of the currently working staff in these areas.
According to the founder of the Association of mountain guides David Rakviashvili, the opening of the school is primarily caused by the growth in demand for extreme and adventure tourism.
"Local experts have to compete with foreign experts who come from the neighboring countries. This is a challenge of the current realities. A few years ago a couple of dozen people came in Georgia per year, now thousands of tourists arrive in the country . Accordingly, it is necessary to take steps necessary to ensure the safety of tourists, to prepare an appropriate infrastructure, to provide services , in particular, tourists need highly qualified mountain guides, and the school will deal with their preparation, "- he says.
In his words, recently this niche is occupied by experts from neighboring countries, while local citizens involved in this kind of activity cannot compete with them because of the lower-level qualifications.
"The only chance to compete with foreigners is to improve own qualification," - David Rakviashili believes.
He notes that the school partners are experts from France, Switzerland and Germany.
"In the first 5-6 years they will control the learning process. The school will issue international certificates - this is the first time when a document on the acquisition of vocational education in Georgia will have an international force, along with the certificates issued in Switzerland, Germany or France, "- David Rakviashvili adds.
According to Director of the Mountain Resorts Development Company Sandro Onoprishvili, at this stage the company is working on the accreditation of the institution.
"We have allocated one of the cottages for the school, it was brought into line with the needs of the college and are waiting for funding from international donors," - he says.
Source:commersant.ge |
August 16, 2016
