KATHMANDU, July 8: A seven-day licensing training of river guides has kicked off at Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management (NATHM) in Kathmandu beginning Wednesday.
The training is being organized jointly by Sustainable Tourism for Livelihood Recovery Project (STLRP) launched by Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) and Nepal Association of Rafting Agencies (NARA) in partnership with United Nations Development Program (UNDP). A total of 40 persons including 12 women are participating in the training.
Director of Tourism Board and National Project Coordinator Maniraj Lamichhane said that the project aims at increasing skilled human resources in the rafting and providing training to the existing ones.
Addressing the inaugural session of the training, Ajay Dhakal, Head of Department Travel and Research at the NATHM, said that the increasing demand of river guides in Nepal will be met through the training. He expressed confidence that the image manpower produced from Natham has in the market would be maintained by manpower produced by this training.
NTB providing rafting training to women in Bhotekoshi
Gyaneshwar Mahato, National Program Manager at STLRP, said that they conducted various programs as a part of the project to tackle the shortage of human resources seen in the rafting sector. “This is the continuation of the same efforts,” he said.
Shiv Adhikari, President of NARA, informed that NARA in collaboration with NTB and STLRP had earlier organized free training to women river guides to produce more skillful manpower. He said that the skilled manpower has potential in domestic and foreign employment.
NARA Vice President Megh Ale urged the trainees to not only view it as a training but also see this from a career perspective and use the skills accordingly.
NARA Secretary General Narayan Shrestha expressed confidence that the training would be fruitful in increasing the participation of women in voyages and building capacity of other guides.
The STLRP project, along with the NARA, the Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATA), the Travel Agencies Association of Nepal (TAAN), Hotel Association Nepal (HAN) and various rural municipalities has given short-term employment to over 6,000 people rendered jobless as a result of COVID-19 pandemic. Both theoretical and practical classes will be conducted in the course of training that will last till June 12, according to Instructor Revati Prasad Upadhyaya.
