Hoteles de Gipuzkoa held the second edition of the Training Forum on 27 November at the Hotel Arima. The meeting brought together a hundred people from training centres in the province as well as from the hotel industry and the tourism sector to discuss the employability of the sector as an element of special relevance for the more than 300 hotel establishments and more than 2,000 jobs generated in Gipuzkoa. 

The conference began with the words of Raúl Fernández Acha, president of Hoteles de Gipuzkoa, who stressed ‘the need to promote training in order to maintain professionalism in the hotel industry in Gipuzkoa’. He was followed by the Gipuzkoa Provincial Councillor for Mobility, Territorial Planning and Tourism, Azahara Domínguez, who stressed that ‘our position as a benchmark with respect to other tourist destinations in our area will not only be measured by the quality of the service provided by the sector, but also by its capacity to anticipate the needs and expectations of tourists, as well as to incorporate the latest trends in technology, sustainability and customer service. In this sense, the Department of Mobility, Tourism and Territorial Planning has launched this summer the Gipuzkoa Tourism Observatory, a tool that provides valuable information that allows the sector not only to adapt its strategy but also to make decisions in advance. ’

Likewise, the Basque Government's Deputy Minister for Tourism, Trade and Consumer Affairs, Jakes Aguirrezabal, stressed the importance of training ‘training is productivity, it is a risk-free bet in which everyone wins: it is beneficial for the customer because there is nothing that marks a tourist's experience as much as the attitude and skills of the people who attend to them, and it benefits the employee, because training is part of the professional career, it is a continuous opportunity to improve. In short, training increases the capacity of any sector to grow’. 

In this second edition, Silvia Forés, expert in human resources management and author of several books such as El empleado es el rey or Diario de un proceso de selección (Diary of a selection process), gave a positive assessment of the identity value of our territory and highlighted the need to focus on the employee, to generate enriching cultures that enable their professional development in an environment of trust’. 

The current training centres of the territory in this field - Basque Culinary Center, Zubiri Manteo, Nazaret, Deusto and Usurbilgo Lanbide Eskola - presented the educational offer, as well as the data of more than 300 young people doing dual training in the Gipuzkoan accommodation and with a conversion to employment of around 80%. 

 The day ended with the round table moderated by Mikel Sarriegi, Director of Training and Talent at Adegi, on ‘Attracting talent and company culture in Gipuzkoa, a territory with high identity potential’, with the participation of Cuque Illa, Director of the NH Collection Hotel, Raúl Fernandez Acha, President of Hoteles de Gipuzkoa and Director of Hotel Arbaso, Juan Mancisidor, Director of FABRIKA and guest speaker Silvia Forés. Some of the topics addressed were the challenges of the sector to attract talent and build resilient teams, the importance of collaboration programmes with educational centres, how to compete with high-demand sectors such as technology, the demands of young people in their incorporation or the importance of local identity as an element of added value to employability.