Public Education Programs to Improve Tourism Services

The Organization for Tourism Education and Training (OTEK) is accepting student applications for its vocational schools in the fields of hotel and restaurant operations, the culinary arts and pastry-making.

While these schools are limited to students under 25 years of age, OTEK is also offering continuing vocational training for individuals already employed in the tourism sector, self-employed or temporarily unemployed. Fifteen vocational training programs for 2006-2007 period will be held in Epirus and the Ionian Islands.

These programs are aimed at improving employability, developing an entrepreneurial spirit, and supporting equal opportunity employment. The programs improve the skills of those without professional training so that the level of professional skills will become higher and more consistent throughout the country.

A state institution operating under the Ministry of Tourism, OTEK is working to reorganize and modernize tourism education and training in Greece, and to create a modern accreditation system for professional qualifications.

In June, OTEK President Kostas Kouskoukis spoke about careers in the spa industry at the First Mediterranean Conference on Spas, saying that Greece should become the forerunner in this sector.