Controversy Over Training Conditions of Tourism Students in Morocco
(AWP) - Moroccan tourism student Adam complains about the difficulties he faces in obtaining the required training while attending classes at the Institute of Applied Technology for Hotel and Tourism in the city of Salé, near the capital Rabat.
He says that the institute does not contribute to securing training opportunities for students, as tourism companies and hotels often require students to have previous work or training experience.
Adam says, "We face difficulties in obtaining a training period as well as during it. Instead of providing it, they ask us to search for it. When searching, companies and institutions ask us to have previous [work] experience or previous training experience in the field, which is itself a major problem. Therefore, training institutes and institutions must provide training through agreements with companies and institutions to enable students to obtain the required experience."
Abdel Rahman Al-Wafa, a parliamentary advisor for the Authenticity and Modernity Party, recently accused the Moroccan Ministry of Tourism of ignoring what he described as "deliberate slavery" on the part of hotel establishments that exploit the efforts of tourism students in practical training without compensating them.
Ali Lotfi, head of the Democratic Confederation of Labour, sees what he considers "imbalances" in theoretical professional training in hotel and tourism institutions.
He said, "It is apparent today that if we take, for example, the tourism and hotel sector, we find several imbalances, not only at the level of theoretical training, but also the struggles of teachers who work in the vocational training sector."
He added, "We also find at the entry level, students in the hotel and tourism sector being horribly exploited in some hotels because of very long working hours. Sometimes they experience harassment, meaning that students training in [this] sector suffer greatly in some hotels and tourism companies."
Lotfi called for respecting the rights of students at these private institutes with regard to working hours and their training in the context of modern technological developments. He also called on the Minister of Employment and the Ministry of Tourism to fulfil their duties.
He said, "We demand respect for the rights of the students at these hotel and tourism institutes, respect with regard to practical working hours and their training within the framework of technological developments, languages and digital media – and not the outdated methods and the exploitation that they are subjected to today. For this reason, our message is to the Minister of Employment and the Ministry of Tourism because they are concerned with the training of this [workforce]."
Morocco has ambitious plans to develop its tourism sector with the aim of increasing the number of tourists, expected to reach 26 million by 2030.
According to the Ministry of Tourism, about 11 million tourists visited Morocco in 2022, with numbers increasing during the first half of 2023 by 21% compared to last year, reaching 6.5 million as of July.