Business leaders welcome new tourism courses at Oatridge
16 January 2012
Business leaders in West Lothian are welcoming the development of two new courses at Oatridge College, designed offer a broad introduction to careers in the tourism industry and provide a vital boost to a drive to improve the visitor experience.
From March Oatridge will introduce a National Progression Award in Activity Tourism, an entry level qualification to a growing sector of the industry, which could lead on to a more advanced National Certificate course beginning in September.
Dave McDougall, the Chief Executive of West Lothian Chamber of Commerce, which is working on a strategy to put the area more firmly on the tourist map, says: "Tourism has huge potential for West Lothian as well as Scotland. Every opportunity needs to be taken to raise the standards of provision and the quality of service. The Chamber welcomes the creation of these courses at Oatridge and is delighted to work with the College for the benefit of the local community."
Figures from the Office of National Statistics suggest there are already 4,700 in West Lothian working in tourism or related industries.
Niall Evans, the Team Leader and John McGregor a tutor in the College's Countryside Management department, have already carried out a mapping exercise to identify West Lothian's tourism assets for the Chamber, to inform future strategic planning. Evans says: "The area already has a lot to offer, from its wildlife and geo-diversity, through 50 or so scheduled ancient monuments and numerous established visitor attractions, hotels and restaurants. There is a need however for some joined-up thinking on what the area wants to become in terms of tourism and what it wants people to come to do."
Evans led a two-year project, funded by the EU's Grundtvig Programme, to examine the development of "Activity Tourism" in Europe and will be able to pass on the lessons he learned, following his acceptance of an invitation to sit on a Visit West Lothian panel drawing up a long-term strategy for the area.
The EU project found that generally, while visitors seeking extreme sports and very physical and energetic activities were well served across Europe, those looking for less strenuous things to do during their breaks are not so lucky. "The alternatives exist, but they are not promoted as activity tourism, so are hard to find", he says.
It was Evans and his small team who drew up the academic framework for the qualifications now on offer at Oatridge and which will eventually be made available across the European Union.
The course leading to the National Progression Award in Activity Tourism will be free to anyone from West Lothian, thanks to European Structural Fund (ESF) support, but is open - at a charge - to anyone else interested in getting a grounding in the sector. The course will run two days a week and last 11 weeks. It will be largely "hands on", giving a students an opportunity to visit existing businesses and even try some of the activities for themselves. It will culminate in the group planning and running an activity tourism event.
The new course will also cover employability skills and customer services skills giving potential students, particularly school pupils, two ESF-funded options: Undertaking the popular Skills for Work/Rural Skills programme already provided by Oatridge, which also starts in March, or getting a taste of another sector which is increasingly vital to Scotland.
The College has already signed up the first students hoping to join the National Certificate in Activity Tourism course, when it begins in September.
