Twenty-two master trainers and 20 master assessors celebrated their graduation day on December 16 in Manila, the Philippines after weeks of a comprehensive training course of Master Trainers and Master Assessors for Food and Beverages (F&B) Service Division conducted by the William Angliss Institute.

The course is part of a programme to support the implementation of Mutual Recognition Arrangements (MRA) on Tourism Professional which allows certified tourism professionals to work in other ASEAN countries.

Taking into account the high interest of the region's tourism training and education institutions and tourism industries, ASEAN would soon have high-qualified tourism professionals working in the industry delivering high quality services.

This is the fourth batch of graduates, after the first batch for Housekeeping Division arranged in Bali in November-December 2012, the second batch for Food Production Division organised in Bangkok in September 2014 and the third batch for Front Office Division in Bali in October this year.

In total, the region has 172 qualified ASEAN tourism professionals for housekeeping, food production, F&B services and front office. The figure is expected to hit 6,000 in 2015 when the ASEAN Community is formed.

The graduation ceremony was followed by a special ASEAN Tourism Professional Monitoring Committee (ATPMC) meeting and a regional workshop on finalising the training package to ensure consistency of the delivery throughout the region.

The Pilot Programme for ASEAN National Trainers and Assessors will be conducted in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam in March and April next year.

This programme is funded by the ASEAN-Australia Development Cooperation Programme (AADCP) Phase II.-VNA