Indonesia engages Netherlands to improve tourism human resources

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Tourism Polytechnic of South Sulawesi province's capital of Makasar collaborates with Breda University of Applied Science from the Netherlands to work together to improve the quality and competency of Indonesian tourism human resources, especially lecturers and students.

Acting Director of Makassar's Polytechnic Muhammad Arifin said here on Sunday that he had signed a memorandum of understanding with Dr. Elisabeth Minnemann, President of the Executive Board of Breda University of Applied Science in Breda City, the Netherlands, on July 4, 2019.

"We agreed to implement several points of cooperation including the development of competencies and qualifications of lecturers and students at the master level of tourism," said Muhammad Arifin.

The two institutions also agreed to carry out training in strengthening the role of the tourism polytechnics as a Marine Tourism Study Center, rural tourism, village tourism, and international journal research and publications.

He said the submission of the collaboration paper was a follow-up to the visit carried out with the Head of the Makassar State Polytechnic Cooperation Unit Dr. H. Syamsu Rijal, M. Pd. to Breda University of Applied Science in November 2018.

Arifin appreciated the collaboration with Breda University of Applied Science which he said was one of the strategies to realize the Makassar Polytechnic as "World Class Polytechnic".

"Breda University of Applied Science has a number of tourism-related study programs such as Tourism Management, Leisure & Event Management and Hotel Management, Tourism Destination Management, so I feel it is appropriate to collaborate with Breda University of Applied Science," he said.

Arifin explained that currently there are 11 students and three lecturers of Breda University of Applied Science who visited the Makassar Polytechnic campus.

"In 2017 we conducted a Joint Lecture with Breda University of Applied Science which was facilitated by Swisscontact, a non-profit organization that has been collaborating with the Makassar Polytechnic, due to which we are interested in continuing official cooperation" he said.