A vocational training centre for tourism and hospitality workers could be established at the Taronga Western Plains Zoo (TWPZ) to address chronic staffing shortages across the two industries in the region.
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The project would be jointly delivered by TWPZ and Dubbo Regional Council and is expected to be up and running late next year once full funding has been sought from the government and industries.
Last week member for the Dubbo electorate Dugald Saunders announced $490,000 for council and the zoo to develop a business case for further expansions, including a tourism and hospitality vocational training centre.
Dubbo zoo is home to world-leading experts in conservation and veterinary medicine but it's also an award-winning accommodation provider and registered training organisation," Mr Saunders said.
"More than 300,000 tourists flock here every year and this project has the potential to make Dubbo the number one destination for young people seeking an exciting and rewarding career in tourism and hospitality.
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Dubbo mayor Mathew Dickerson said the project was important for the region because having a localised training centre for the staff needed in the region will mean young people, including school leavers or those still studying and wanting to work in the industry need not go farther away.
"This project is incredibly important for the Dubbo region because it gives us better tourism offerings while also holding on to our youths not having to go and leave for training somewhere else," he said.
"If we can keep them here for training and for the long term so they don't leave and if they leave, we may not get them back.
"Having the zoo and council working side-by-side, hand-in-hand, to develop this project is really fantastic .. we will know how big this project can be, how many people we will need to go on training, and how many can we have in the pipeline."
Mr Dickerson said the council's long-term plan for the region is "to be the number one inland destination in NSW and to further increase the 1.65 million people that visit the region annually."
The zoo has previously received a $20 million investment from the NSW government for the Serengeti Visitor Experience Project, and establishing a hospitality training centre was part of the agreement in the project funding.
"The training centre will provide regional youth with the opportunity to study a variety of vocational courses right here in our award-winning zoo," Taronga Western Plains Zoo director Steve Hinks said.
"This proposed centre has the potential to underpin the tourism and hospitality industry in regional NSW and create a pipeline of professionally trained employees for our industry."