John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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Dr. Sweeney hit the nail on the head in talking about the soft skills. People entering the hotel industry may have no formal qualification in that area. They might go in as a lounge boy or similar. The access to the position still requires the soft skills they may not have had the opportunity to acquire and therein lies the challenge. I take Dr. Sweeney's point that where there is a more formal training piece, the piece relating to soft skills should be incorporated. People go without that level of qualification and frequently they are the people being turned down as a result of not having the interpersonal skills or not being a team player. As a result of their not being in a formal training structure, they find it very difficult to get those skills from the employability point of view.