About JTTI

The Jambiani Tourism Training Institute (JTTI) provides a practical and theoretical education for local community stakeholders. Teaching of English and IT short courses started in the afternoons after clinic hours in 2002. Over the years, short courses in Food Production and Food Safety were added. With the opening of the School in 2006, the JTTI now offers a 2-year Diploma in Tourism and Hospitality – a vocational training curriculum which offers participants the opportunity to develop their skills needed to enter the tourism and hospitality industry and thereby improving their socio-economic conditions. In addition to the Diploma, the JTTI offers short courses in English, IT, Languages and other tourism/hospitality short courses. As well, a Train-the-Trainer course was recently completed by five trainees who are now available as trainers for the tourism and hospitality industry in Tanzania.

The purpose of this project is to develop an institutional facility to improve livelihoods through targeted interventions and capacity development in the tourism sector among the rural poor in Zanzibar. The focus is on youth and is equal-opportunity and gender inclusive, increasing training opportunities and employment for people with few other options.

The administration of the tourism training facility is overseen by HABS, and the existing Hands Across Borders Society local Advisory Board is involved and oversees the project and facility, enhancing a framework of community self-reliance and ownership of the project. Within this context, we are collaborating with the Zanzibar Commission for Tourism and partner with an Italian NGO, the Association for Rural Cooperation in Africa and South America (ACRA) under a three-year EU funded project. We are serving an estimated population of 20,000 persons on the southeast coast of Zanzibar. Additional training in Entrepreneurship, Environmental Issues and Small-Medium Enterprises (SME’s) training has been introduced in partnership with ACRA during the project, which is ending in November 2012.

The Zanzibar Commission for Tourism and the EU support this project of a tourism training facility in Jambiani as this will provide education, employment and prospects for the reduction and alleviation of poverty in rural areas, which is the mandate of the Government of Zanzibar under its Poverty Reduction Plan.

A contract has been signed between HABS and the Zanzibar Commission for Tourism which supports the project and also provides certification for the students.