Zambia’s Tourism Minister Explores Skills Partnership with Leading Chinese College
Zambia’s Minister of Tourism has held discussions with Shaanxi Tourism Cuisine Professional College in Xi’an, China, to explore potential partnerships aimed at strengthening Zambia’s tourism, hospitality, and education sectors.
During the visit, the Minister toured the college’s training facilities and engaged with its leadership on opportunities for cooperation in practical skills training, curriculum development, and industry collaboration.
Established in 1994, Shaanxi Tourism Cuisine Professional College is a leading vocational institution under China’s Ministry of Education. It is recognised as the Chinese Cuisine Association’s National Culinary Training demonstration base in Northwest China and offers a wide range of applied programmes.
These span tourism and hotel management, digital operations, Chinese and Western culinary arts, baking, food processing technology, e-commerce, airline cabin services, and high-speed rail passenger services. The college also maintains strong industry linkages with major airlines and five-star hotel groups to support hands-on training and graduate employment.
Welcoming the prospect of collaboration, the Minister highlighted Zambia’s growing focus on industry-ready training to meet the evolving demands of the visitor economy. Building on the recent launch of a science laboratory at the Zambia Institute for Tourism and Hospitality Studies (ZITHS), the Ministry is seeking partnerships that include shared certifications, faculty exchanges, technology transfer, and modern training modules.
“The scope for cooperation is wider than gastronomy and hospitality alone,” the Minister said. “We are advancing into high-impact service areas such as airline services, skills and creativity development, hotel management, food laboratory testing, and mixology. These frontiers will raise professional standards across our tourism and hospitality value chain while preparing young Zambians for quality jobs.”
The Ministry expressed optimism that joint programmes and internship opportunities developed with Shaanxi Tourism Cuisine Professional College will yield tangible results, enhancing human capital and service excellence in Zambia’s tourism sector.
