NINETY MORAY SECONDARY school pupils were yesterday treated to the first course organised by the Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) Moray.

The Lossiemouth High School pupils were the first to attend what will be a series of two-day ‘WorldHost’ courses for students interested in the Tourism and Hospitality industry.

WorldHost is recognised across the world as a standard of high quality customer service, and was received by all the volunteers at the 2012 Olympics.

The 16-year-old students attending yesterday’s event hosted by Johnstons of Elgin acted out scenarios that they could face in future retail, hospitality and tourism jobs. Moira Stickle, who is the developing manager for DYW Moray, commented: “The main thing we are trying to do is build career skills for young people.

“There has been a lot of feedback in that past that pupils are not ready for work when they leave school – there are a lot of discussions about that at the moment. This helps create links with industries so our young people can get as much experience and credentials as possible to get them ready for employment.”

Gail Cleaver, operations manager at Johnstons of Elgin, added: “It is going to be a huge benefit to the pupils to leave school with this extra qualification that shows them to be work-ready.

“Tourism is such a big thing in Moray that it will help them with a variety of jobs.”