The Min­istry of Tourism says it has suc­cess­ful­ly com­plet­ed a sec­ond phase of the Roy­al Caribbean Group’s (RCG) Sea­far­er Re­cruit­ment Ini­tia­tive. Ac­cord­ing to a press re­lease from the Min­istry,  from Au­gust 9th- 19th, ap­prox­i­mate­ly 1300 ap­pli­cants were in­ter­viewed vir­tu­al­ly by a 19-mem­ber re­cruit­ment team. 

The fol­low­ing is a press re­lease from Min­istry:

The Min­istry of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts is pleased to an­nounce that it has suc­cess­ful­ly com­plet­ed a sec­ond phase of the Roy­al Caribbean Group’s (RCG) Sea­far­er Re­cruit­ment Ini­tia­tive. 

  Dur­ing the pe­ri­od Au­gust 9th- 19th, 2022, ap­prox­i­mate­ly 1300 ap­pli­cants were in­ter­viewed vir­tu­al­ly by a 19-mem­ber re­cruit­ment team. As­pir­ing ap­pli­cants were con­tact­ed di­rect­ly by RCG and giv­en the choice to at­tend the in­ter­views at home or at Queen’s Hall, Port of Spain and Shaw Park Com­plex, Scar­bor­ough where the Min­istry of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts the Di­vi­sion of Tourism, Cul­ture, Trans­porta­tion and An­tiq­ui­ties pro­vid­ed the rel­e­vant tech­ni­cal fa­cil­i­ties. 

More Job Op­por­tu­ni­ties 

The sec­ond phase of this re­cruit­ment dri­ve con­tin­ues to af­ford em­ploy­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties for hun­dreds of cit­i­zens with­in the tourism and hos­pi­tal­i­ty ser­vices, food and bev­er­age man­age­ment and the med­ical field. The dri­ve has al­so pro­vid­ed per­sons who were not able to par­tic­i­pate in June a sec­ond op­por­tu­ni­ty at be­ing part of RCG’s in­ter­na­tion­al brand. 

On May 23 2022, the Min­istry of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts signed an his­toric Mem­o­ran­dum of Un­der­stand­ing with the Roy­al Caribbean Group that paved the way for thou­sands of per­sons to ap­ply for both skilled and se­mi-skilled po­si­tions on their fleet of cruise ships. This MOU lasts for a pe­ri­od of one year and fa­cil­i­tates an on­go­ing re­la­tion­ship that will pro­vide much need­ed em­ploy­ment at a time when Covid-19 has had a dele­te­ri­ous ef­fect on Trinidad and To­ba­go’s tourism sec­tor and the wider jobs mar­ket. 

This sec­ond phase of the re­cruit­ment dri­ve fol­lows on from the heav­i­ly sub­scribed in-per­son re­cruit­ment done at NA­PA, SAPA and Shaw Park Com­plex in June of this year. 

To date, close to 1000 ap­pli­cants have re­ceived Let­ters of Of­fer from the RCG for a range of po­si­tions, in­clud­ing; chefs, house­keep­ers, in­ven­to­ry man­agers, restau­rant at­ten­dants, bar­tenders and doc­tors. 

Min­is­ter of Tourism Cul­ture and the Arts, Sen­a­tor the Hon­or­able Ran­dall Mitchell says; ““The Min­istry re­mains com­mit­ted to do­ing our part to fa­cil­i­tate mean­ing­ful em­ploy­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties for our cit­i­zens as well as sup­port ini­tia­tives that boost eco­nom­ic re­cov­ery.” 

Next Steps for Suc­cess­ful Ap­pli­cants 

Suc­cess­ful ap­pli­cants have re­ceived of­fi­cial of­fer let­ters out­lin­ing the po­si­tion be­ing of­fered, length of con­tract and salary. 

Once ap­pli­cants ac­cept their of­fers, they must com­plete a Per­son­al Da­ta Form, con­duct a more de­tailed med­ical as­sess­ment and then re­ceive let­ters of em­ploy­ment that spec­i­fy the ves­sel as­sign­ment along with the date and port to meet the ves­sel and on­ly then do they ap­ply for their Sea­far­er’s Visa. 

The Roy­al Caribbean Group will cov­er the cost of Visas, all train­ing as well as the cost of air­fare to meet their as­signed ves­sel. Tick­ets for trav­el are sent via RCG’s re­cruit­ment por­tal (RCLCTRAC.COM) to the near­est air­port to the ship’s cur­rent port of call.