Ten more Anguillians, eight from the hotel sector and two from the Environmental Department of the Government of Anguilla, have been trained in pool and spa maintenance services.
This comes as a result of the work of the Anguilla Hotel and Tourism Association through its Executive Director, Mrs. Gilda Gumbs-Samuel, and two facilitators. The facilitators, who conducted the two-day training at Paradise Cove Boutique Hotel, were Mr. Eliexer Alejandro of World-wide Products & Services of Philipsburg, St. Maarten, and San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Mr. Julio Limon of the National Swimming Pool Foundation with offices in Colorado Springs in the United States.
According to Mrs. Gilda Gumbs-Samuel, four years ago the Anguilla Hotel and Tourism Association was able to train thirteen Anguillians in pool and spa services. Following Hurricane Irma, some of the trained technicians migrated to various places, creating a need for a further set of trainees.
The AHTA Executive Director was pleased to say that the Association had received a small grant this year, from Tourism Cares, to finance the training of a number of other persons, by international trainers, and to award the trainees with recognised certification.
Both facilitators, Mr. Alejandro and Mr. Limon, were delighted to have been invited to Anguilla to conduct the training, saying it was a very useful and world-wide recognised course.
“We are trying to make people be aware that handling a water facility has a lot of risks, and we want people to learn the right way to handle them,” Mr. Limon explained. “We teach this all around the world and we are in Anguilla to do this as well.”
Mr. Alejandro commented: “The basic issue here is whether we have clean and safe pools to cater to our invited guests coming from different parts of the world. We want them to have a very good experience without any hassle or complications about illnesses, and for them to come back.”
