Georgia’s hospitality sector is growing, but employers mostly hire workers rather than invest in training them, so career guidance, training and recruitment fall short of what the industry needs. Youth, women and rural populations are a large, untapped source of labour, but they face lasting barriers to quality vocational education, career guidance and formal employment, especially outside the major cities. Skills development is still funded mainly by the public sector and donors, and private investment rarely goes beyond immediate operational needs.
In rural areas, hospitality businesses share the same workforce problems but have no structured way to act together, which limits their influence on training and their ability to attract talent.
The hospitality sector lacks effective private-sector ownership and investment in workforce development, resulting in career guidance, training, and recruitment services that are not sufficiently aligned with industry needs. Many employers continue to engage primarily as consumers of labour rather than active contributors to workforce development. Greater private-sector leadership in financing, steering, and delivering skills development can improve the relevance, quality, and sustainability of workforce services while contributing to higher productivity, improved service quality, and stronger employee retention.
The project aims to enable disadvantaged social groups - particularly rural youth, women, and men - to access better employment and improve their income through opportunities in Georgia’s hospitality sector. It takes a person-centred and system-oriented approach, addressing the needs, circumstances, and aspirations of underserved groups, while strengthening the broader workforce development system.
At its core is a private sector-led model of workforce development, where employers drive the design and delivery of innovative training solutions to ensure that skills development aligns with evolving labour market needs and employment opportunities. By equipping people with market-relevant skills and strengthening private sector leadership in workforce development, the project contributes to improved livelihoods, a more inclusive labour market, and a more resilient tourism and hospitality sector.
The project works across four connected intervention areas:
Together, these aim to move employers from consumers of labour to active contributors to workforce development. Making the private sector central to training finance and delivery is intended to make workforce services more relevant, better quality and more sustainable, and to raise productivity, service quality and staff retention.
Impact-linked finance and co-financing are meant to align incentives, lower investment risk and widen funding beyond traditional public and donor sources. Gender equality is built into the approach, and the project tracks how targeted women see attitudes and practices towards their equal opportunities and rights changing in their environment.
Over time, the project expects to contribute to a more inclusive labour market and a more resilient tourism and hospitality sector, particularly in rural destinations.
These results are achieved through: