By No­vem­ber, over 600 Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als will hit the seas for their first day at work as an em­ploy­ee of the Mi­a­mi-based Roy­al Caribbean group.

Just over a month since thou­sands of peo­ple flocked to Roy­al Caribbean’s re­cruit­ment dri­ves in Trinidad and To­ba­go, the in­ter­na­tion­al cruise line has con­firmed the em­ploy­ment of 602 ap­pli­cants so far.

Roy­al Caribbean con­firmed that 6,000 ap­pli­ca­tions were sub­mit­ted to them fol­low­ing the job re­cruit­ment ex­er­cis­es held in Port-of-Spain, San Fer­nan­do, and Scar­bor­ough in June.

The re­cruit­ment dri­ve cre­at­ed a huge buzz prompt­ing the cruise line to add an ad­di­tion­al date to screen ap­pli­cant at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for Per­form­ing Arts in Port-of-Spain.

The Roy­al Caribbean Group said it came to Trinidad and To­ba­go with a team of 20 per­sons who con­duct­ed in­ter­views over four days. Two days at NA­PA, one day at the South­ern Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts and one day at the Shaw Park Cul­tur­al Com­plex in To­ba­go. “These ex­er­cis­es at­tract­ed an over­whelm­ing re­sponse,” the cruise lin­er said.

RCG said over the course of those four days, in­ter­views were done with 822 peo­ple. It was con­firmed that fol­low­ing those in­ter­views Roy­al Caribbean ships will now be staffed with Trinidad and To­ba­go cit­i­zens in po­si­tions such as Bar Util­i­ty, Bar Servers, Cooks, House­keep­ing, Restau­rant Staff, Guest and Hos­pi­tal­i­ty Ser­vices, Doc­tors and Chefs.

The cruise line said there are al­so per­sons be­ing con­sid­ered for spe­cial­i­ty and niche po­si­tions such as Casi­no staff, Se­cu­ri­ty, In­for­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy and Elec­tri­cians. How­ev­er, these per­sons will now re­quire fol­low-up in­ter­views and screen­ing be­cause of the na­ture of these po­si­tions.

Roy­al Caribbean said while on­ly 822 out of the 6,000 ap­pli­cants were in­ter­viewed, the re­main­ing ap­pli­cants would still have an op­por­tu­ni­ty to gain em­ploy­ment as they now form part of the group’s wider tourism em­ploy­ment data­base.

Roy­al Caribbean said those per­sons who reg­is­tered but were not in­ter­viewed in-per­son, are now be­ing sched­uled for vir­tu­al in­ter­views. The Min­istry of Tourism will fa­cil­i­tate this ex­er­cise, the cruise line said, and will im­ple­ment a sec­re­tari­at to pro­vide sup­port to ap­pli­cants wish­ing to be screened for cruise ship em­ploy­ment.

“The min­istry is very pleased for hav­ing been in­stru­men­tal in sign­ing the MoOU with Roy­al Caribbean and in fa­cil­i­tat­ing job op­por­tu­ni­ties to many de­serv­ing na­tion­als. The 22-mem­ber team who were here dur­ing the first phase of the re­cruit­ment dri­ve were on­ly able to in­ter­view the 822 na­tion­als, but the in­ter­views are sched­uled to con­tin­ue in the com­ing weeks vir­tu­al­ly,” Tourism Min­is­ter Ran­dall Mitchell told the Busi­ness Guardian.

Wendy Mc­Don­ald, Re­gion­al Vice Pres­i­dent, Gov­ern­ment Re­la­tions for the Caribbean said: “We are pleased with the num­ber of qual­i­fied can­di­dates in­ter­est­ed in join­ing the Roy­al Caribbean Group. We in­ter­viewed many tal­ent­ed peo­ple and are look­ing for­ward to wel­com­ing new crew mem­bers in a va­ri­ety of po­si­tions. We’re proud to con­tin­ue our part­ner­ship with the Min­istry of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts and thank them for their con­tin­ued sup­port.”

The re­cruit­ment dri­ve took place fol­low­ing the sign­ing of a MoU on May 23. The MoU proved a so­lu­tion for both par­ties.

Roy­al Caribbean not­ed the Caribbean re­gion is by far the most pop­u­lar cruise des­ti­na­tion in the world as it con­stant­ly records one-third of glob­al cruise vis­i­tors. The cruise in­dus­try was one of the most se­vere­ly af­fect­ed as a re­sult of the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic, and in a bid to push its re­cov­ery Roy­al Caribbean felt that staffing their ves­sels with Caribbean res­i­dents would bring the cul­ture and cus­toms of the re­gion to the on­board ex­pe­ri­ence.

The tim­ing of the MoU al­so proved a much-need­ed shot in the arm for many left with­out work as a re­sult of the ex­tend­ed clo­sure of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s bor­ders and the en­ter­tain­ment and hos­pi­tal­i­ty sec­tors dur­ing the height of the pan­dem­ic. While these sec­tors have since re­opened, re­cov­ery has been slow.

Mc­Don­ald con­tin­ued: “This MOU is for a pe­ri­od of one year. There­fore, be­cause we were un­able to in­ter­view the num­ber of per­sons who ex­pressed an in­ter­est in join­ing team Roy­al Caribbean and giv­en the com­mit­ment to hire at least 2,000 can­di­dates, the process re­mains open.”

The Roy­al Caribbean Group said it saw Trinidad and To­ba­go cit­i­zens as the per­fect rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the Caribbean ex­pe­ri­ence due to the nat­u­ral­ly out­go­ing and en­gag­ing na­ture of its res­i­dents as well as their over­all wel­com­ing dis­po­si­tion to vis­i­tors.

Roy­al Caribbean al­so ex­plained that based on pre­vi­ous ex­pe­ri­ence it was ob­served that “Trinida­di­ans and To­bag­o­ni­ans are the most teach­able and train­able and there­fore can per­form at the re­quired stan­dard and de­liv­er a su­pe­ri­or guest ser­vices ex­pe­ri­ence.”

Mitchell said, “This is the very rea­son for Roy­al Caribbean’s re­newed re­la­tion­ship with des­ti­na­tion Trinidad and To­ba­go. Cruise pas­sen­gers are look­ing for more in­ti­mate, per­son­alised ex­pe­ri­ences that give more in­sight in­to a coun­try’s cul­ture and her­itage.”

The min­is­ter added, “The post-pan­dem­ic tourist is look­ing for the most in­trigu­ing sto­ry and Trinidad and To­ba­go’s sto­ry is one of dif­fer­ent cul­tur­al back­grounds and cus­toms which cer­tain­ly adds to its in­trigue. This, along with our built and nat­ur­al sites and at­trac­tions makes for a tru­ly mem­o­rable vis­i­tor ex­pe­ri­ence.”

Nine­teen-year-old MIC In­sti­tute of Tech­nol­o­gy stu­dent Emanuel John­son was ac­cept­ed as a Com­mis II Chef by the Cruise line.

He said the dri­ve al­lowed him to pur­sue one of his dreams: “I al­ways want­ed to work on a cruise ship and to be ac­cept­ed by RCG was re­al­ly and tru­ly a high­light for me. I can’t wait to tour the world do­ing what I love, which is cook­ing.”

Giselle El­cock, who was of­fered the po­si­tion of Pub­lic Area At­ten­dant, said: “I think this is the be­gin­ning of an op­por­tu­ni­ty that is go­ing to change my life. I can’t wait to be a part of the ship’s team and just ab­sorb every­thing. All the ex­pe­ri­ences, the chal­lenges that will come...I am ready for it.” The 602 suc­cess­ful ap­pli­cants have since re­ceived of­fi­cial of­fer let­ters and have be­gun the process to be list­ed as ‘on board­ed.’

RCG said the of­fer let­ters out­lined the po­si­tion of­fered, length of con­tract and salary.

Af­ter ap­pli­cants ac­cept their of­fers, they must com­plete a Per­son­al Da­ta Form, con­duct a more de­tailed med­ical as­sess­ment and then re­ceive let­ters of em­ploy­ment. From there they will be as­signed to a ves­sel along with the date and port to meet the ves­sel. When this is con­firmed they will be re­quired to ap­ply for their Sea­far­er’s Visa. The cost of the visa will be cov­ered by the Roy­al Caribbean Group as well as all train­ing and air­fare to meet their as­signed ves­sel.