Costa Cruises, the leading Italian tourism group and Europe’s no. 1 cruise company, is setting its sights on “talented” young Italians, promoting 9 free master courses in Genoa, Savona and Viterbo for a total of 172 jobs. The courses are designed to train cruise staff and guest service personnel, tour escorts and assistant cooks to work on board a fleet that, with 12 ships in service and orders for 5 new vessels to be delivered by 2012, is Europe’s largest and carried about 1.2 million cruise vacationers in 2008.

The courses, co-financed by the European Social Fund, are organised together with the provinces of Genoa, Savona and Viterbo. Costa Cruises will hire at least 60% – even 70% for some master programs – of the participants who successfully complete the training courses to work on board its ships.

The 9 Costa Cruises courses are part of “Ready for Excellence”, a company program designed to train newly-hired personnel before they embark, preparing them to provide excellent service to Costa Cruises’ guests. The courses are designed to train personnel whose jobs are directly involved in welcoming guests on board. The main tasks of the guest service personnel will be to welcome guests on ships and to provide them with any information they might need. The cruise staff personnel will be involved with welcoming activities, assistance and entertainment. The tour escorts will be responsible for promoting and selling excursions, providing guests with assistance during shore excursions. The assistant cooks must guarantee the high gastronomic standards for which the company has always been recognised.

All courses will include classroom lessons as well as practical activities on board Costa ships.
80 places are available in Viterbo, divided among 4 courses, including 1 for tour escorts, 2 for cruise staff and 1 for guest service. In Genoa, the cruise staff course offers 20 places. In Savona, there are 72 places, divided among 1 course for tour escorts, 2 for guest service personnel and 1 for assistant cooks.

The application period runs from the end of March to the end of April 2009. Anyone interested can request information, obtain the application form, and check course contents-procedures and selection procedures by visiting the website: www.costacrociere.it. To take the courses candidates must be unemployed and have good knowledge of at least one foreign language. For some courses the participants must be between 18 and 35, or between 18 and 40 years old.