The Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association and the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement are starting a pilot program to provide Hawaii’s public high school students with paid internships at local tourism businesses.

The program, funded through CNHA as well as the Hawaii Hotel Industry Foundation — HLTA’s charitable arm — aims to get more locals employed in tourism, which is undergoing a labor shortage.

Hawaii’s visitor industry is looking to fill thousands of jobs statewide as tourism, a key driver of Hawaii’s economy, heads toward recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. On Sunday there were 1,500 hotel jobs, including nearly 220 hotel management jobs, available on Indeed.com.

HLTA President and CEO Mufi Hannemann said in a statement, “This program marks a major shift in how the visitor industry handles workforce development. We are pleased to partner with the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement and the State Department of Education to help interested students to gain necessary job experience and training during high school while also highlighting the diverse career options that are available in our industry.”

A dozen students, chosen in partnership with the state Department of Education to represent the four counties, will make up the first set of interns to receive 12-week paid internships. HLTA and CNHA will help interns parlay their experience into full-time employment in Hawaii’s visitor industry.

CHNA President and CEO Kuhio Lewis said, “The Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement is committed to creating and providing opportunities for Hawaii’s young people to pursue meaningful careers here in Hawaii. We are proud to join HLTA and support this internship program, which has the power to change how we prepare and retain Hawaii’s best talents for quality jobs in our local tourism industry.”

The pilot is part of a workforce development initiative driven by HLTA in partnership with the state Legislature, the DOE and the State Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

State schools Superintendent Keith Hayashi said in a statement, “Providing internship opportunities like these help strengthen our workforce readiness initiatives as we develop a talented pipeline of public school graduates for jobs here at home.”

Hannemann and Hayashi credit state Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz (D, Wahiawa-Whitmore-­Mililani Mauka), Senate Ways and Means chair, with securing the necessary funding in the 2022 legislative session.

The state budget appropriation also included funding for the Ho‘oilina Scholars college scholarship program, which was established through a partnership among HLTA, the University of Hawaii Travel Industry Management School and the Hawaii Tourism Authority.

Dela Cruz said in a statement, “During the 2022 Session, I put into the budget $108,712 to fund four Travel Industry Management Scholarships and over $4.6 million for 330 post high and DOE student internship positions, in which a portion of those funds and opportunities will focus on the visitor industry.”

The pilot builds on the Ho‘oilina Scholars program, which recognized at a dinner Thursday its first cohort of nine students from Hawaii’s public high schools who are graduating from the University of Hawaii Travel Industry Management School after receiving full four-year scholarships.

Fanglin Xu, a 2019 graduate of Moanalua High School and a Ho‘oilina recipient, said the program enabled her to make the most of her education because she didn’t have to worry about tuition.

“Because I’m actually the first generation going to college in my family, being able to receive the full-ride scholarship helped a lot because I didn’t have to worry about tuition, and I had more time to do things out of classes,” she said.

Xu interned at the Fairmont Orchid on the Big Island twice and then at the Halepuna Waikiki by Halekulani. She also participated in a generational mentorship program at HLTA that connected her to Angela Vento, general manger of the Wailea Beach Resort.

Xu has worked since November at the Kahala Hotel &Resort as an assistant housekeeping manager, and will leave in July to participate in Voyage, Marriott International’s 12- to 18-­ month leadership development program where she has been assigned to The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco. She hopes her career will eventually bring her back home to Hawaii.

Hannemann said a second cohort of Ho‘oilina Scholars was selected in 2020 and are pursuing their degrees, but the program was paused during the COVID-19 pandemic. A budget appropriation from Dela Cruz during the 2022 legislative session resurrected the third cohort of the scholarship program, which will be the first to have full room and board covered along with tuition.

Vance Roley, dean of the Shidler College of Business, University of Hawaii at Manoa, said in a statement, “Ho‘oilina scholarship program has been a huge success in preparing our public school students for leadership roles in the hospitality industry.”