About

The Ecotourism Training Center (ETC) in Khao Lak, Thailand is a long-term Tsunami recovery project focused on providing immediate employment and vocational career training to young adults in the Thai community. Many of the current students lost everything to the waves including homes, jobs, and in many cases family members and providers. Our program is based on a similar program developed by Circuit Rider Productions in California that boasts nearly 30 years of success in helping educate and train disadvantaged youth in their local area. ETC Managing Director, Reid Ridgway, was one of the very first students and graduates of Circuit Rider’s program many years ago, and credits the program with having changed his entire life, creating the bridge to his formal education and long history of success in business.

The ETC trains young people for a career in environmental tourism. The students have three main disciplines: English Language, Computer Skills, and Nature Tour leadership including becoming PADI professional Scuba guides. The language curriculum is superbly integrated with their environmental studies. Both the vocabulary and language exercises are customized to give them the skills to speak about the natural world, dive safety, and conversational skills to be successful as a tour leader. But the program doesn’t stop there. Ridgway and his Swiss partner, Pascal Hernikat have connected the program with a huge list of outside resources. These outside experts give their time to the program by providing learning seminars to the group of students. The goal is to expose the students to a broad range of related industries and bridge their new skill sets to employment opportunities when they graduate from the 9 month program.

Website: http://etcth.org