✺ Articles
What we know, written down
Real salaries, how we train and why it is needed. For anyone thinking of applying, and for anyone thinking of supporting us.
✺ Jobs and pay
How much do tourism jobs actually pay in Las Terrenas?
Nine local tourism trades, the average pay for each, what you learn and where you start.
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✺ How we train
Your life project: the question we ask before any other
Before we teach you to cook, to welcome guests or to guide a tour, we ask you a harder question: what do you want from your life?
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✺ The context
Las Terrenas is growing. Its young people are left on the shore.
Dominican tourism grew 5.2% a year for a decade. That growth, on its own, never reached the town’s young people. The data explains why.
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✺ The program
What does a week in the programme look like?
Twelve weeks are not twelve identical weeks. This is how the days are split between the classroom, the kitchen, the front desk and the company where you do your internship.
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✺ The program
What do you learn in twelve weeks?
Nine trades, three specialisations and a common base. What ends up on the certificate, subject by subject, without adjectives.
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✺ Jobs and pay
Why does English pay?
It is the skill that most quickly separates two people in the same job. The data on who visits the country, how much English there is in Samaná and what learning it is worth.
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✺ Before you apply
Young mothers: what the programme can offer you, and what it cannot
One in five Dominican girls aged 15 to 19 is a mother or pregnant. This article is for them: what the programme gives you, what it does not yet, and how to decide.
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✺ How we train
What we ask of you, and what we promise you
The programme is not a favour, nor just another course. It is a two-sided agreement, written down before the first class. Here it is, in full.
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✺ The context
Tourism supports one in six jobs in the country. Who fills those jobs?
11.6 million visitors in 2025, 1,500 new rooms authorised in Las Terrenas and more than 876,000 jobs. The data on the country’s biggest employer, and the question it leaves open.
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✺ The context
One in six young Dominicans is neither studying nor working
More than 300,000 people aged 15 to 24, and almost two in three of them are women. The official data, and what it means in a town like Las Terrenas.
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✺ How we train
Does training young people for work actually work? What the Dominican evidence says
The Dominican Republic has one of the most thoroughly studied youth training programmes in the world. Its results, six years on, explain why our programme has the shape it has.
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✺ For donors
What does 500 dollars buy?
A place in the programme costs about 920 dollars in direct expenses. Here is the breakdown, item by item, and why 500 covers a little over half.
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✺ For businesses
Taking on an intern: how it works and what your business gets
Every season starts the same way: looking for staff who never turn up, or who turn up and leave six weeks later. Here is how the alternative works.
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Ready to take the first step?