Kenmare, Co Kerry, is playing host to 90 new foreign CERT trainees, here to help the local hotel industry. Half the hotels in the south-west are looking for staff, according to Mr Shaun Quinn, chief executive officer of CERT. The pilot project is designed to tackle the crisis in a way that will blend into the long-established industry in the south-west.
Most of the 78 Poles and 15 Russians are practising Catholics. Most are from tourist areas in their native countries. Most speak English. "If you looked around, you wouldn't know they were not from Tralee or Killarney," says Mr Tony Lenehan, head of training operations with CERT.
"A lot of the criticism about non-nationals in the hotel industry centres on their lack of local knowledge," he says.
At the end of the 12-week course in the Kenmare Bay hotel, thanks to people such as Regina Houlihan in complementary studies, these students will know all about the Ring of Kerry, Fungi, the Rose of Tralee and the boats from Kilmackilloge.
Ms Elena Kossatcheva from Moscow conducts the language lab. She holds a thesis on the Celtic Twilight from Trinity College Dublin. The Kerry accent will be picked up in the pubs of Kenmare - though one suspects these eager and ambitious young people will spend little time in the local pubs.
They have a busy daily schedule that includes computer training as well as learning the "language" of their chosen area in reception, bar, kitchen, accommodation or restaurant.
Krystian Robert Just from Gdansk is in the kitchen baking traditional scones for the first time. He already has two years' experience in Polish kitchens and moves professionally from kneading board to ovens. The chance to learn English and international cuisine could not be passed up, he says.
Dagmara Chudzinska, a former secretary with the Polish police, is learning accommodation skills. "When Poland joins the EU, I will get a job all over Europe," she says brightly.
"They have great pride in themselves. This is the big difference," says CERT training centre manager, Mr Eckhard Gogsch. Originally from Germany, he has been in the hotel industry in Kerry for 32 years and runs training centres for Irish CERT students. The fact that he is not Irish helps the foreign students, he says. "They see someone at the top who has been through the same difficulties as themselves."
The pilot project is a two-way street; it is "a skills passport" for countries with high unemployment and a growing hotel industry, Mr Lenehan insists. This training programme, offered with the help of the Irish embassies in Russia and Poland, was over-subscribed - and not one of the applicants offered a position turned it down.
The CERT approach to recruitment is being held up as a model, says Anna Szatanik, the Polish co-ordinator who is with the students in Kenmare.
"In a short number of weeks, there has been such progress. The place is perfectly chosen. I think we benefit even more than you," she says.
"It is cheaper to bring in foreign nationals and train them. If we were running this centre with 90 Irish, we would be obliged to pay social welfare allowances. Per capita, it is actually cheaper and works out around £2,000 a head," Mr Lenehan says.
In April, the students will be placed in registered establishments where good working conditions, including the minimum wage, are in force. Their visas will have run out in a year and they will be obliged to go home or reapply.