Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management:
Trains JKH Leisure Group employees
John Keells Holdings PLC, has partnered with Emirates Academy of
Hospitality Management, Dubai, to mentor staff within the Group's
leisure sector under a Rs 40 m training initiative.
Over 500 leisure sector employees have so far undergone training and
exposure on practical and theoretical aspects of hospitality and service
excellence as part of this scheme.
The Dubai-based five to seven day training programs are tailor-made
for each sector, and also encompasses hands-on training for employees in
top notch hotel properties in Dubai. According to Senior Vice President
and Head of HR Leisure Sector, Roshan Gurusinghe, this timely and
ambitious training drive is part of the Leisure Group's strategy of
being on par with the constantly evolving global hospitality industry,
where parameters and benchmark of service and product standards are on a
continuous rise. The Group's aim is to have a trained team of
professionals geared to take on the opportunities and challenges that
are opening in the hospitality landscape, especially, given the rapid
expansion envisaged within the JKH Leisure Sector," he said.
The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management is part of the
Jumeirah Group, the hotel Group that backs the most luxurious hotel in
the world, Burj Al Arab, as well as a number of other renowned hotel
properties in Dubai, London and New York.
"The success of the hospitality industry lies solely in the levels of
products and services espoused. This comes through constant exposure and
training," Gurusinghe said, reiterating that this was the main reason
for this initiative. He said that this partnership and international
training inculcated through the Academy will go a long way in forming an
integral truss to the Leisure Sector's ambition of being `The
Hospitality Trendsetter'. Offering a gamut of learning experiences, the
training programs cover - Food and beverage, culinary (targeting chefs),
housekeeping, front office, engineering, human resources as well as more
strategic and market oriented training for the Group's destination
management teams, sales and marketing groups and general managers.
"We are keen to have and grow a talent pool- be it the top
performers, middle management or general managers.
Our aim is to cover all segments through a consistent and ongoing
training process," Gurusinghe said. Towards this end a further Rs. 50 m
will be channelled for training and development by the end of this year.
Gurusinghe said that the Leisure Group has striven to ensure that staff
is developed in a knowledge-driven culture, which will be further backed
by investment in product and software. A dynamic combination, which he
believes, will make the Leisure Group's ambition, of being a preferred
Brand on par with other world class brands a reality.
"We remain conscious of the fact that we are looking at a global
traveller who is exposed to world-class service standards.
We strongly believe in the ethos of service beyond expectations. The
service excellence we envisage and strive towards can only be obtained
with continuous and consistent training of this nature," he said.
Future initiatives include specific job oriented personal development
programs for key positions as well as supervisors in the Group's
hospitality sector.
The Emirates Academy of Hospitality and Management, is an
international training entity, acknowledged for honing skills of
employees in some of the biggest hospitality brands, including Hyatt
Hotels and Resorts and Millennium and Copthorne Middle East Hotels.
Established as an institution of higher education, offering
degree-level courses, it is the first major academy focusing on tourism
and hospitality education at university level in the Middle East.
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