STA BREAKS NEW GROUND WITH HISTORIC DEAL WITH HEBEI TOURISM COLLEGE
(Posted 21st March 2014)
23 Chinese hospitality students from the Hebei Tourism Vocational College in Chengde are benefitting from the ongoing efforts by the Seychelles Tourism Academy to establish global partnerships, which give training opportunities not just to scores of Seychellois hospitality and tourism students but also reciprocates to offer the same to students from foreign lands.
The 23 Chinese students, already on the archipelago, have been accepted by leading resorts in the Seychelles, among them the Constance Ephelia Resort, the Four Seasons and the Beachcomber Sainte Anne. The will remain in their respective resorts for 6 months while undergoing in service training.
This initial deployment subsequently raised huge additional interest by other resorts to also offer similar opportunities to Chinese students and the STA management was swift to build on this by offering a further 32 industrial training places to the Hebei College.
Mr. Flavien Joubert, the Principal of the Seychelles Tourism Academy, said the partnership signed between Seychelles Tourism Academy and Hebei will be long lasting: ‘Trade partners want to see more Chinese students in their hotels. I am pleased to announce that Constance Resorts in Maldives and Mauritius are more than willing to share the Memorandum of Understanding we’ve signed with the tourism institution of China’.
The Seychelles Tourism Academy Principal underscored that the private sector trade partners are to be commended because they’ve recognised the positive implications of the MOU: ‘Without trade partners, the students attachment would not have been the success it is. It is important to appreciate their implication in this project’.
The 23 students on work attachment in Seychelles were welcomed by Mr. Alain St. Ange, the Seychelles Minister for Tourism and Culture together with the Chinese Ambassador in Seychelles, in a Press conference at the Ministry of Tourism and Culture. Minister St. Ange said it is rewarding to see that the Memorandum of Understanding is bearing fruits: ‘It’s double rewarding because not only you will be attached at the Academy, you will also go to our private sector partners. You will go into our resorts and there you will be able to also guide our industry into the expectations of the Chinese tourists we are now welcoming in ever growing numbers. I hope that as you are learning from us, we also learn from you. Our trade, our private sector wants to be able to be better informed and this is why everybody wants to have this group of Chinese students attached to their respective hotels. I hope that you are not only here to learn, but you will be able to also enjoy Seychelles. Many of your fellow citizens come to Seychelles on holiday. Try and enjoy what they’ve experienced. Go and enjoy this diversity that makes Seychelles the unique destination it is’.
The Minister highlighted the growing importance of the Chinese market for the Seychelles and he asked the students to become good ambassadors for Seychelles when they finally return to China in six months’ time.
It is the first time that the Seychelles Tourism Academy has brought Chinese students to be trained in the Seychelles. They are third year students of a four year Management course in tourism.
The Seychelles Tourism Academy is presently undergoing a transformation into what will undoubtedly become one of Africa’s foremost hospitality and tourism training institutions with significant additions of new teaching facilities, meeting rooms, a small application hotel, a fully fleged Spa and one each four and five star villa where students can learn workplace requirements ahead of starting a career in the sector.
STA has in the past signed cooperation agreements and MoU’s with a tourism college in Shanghai, in Muscat and in Malta and works in close collaboration with the Shannon hospitality institute where many Seychellois students complete their degree courses before deploying in Europe and the Middle East for their industrial attachment before graduating and returning home to begin work in one of the many top class resorts the archipelago is famous for.
Additional information about the Seychelles can be sourced via www.seychelles.travel and for more details about the academy click http://www.seychellestourismacademy.edu.sc/
