Four Alumni of the Virgin Holidays Tourism/Hospitality Management Scholarship – Madeline Layne, Deidre Small, Darren Alleyne and Lisa S. Howard – alongside Nathan Stower, Director of External Affairs & Sustainability, Virgin Group; Joe Thompson, Managing Director, Virgin Holidays; and Tracy Bell, Administrator, CHTA Education Foundation.
training boost
Virgin Holidays and the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Education Foundation (CHTAEF) have entered into a new three-year partnership that will deliver guest care and diversity training to hotel employees and tourism students.
The announcement was made by Managing Director of Virgin Holidays, Joe Thompson, during the launch at the Copacabana Beach Club in Bay Street on Thursday night.
The relationship between Virgin Holidays and the CHTAEF dates back 13 years. The UK holiday company has sponsored 26 young people setting out to create a career in this vital industry. And after 13 successful years supporting academic scholars, Thompson said that Virgin Holidays is looking to take the partnership to the next level.
“We are pleased to continue our 13-year relationship with CHTAEF and begin a series of targeted Development Days that will give hotel team members and supervisors a fresh and tolerant approach to the new generation of UK customers, who crave enriching, affirming experiences that we know Caribbean tourism professionals can provide.”
Four training days for Barbadian hospitality professionals and students are being offered to assist in meeting the dramatically evolving modern needs of holiday-makers. The CHTAEF expects more than 110 individuals to benefit from the training during a trial in October 2018, with a further roll out to other Virgin Holiday Caribbean destinations planned in 2019.
“For our customers, we want them to take on that holiday of a lifetime; experience new cultures...And for the people we work with, both in our organisation and in partner organisations, we want them to have the opportunity to realise their full potential and create amazing careers in this brilliant industry.”
“So we want to be able to broaden our partnership with the CHTA and we are doing that through this programme that we are announcing. We are rolling out this new initiative to help enhance the career development of all staff working in customer facing roles,” Thompson said.
Chief Marketing Officer at CHTA, Matt Cooper highlighted that for the last three decades the Foundation has supported several students through hospitality and training programmes to tune of US$2 million in individual scholarships and training.
“Today, we celebrate a partnership with a long-standing corporate partner of ours in Virgin Holidays. And with the generous support of the hotels and allied partners that we have with the CHTA, we were able to embark on this new chapter of hospitality training… These courses will focus on both furthering technical and operational skills and overall customer focused experience training,” he said. (TL)