Tourism students to follow internship in Mauritius |23 June 2015

A group of 15 students following the Advanced Diploma Hospitality Management (ADHM) course at the Seychelles Tourism Academy (STA) leave for Mauritius on Friday this week to follow a three-month internship.

They received their tickets and travel documents from the Minister for Tourism and Culture in a ceremony last week at the academy at La Misère.

The internship is jointly organised by Shannon College of Hospitality Management, Constance Academy and Constance Hotels of Mauritius and the STA. It is a recognised course of the college and the National University of Ireland (NUI).

The class is the 6th cohort of ADHM and the seventh one will be enrolled in September.

It is no longer a new programme as it is now an internationally-recognised one and as such it will be held to global standards of academic quality.

The structure, content, delivery and academic rules must all adhere to Shannon College standards and no exceptions can be made.

Also present at the ceremony were the principal of STA Flavien Joubert, the academy’s senior managers and parents of the students.

Minister St Ange expressed his happiness in seeing another group of students off.

He said the government puts a lot of faith in this training programme because the country needs more qualified Seychellois to one day take over more important positions in the tourism industry.

“Tourism remains the pillar of the economy. We all say, we all believe it, we all know. But for it to really bring more for the country we need more trained and well trained people to be able to keep the control of our tourism industry in our hands,” he said.

He added even if Seychelles started its tourism industry since 1971, it is more recently that a lot of emphasis is being put into getting more Seychellois trained, not just to join the industry, but to manage it.

He said the government has approved and accredited such training programme as it will be recognised internationally.

Sarah Geraghty, a representative of Shannon College, said the ADHM initiative is a major investment by the government of Seychelles and noted that world class education does not come cheap. In order to maintain the current high standard of delivery, the college must develop its faculty for full time qualified lecturing staff.

She described the achievements of that class where all 15 students finished their Year 1 studies with classification of either first class honours or 2:1 honours award.

“This is remarkable academic achievement. Even at home in Shannon College, we could not boast this level success,” she said while congratulating all of them on their achievements.

“The next challenge is for you students to prove yourselves in the application of what you have learned in the real world of hotels,” she said.

Shannon College is responsible for the programme, follow-ups and final internship assessment. Constance Academy and Constance Hotels host the students on full board, provide departmental training, support, among other aspects while STA acts as the facilitator and provides logistics support.
 
The students’ air fares to Mauritius are paid by the government of Seychelles.