Hospitality institute finds good chefs in SL students
View(s):Sri Lankan hospitality management students have created a wow impact at the Colombo Academy of Hospitality Management (CAHM) institute, graduating after producing great ‘fine dining experiences’ with good food. At least eight students have decided to become chefs using their own culinary experience in churning out authentic specialities specific to the provinces, Australian based institute’s local CEO Steven Bradie-Miles told the Business Times on Tuesday on the sidelines of a media briefing held to announce an annual industry conference in November. “Sri Lanka’s diversity in food and religion has given students the exposure to bring out traditional recipes from their grandmothers,” he said, adding that Sri Lanka can produce some top chefs as there is a lot of success for those who have hit the market in Australia.
The 2-year programmes offered is a pathway for a degree to Australia, Mr. Bradie-Miles said adding that they were looking at offering domestic degrees here in the near future. At present the institute has produced three batches that have graduated numbering 180 local and international students with 25 from Oman, 155 from Sri Lanka, about 15 from New Zealand and the US. Sri Lankan students who have followed the course programmes were not only from Colombo but also Galle, Matara, Kandy, Gampaha, Jaffna (4), Trincomalee (3) and Mannar. Mr. Bradie-Miles noted that some of their students have gone on to follow the degree programme in Australia, where the parent institute is based and 25 were off to the Middle East and Maldives for employment.
The CEO explained that they were involved with the local schools to ensure that the students would be able to get an exposure into the field of hospitality by securing time for them to visit the establishment. Commenting on the trends in the industry, he pointed out that though the present hospitality sector was increasingly male dominated the country would soon see more females joining the industry. During the media briefing he highlighted that the students have been participating in competitions in various areas like bartenders with about 30 per cent of their students carrying out further studies in Australia.
Senior Lecturer Kasun Abeynayaka told the media that the annual conference is aimed at helping the students identify new opportunities. and provide them with new skills learning on how to market and promote the hospitality product. Targeting the hoteliers, web developers, media, students and industry professionals the industry conference would focus on “Information and Communication Technology in the Hospitality Industry.” The symposium held after the conference would involve the research element where many higher education institutes would be invited to present their findings on the importance of ICT in the hospitality sector.