It is orientation week at the European International College, Abu Dhabi's only hospitality management school, and the halls are bustling with first-year students eager to explore their new surroundings. For the next two years, they will undertake a gruelling diploma programme that will cover a range of subjects, including office operations, software applications, business ethics, food safety, culinary skills, rooms division management, French-language classes, and Islamic and intercultural studies.
It may be Toufic Issa's first week at the college, but he already looks the part. Dressed in a snappy dark suit complete with name tag, Mr Issa, 18, hopes to one day manage a hotel reception desk. "I think I go well with hospitality management because I like meeting new people every day and I like travelling," says Mr Issa, who is from Lebanon and has been living in Abu Dhabi for the past six years.
Mr Issa's classmate, Rachael Peacock, 20, has loftier ambitions. She wants to open her own hotel and orientation week marks the beginning of a long road ahead. But her motivation for entering the industry is the same. "I enjoy travelling, living in different countries and experiencing different cultures," says Miss Peacock, who is from Britain. At the end of their two-year programme, Mr Issa and Miss Peacock plan to continue their studies at the school's affiliate, the Cezar Ritz in Switzerland, to obtain their bachelor's degrees.
"I might come back and settle here after I [have] fulfilled my career goals," says Mr Issa. At the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) Summit, held in Dubai in April, much of the debate revolved around the global shortage of trained and qualified hotel sector workers. The London-based WTTC is a global forum for business leaders in the travel and tourism industry, which employs about 231 million people worldwide and generates more than 10.4 per cent of the world's gross domestic product.
The global hotel industry is experiencing a human capital crisis that is being driven by the ongoing development of tourism infrastructure in regions such as the Middle East and Asia. With an expected visitor footfall of more than 15 million by 2015 in the UAE, the demand for employees capable of assuming leadership roles at the operational and supervisory levels is on the rise. In light of this growing demand and the booming nature of the industry, several hospitality management schools in the UAE are planning to launch in the coming months. The European International College has the edge on its rivals, having opened its doors last summer to its first intake of 50 multinational students, who will graduate in June next year.
The schools will contribute vital manpower to the country's travel and tourism industry, which, according to the WTTC, generated Dh112 billion (US$30.4bn) last year. In recent years, tourism has become a vehicle for economic development and diversification in the UAE, an ambition that the emirates of Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Ras al Khaimah are seeking to realise. However, sustaining the rapidly developing sector requires a constant influx of trained professionals to fuel and maintain its growth, which the WTTC predicts will grow by five per cent a year between 2007 and 2016.
"There are quite a lot of hotels already established in the region, therefore the number of potential candidates for managerial positions is substantial," says Stephan Li, the finance manager of the Tiara Palm Jumeriah Hotel. "However, seeking the right candidate that will fit your requirements and expectations is difficult. It is not necessarily a lack of candidates, but a lack of 'quality' candidates. The competition in the industry is increasing and having the right manpower will be crucial for productivity."
Mr Li says the lack of schools churning out hoteliers in the UAE has forced hotels to hire managerial staff from overseas, driving costs up. He hopes the new schools will increase the flow of management staff into the industry and result in a reduction of recruitment costs. The biggest academic venture in the hospitality sector is RAK's Hospitality Training Campus, located at the International Hospitality Trade and Training Zone. Funded jointly by the RAK Government's Investment and Development Office and the US-based Argentum Development Company, the 36-hectare campus will accommodate 15,000 students. The University of Nevada, in Las Vegas, will also have a presence on the campus.
The university, slated to open in 2010, will provide a four-year accredited undergraduate degree and a two-year master's degree in hotel and hospitality management. Also in RAK, but on a smaller scale, will be the internationally recognised hotel management school Vatel. The school is scheduled to receive students in January to prepare for the 2.5 million visitors expected to visit the emirate by 2012, as well as supply manpower to nearly two dozen five-star hotels that are in the planning stages.
Vatel, ranked last year as the best European hotel management school by the Institut Français D'opinion Publique, has 22 schools spread across four continents and offers bachelor's and master's degrees in international hotel and tourism management. "Our aim is to provide the market with 50 well-trained graduates per year adapted for the tourism industry in the region," says Abderraouf Tebourbi, the general manager of Vatel UAE and Tunisia. "Our programme is a combination of both theory and practice, with students spending one week in the classroom and one week in the four-star Hilton hotel throughout the academic year.
Also set to be launched in Dubai next year is an institute, as yet unnamed, that will collaborate with the Blue Mountains Hotel School, an Australian-based international hotel school and member of the Orion Hotel School global alliance. The Orion branch campus will offer qualifications at the certificate, diploma, associate degree and bachelor's degree levels, and may add master's degree qualifications in the future, according to Adam Sargeant, regional manager of the Middle East for Orion Hotel schools. These qualifications will be in the area of hotel management, event management and tourism management.
"Dubai has created the Palms. The World will be the home to the 'highest' hotel and exciting new hotel ventures are being announced all the time. Dubai is a city with a far-reaching vision of 'what's next' and so it is a natural step for Orion to have a hotel school based here in Dubai, developing the future managers of the industry," said Mr Sargeant. From a professional point of view, the UAE is appealing to fresh graduates. It is home to a range of leading five-star hotel chains, as well as one of the world's iconic hotels, the Burj Al Arab. Simply holding a bachelor's degree in hospitality management makes a young graduate a hot commodity, with the opportunity to be promoted at a rate that cannot be matched in North America or Europe.
The financial packages, however, are not as rewarding - especially for new graduates. Salaries start at roughly Dh2,500, but include accommodation, meals, health insurance, a yearly flight home and a tax-free environment. The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management, which is associated with Switzerland's Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, opened in Dubai in 2001 and has been conferring degrees since 2005.
According to Dr Stuart Jauncy, the dean of students, the academy enrols 100 students a year and roughly 60 per cent of the graduating class stay in the region. The tourism industry employed 294,000 people in the UAE in 2006, representing 11.7 per cent of total employment, or one in every 8.5 jobs. The majority of workers are from Asia, while the rest hail from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. By 2016, this number should expand to 376,000 jobs, representing 10.9 per cent of total employment, or one in every 9.2 jobs.
"The UAE is a great location... because of growing demand for professionals and the increasing number of accessible global hotel chains, not to mention the notable reputation it has developed in the tourism industry," says Mr Tebourbi. ozaafrani@thenational.ae