Philippe G. Francois
President of AMFORHT and SAVIGNAC’s Strategic Committee
amforht.groupment.com
welcome/ecole-de-savignac.com
Challenging times
The hotel industry is a global, leisure and people-serving industry. The challenges for our new generations of waiters, chefs and general managers are threefold:
1) understanding the intercultural world and the fragility of the global planet-warming in which we live
2) the growth of leisure in an international context of reappropriation of the working time
3) confluence between women and men from all continents and all cultures
Encouraging a career in hospitality
Ecole de Savignac has been pursuing its development for 35 years now thanks to a few very simple principles:
1)the permanent connection between the expectations of the leaders of the hotel and catering industry worldwide and the expectations of students: one must feed the other
2)supporting each student is a founding principle at Savignac – each student must be able to progress at his own pace and be able to interact with his professor as much as necessary,
3)creating an environment of safety, well-being and personal fulfillment where students are encouraged to collaborate
Standing out
Savignac’s MBA graduate program is probably one of the best in the world for hotel and restaurant. Our educational challenge is to ensure that each student feels ready for the challenges they will face. We do not force any of our students to take on responsibilities they don’t feel comfortable with. Some alumni gradually climb the ladder, while others establish their own business very quickly. Some immediately become advisers to the largest hotel groups. This permanent open-mindedness is a powerful career accelerator for students from different cultures.
Jeroen Greven
Managing director
The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management
emiratesacademy.edu
Positive days ahead
It’s a magnificent time to embark on a hospitality career! For the first time, the industry is truly waiting to be reinvented after the impacts of Covid-19, with new generations entering the market and workplace, and the fourth industrial revolution coming into play. The circumstances present enormous challenges, sure, but foremost they offer endless opportunities for ambitious and well-educated young professionals to create better and smarter solutions for both their teams and customers. I believe the industry is ready to embrace the next level of technology, sustainability, data-driven personalization and experiences, which the next generation of creative hoteliers will have a massive impact on.
What matters
Creativity, communication, problem-solving, social intelligence and so forth are key to professional success. This should be at the heart of the curriculum, intertwined with relevant hospitality management know-how and business acumen. With our experiential learning approach, we bring this all together and create socially active environments where students learn through experience, exchange and reflection. And as we are an integral part of Jumeirah Group, with iconic hotels like the Burj al Arab, we are not confined to the classroom to create genuinely unique learning experiences.
In the curriculum
Our curriculum is future proof, and so are our graduates. We develop skills and competencies that ensure our students are versatile, lifelong learners. Practicing innovation, intrapreneurship and thinking about how we can make services better, smarter and quicker is a vital part of our students’ journey at the Emirates Academy. And with Dubai as our playing field, we could not have found ourselves in a better location to support this outcome. We are at the peak of hospitality innovation, with more than 140 five-star hotels within a 20-minute taxi ride from the campus. Our graduates are continuously exposed to all that is new and happening in the industry; it is truly a one-of-a-kind learning experience.
About author
Rita Ghantous
Rita Ghantous is a hospitality aficionado and a passionate writer with over 9 years’ experience in journalism and 5 years experience in the hospitality sector. Her passion for the performance arts and writing, started early. At 10 years old she was praised for her solo performance of the Beatles song “All My Love” accompanied by a guitarist, and was approached by a French talent scout during her school play. However, her love for writing was stronger. Fresh out of school, she became a freelance journalist for Noun Magazine and was awarded the Silver Award Cup for Outstanding Poetry, by The International Library of Poetry (Washington DC). She studied Business Management and earned a Masters degree from Saint Joseph University (USJ), her thesis was published in the Proche-Orient, Études en Management book. She then pursued a career in the hospitality industry but didn’t give up writing, that is why she launched the Four Points by Sheraton Le Verdun Newsletter. Her love for the industry and journalism led her to Hospitality Services - the organizers of the HORECA trade show in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan, as well as Salon Du Chocolat, Beirut Cooking Festival, Whisky Live and other regional shows. She is currently the Publications Executive of Hospitality News Middle East, Taste & Flavors and Lebanon Traveler. It is with ultimate devotion for her magazines that she demonstrates her hospitality savoir-faire.
