New hotel school on the horizon

strengthen efforts in quality service provision in the sector.
The school, Ecole Hoteliere Harare, will offer a variety of courses covering all aspects of food and beverage services and sales techniques, bar operations, front office operations, housekeeping, food and wine knowledge.
Ecole Hoteliere Harare proprietor Mr Joseph Kariuki Gachuhi said the opening of the hotel school was necessitated by the need to improve the quality of service provision in the tourism and hospitality sector.
“I have noted with concern the level at which standards in service provision are going down, and yet the sector is already showing signs of recovery and is poised for growth.
“By opening this school, we are trying to retain sanity in service provision in the tourism and hospitality sector through training our people, to meet regional and international standards,” he said.
Mr Gachuhi, who is the former owner of Nyama Choma-The Kraal, said the courses that will be offered at the school would be comprehensive, including both theory and practical aspects of the food industry.
“Instead of focusing more on the theoretical aspects of the industry, our curriculum is heavily biased towards practical lessons that will be conducted at the college. We want to empower the youth to be active and actively participate in the hospitality sector, while cultivating entrepreneurial thinking that they can become owners of their own eateries, hotels and restaurants.”
As part of their practical lessons, the students would be actively involved in the day-to-day running of a restaurant that would be situated at the college’s premises.
Mr Gachuhi, a Kenyan national, is not a newcomer to the hospitality industry, where has been operating in for the last 20 years. He started off his career in Kenya and worked for a number of reputable organisations in the tourism and hospitality industry, among them Mount Kenya Safari, Sarova Hotels and Conservation Co-operation based in Kenya.
When he moved to Zimbabwe, he worked for the Rainbow Tourism Group, before he retired to devote his time to a personal project – Nyama Choma-The Kraal – specialising in traditional African dishes.