THE Sandals chain earlier this week took another giant leap forward for staff training in Saint Lucia and the Eastern Caribbean, when the Sandals Corporate University (SCU) launched its latest programme for staff at all levels in the Eastern Caribbean to aspire and achieve university degrees in hospitality.
On Tuesday (October 10), the SCU launched its Diploma in Hospitality Leadership at the William Jefferson Clinton Ball Room of the Sandals Grande Saint Lucian at Pigeon Point in Gros Islet.
Attended by Tourism Minister Dr Ernest Hilaire, SCU Corporate Director Dr Luz Longsworth, Sandals Managing Director for the Eastern Caribbean Winston Anderson and General Manager of Sandals La Source, Grenada Peter Fraser.
Also attending were Permanent Secretaries in the Ministry of Tourism and Education, Senator Dale Lee and Elizabeth Charles, as well as Executive Director of the Saint Lucia Hotels & Tourism Association (SLHTA) Noorani Azeez and Founder and Principal of Accelerating Leaders, Christopher Muller.
The event was declared open by Sandals Resorts International (SRI) Chief Executive Gebhard Rainer, who said Saint Lucia was chosen for the opening of SCU’s second cohort because, among others things, it’s the SRI’s second-largest operating base.
With three resorts and the Cap Estate Golf Club in Saint Lucia, SRI also employs many-more staff here than most other island properties outside Jamaica.
CEO Rainer advised that the 362 Sandals staff participating in the Eastern Caribbean course that they were doing so because they had “joined the largest and best Caribbean luxury tourism entity, with a legacy of over 42 years.”
He also said the course will allow those who succeed to take the chain – and Caribbean tourism – with them, to the next level, “not only regionally, but also globally.”
CEO Rainer reminded the working students they were not only training and upgrading standards for the local or regional levels, but were also “preparing to be the future world-class leaders” in the region’s industry, serving “customers from a global market” in the business of “creating lifelong memories for all…”
Dr Longsworth, formerly with the University of the West Indies (The UWI) Cave Hill Campus, emphasized the need for students to focus on “developing the capacity to use your minds in short time”, as the next four-to-six months of the course is “a wealth of opportunity waiting” for them to put their minds to.
She said the diploma course “is an international program prepared by other minds, with you in mind…” and urged them to “bear in mind that there’s no end to the beginning of this journey” for the 362 working students, “because we believe in the Caribbean.”
Minister Hilaire acknowledged “the resources and efforts” SRI puts into “training its staff to ensure they delivered the top-quality service expected – and beyond – from a globally-successful Caribbean…”
He also pointed out that while the Sandals brand is already an established and reputable leading force, “it still seeks to develop another nearly-400 staff to make them even better, simply because it will not settle for ever being second-best.”
SLHTA Executive Director Azeez – himself a former Sandals training officer a decade ago – noted that “Businesses don’t do business with businesses,” but instead, “it’s people who do business with people…”
With Sandals apportioning such significant amounts to training, he said, the SLHTA was “pleased to acknowledge SRI’s emphasis on always preparing staff to present the best product always…”
Delivering the feature address, Sandals Grande and Eastern Caribbean Managing Director Winston Anderson, who’s been over-25 years with SRI in Saint Lucia, acknowledged the encouragement, practical training and support he personally got from Sandals La Source GM Fraser, as well as his own advancement through different FIU courses.
Anderson acknowledged the central role of the Florida International University (FIU), the alma mater of SRI’s Executive Chairman Adam Stewart.
The MD said, “Leaders must know where they’re going and must also be able to pull and bring people with you…”
Anderson also advised that “unless we look ahead and take today’s challenges, we will lose out…”
Emphasizing that “Delivery of quality service is also very important,” the SRI’s Eastern Caribbean regional managing director urged students on the job “not to just walk around with your eyes wide shut…” but instead, to “always look for the simplest things that will improve the visitor’s experience.”
Anderson quoted Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays’ Richard Branson as saying his approach to training was “to train people so they can lead well-enough for them not to want to leave…”
He also advised the hundreds of Sandals staff-students to “Seize this great opportunity to learn today, for tomorrow – and beyond.
From humble Jamaican beginnings, Anderson offered his rich experience with Sandals in the last quarter-century and invited each to believe that “You can be the next me!”
The SLHTA’s Azeez – also an Independent Senator – told the working students they could “Dream and do whatever you want to do, but to do so you must first have full confidence in yourself…”
Accelerating Leaders founder (also FIU’s Courtesy Professor of Hospitality and Executive Education) Christopher Muller encouraged students to “Learn to serve to lead, through Servant Leadership.”
He reminded them that “We work while others play, as our job is to make our customers (guests) leave happier than when they arrived…”
Muller concluded, “We serve – and no one else can do what we’re doing…” in the hospitality industry.
SCU was an idea born with late SRI Founder Chairman Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart and nurtured by current Executive Chair Adam Stewart, in partnership with FIU and Accelerating Leaders.
A similar training cohort was also launched earlier in Jamaica, where SRI is headquartered and SCU is based.