PIHMS Strengthens Global Links - Aug 09

PIHMS Principal, Flora Gilkison has recently returned from San Francisco for the meeting of the 8 member schools and the International CHRIE  (Council for Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education) conference.

Mrs Gilkison says at the LHSW conference student and staff exchanges and qualification cross crediting were discussed as two ways of making stronger links between the member schools.  She says PIHMS hopes to offer a Leading with Luxury programme to our students via Skype links to schools in Niagara University, USA and Lima, Peru.

The next meeting of the LHSW will be in Puerto Rico.

PIHMS became a member of the Leading Hotel Schools of the World last year. There are eight schools in the network with a ninth from Norway in the process of joining.  All the schools must have received approval from the Leading Hotels of the World group and offer at least a bachelors degree or higher.  The website www.lhsw.com is worth having a look at.

Meanwhile at the ICHRIE conference, sustainability was the hot topic.  One of the key speakers was  Bridgitta Witt who serves as Vice President of Environmental Affairs for Global Hyatt Corporation. Since her appointment in December 2007, Witt has assisted in developing and implementing a corporate environmental policy that expresses the company’s commitment to minimizing its impact on the global environment.

Mrs Gilkson says while the recession was not dwelt on, there was discussion around how to ensure teaching in schools was relevant to what is going on in the industry in these economic times, such as new ways to match costs with revenue.