21 - 27 June 2001

Training – the first step to quality

Anthony Gatt, chairman of the Board of Governors of the Institute of Tourism Studies talks to Blanche Gatt about the ITS’ commitment to raise the quality of tourism workers

Last Friday some 220 students graduated from the Institute of Tourism Studies (ITS) and entered the world of work. Many of them already have jobs, either part-time or full-time, while the others will already have started looking for employment in the dynamic sector they have spent the last few years studying for. But all of them will be joining the ranks of what has become the most important industry in Malta’s economy.
Anthony Gatt, veteran hotelier and chairman of the Board of Governors of the ITS explained during an interview what the ITS hopes to achieve and outlined some future plans. He was appointed chairman in January 2001, after having spent two years as deputy under the chairmanship of Albert Muscat Inglott, during which time the institute restructured its programme of studies and went on to appoint the director general currently in post, Philip Gibbs.
One of Anthony’s first actions as chairman was to set up a number of sub-committees to examine in detail the requirements of the institute. “I introduced these committees in order to try and get a grasp of what we needed,” he said. The sub-committees covered areas such as course content, the identification of industry needs, control issues like finance and IT, and promotion and development, among others. “After six months work in these committees,” he continued, “we have identified what is needed, we have created the direction we want, and we know where we’re going.”
“We have realised that what is needed is that we have to spearhead the education of our industry. We have to make sure that we catch more of the people going into tourism in order to ensure the quality of the industry. We have also to take on existing personnel and put them through a certification process, which we hope to do through an NVQ (National Vocational Certification) process.”
Introducing the NVQ process would mean that every person working within the tourism industry would be given the opportunity to gain qualifications, without leaving their jobs. Organisations and companies would send a member of their staff to be trained as a trainer at the ITS, and this person would then be able to train and assess other staff at their places of work.
“ITS would like to take this role for our industry. We are fortunate in having Minister Refalo who has strong beliefs in the role the institute should play in the tourist sector and it is through the interest and direction he gives that we are working as a team and getting a lot of cooperation from the education authorities and the MTA,” said Anthony.
“I think we should be in a position to set this up within a year. The problems we face have more to do with logistics than anything else; in order to be effective we have to have trainers within every single operation. This naturally will take some organising, but fortunately the MTA, the education authorities and the ITS work very much as one unit, which will greatly facilitate the smooth introduction of this project. But I feel there is no doubt that ITS should spearhead this training, assessing and testing of tourism workers, and also provide the trainers for companies.”
Anthony’s long career within the tourism industry affords him a rich pool of experience to draw upon in his role at ITS. He first joined the industry in 1965, when as a 20-year-old student he joined a London Hotel School and got his HCIMA. In 1972 he ran his first large hotel, the Glasgow Excelsior, and in the next 10 years managed both the Metropole Hotel in Leeds and the Posthouse Hotel in Reading. In 1982 he returned to Malta to run the Phoenicia Hotel, owned by Trusthouse Forte.
In 1990, after the Phoenicia was shut down, he joined the Corinthia Group, first opening and running the new section of Mistra Village and then running the newly refurbished Corinthia Attard. In 1994 Anthony left to start his own company, MHCS, which offered recruitment services for the hotel and catering sector. Soon the company had expanded its operations and developed two further arms, a consulting unit and a training section. Concurrently, he also started up two other companies, Spinoff Limited, that owns and runs the Raffael Hotel in Spinola, and another that does management and leasing contracts with hotels. He is also president of the Mediterranean Region of SKAL (International Association of Professionals in the Travel Industry).
Anthony’s three companies employ around 52 people in all, including his eldest son and daughter. These circumstances allow him multiple perspectives on the industry’s requirements, and he, together with the director general and the other members of the board have formulated a new series of courses aimed at providing basic training even to those without the qualification to follow the full ITS courses.
“The new one-year Foundation Courses,” explained Anthony, “have been introduced to offer training to staff who do not necessarily have the “O” levels required. The students are literally given a foundation upon which to carry on building later if they wish to. The Foundation Courses offer students three levels of study in Craft and Technical Courses. During the first year they will spend two terms at the institute learning basics like hygiene, food production or food service and the last term working in industry. After a year they get a certificate and can start working, or, if they have “O” Levels, they can come back and continue with the second and third levels in their chosen subject.”
“Before this,” added Anthony, “we were missing out on training the greater part of the young people who were anyway joining the industry but not getting any training. In this way we hope to capture most of the young entrants to the tourism industry, even if they plan to work at the lower levels.”
I asked whether it is ever envisaged that this foundation course, or similar, should become compulsory for anyone working in the industry. “Not yet,” replied Anthony, “but we think the NVQs will be a step towards that – offering constant on-the-job training.”
This year, the ITS had some 1,000 students, following full- and part-time courses like Hotel Management, Hotel Operations, Food and Beverage Services, Food Preparation and Production, Tourist Guides, Travel Agency Staff, Accommodation Operations among others. There are also around 100 students working in hotels abroad on Overseas Placement Programmes. By next September, when the new intake of students has replaced this year’s graduates, there should be a similar number of ITS students on the books. “But,” added Anthony, “with the new Foundation Courses we hope to be attracting many more than in previous years. Which will also mean that we’ll be releasing a lot more people onto the industry at a younger age.”
In fact, though during the summer demand for hotel and restaurant staff is always high, and despite efforts to attract larger number of winter tourists and spread the arrivals more evenly across the year, our tourist industry remains seasonal. How many graduates can this industry sustain? “So far the industry can certainly support the number of people coming out of ITS,” said Anthony. “There is still a great demand for young middle management full of enthusiasm, but we do have to be careful we don’t oversupply the industry with too many chiefs. This we ensure by maintaining good relations and open communications with the industry.”
And, hopefully, the new Foundation Courses will also supply the industry with the trained staff at lower levels. “For the future,” concluded Anthony, “we are looking at going down the quality road. We have to produce students with a high level of motivation, whether they are top level managers or waiters and housekeepers. Our aim is to introduce a culture of on-going training in order to guarantee quality and constant improvement of our students, and ultimately, of our tourism industry.”