School service

MANILA, Philippines - Rejoice, aspiring hoteliers and restaurateurs — a new school is coming to town especially catered to students driven to enter the hospitality industry. The Dusit Hospitality Management College (DHMC) will be the first international hospitality management school in the Philippines, as well as the first school to be fully integrated within a hotel. The Dusit International group is currently building a new contemporary line of hotels, in which its local branch, dusitD2, will be housing the college.

Along with Dusit International, world-class Swiss school École hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL) initiated half of the effort to establish a hospitality educational institution in the country. Founded in 1893, it was the first hospitality management school in the world. Graduating from the college meant having a bachelor’s degree in International Hospitality Management, which involves various relevant courses ranging from kitchen basics to real estate finance. It is this model and quality of education that the Dusit school in the Philippines will adopt.

We sat down with representatives from École hôtelière de Lausanne — president Guglielmo Brentel, directeur general Michel Rochat, and CEO Yateendra Sinh.

YOUNG STAR: École hôtelière de Lausanne is the first of its kind in the world. What led you to bring this kind of education to the Philippines?

GUGLIELMO BRENTEL: Well, I think the Filipino mentality is extremely good for the international hospitality industry. With good education, I think (it’s) the fastest growing industry worldwide and now, many Filipinos are already working abroad in the hospitality industry but they are not educated for the international market. And I think this is the reason why we think there’s a big potential to have the Philippines as a hub for Asia and for the world.

MICHEL ROCHAT: You started with the right touch, to speak about “education” rather “training.” And that is very important because education is professional skills and personal values combined together to produce or to bring an added value to the market that’s important.

Can you tell us about how EHL started to work with Dusit Thani to build DHMC?

YATEENDRA SINH: We have a prior relationship with Dusit International. We work with them on the college in Bangkok and as an extension of that, their ambition of the Philippines is rich and our desire to be in every part of the world is strong. That was a natural match. We have committed as both partners, Dusit and Lausanne, to continue exploring new countries and new markets where we believe education is relevant. They do hotel keeping, we do education, and we link up with them in these scenarios. They have a strong footprint here in the ASEAN region and we are a European organization, so this becomes convenient for us to have a local partner. What we do is, we design the knowledge space, they take care of the infrastructure, the local culture, and the day-to-day operations. That’s just the relationship we have. We in turn kick in with quality, faculty training, evaluation of the product — the knowledge that is being delivered — and finally, recognition of the student that is graduating from this institution.

Brentel: Let me add one thing, that our hotel school is almost 125 years old, so the biggest value the school has is its reputation. So we select our partners very carefully. One thing, which is most important to us is we share the same values — the same values to build careers for young talented people. And that is what we found in Dusit and the representatives of the organization, that they share the same values.

What are the main ideas and principles that you want to bring from École hôtelière to the Dusit school?

Brentel: I think the École hôtelière of Lausanne was founded by the hotel industry. Because the industry needed talented people. The same happens with Dusit. The hotel company needs talented people. And I think (what’s) unique about the Swiss education system is it brings together hands-on education with intellectual education. The goal stays that the alumni can build their career on their education. We aim not just to educate people, but we want to help them build their careers, to give them a foundation.

Rochat: What we want to bring is the combination of art and science. Because when EHL opened in 1893 in Lausanne, the head of the school was the general director of the Beau-Rivage Palace, a famous hotel in Lausanne. And he was looking for trained people but he (couldn’t) find trained people, so he decided at that time to open a school inside the hotel. That is important. The first time (a school was opened) inside a hotel. He started at that time with eight to 10 students. In the morning, they (would be) working in the restaurant (while) in the afternoon, (they would be) learning in classrooms. And that combination of art and science... We know how to combine that at EHL. Art as vocational and science as academics — that combination produces a big added value for students because what’s most important for us is to open perspectives for students. We can’t forget that students are in the center and everything is dedicated for their future.

Sinh: That’s our philosophy of education. That logic has to carry through in every relationship that we have and every institution that we build.

What is the one thing DHMC will be able to do for tourism in the Philippines?

Brentel: I think that Rochat mentioned it, it’s the combination of art and science. The art in our business is what’s so beautiful about it. It’s about food, it’s about beverage, it’s about having guests but the science is becoming more and more important. Because knowing how IT works, (there’s the problem of) not having enough guests, or not having the price to be excellent. So I think that the future hospitality person, he really needs a combination of art — because that’s what people are looking at, — and science — because it’s still a business. And it’s a business that becomes tougher and tougher and more complex. One has to really know many things about the industry to be successful. He has to be a networker, to build together different services so that the guests can still have the experience they’re looking for, whether they’re a leisure guest or a business guest. I think, with the way we built the curriculum, we can reach that goal to bring it to a superior level for the Philippines.

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Dusit Hospitality Management College is currently undergoing CHED accreditation and will be accepting applications once accredited. The college will be integrated within dusitD2 hotel at the Fort, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.