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(HERALD) Construction of African Sun’s academy on course

Construction of African Sun’s academy on course
Business Reporter

CONSTRUCTION of African Sun’s hospitality training academy in Equatorial Guinea is on course with the facility expected to open early next year. Group chief executive Mr Shingi Munyeza said the facility was expected to open its doors during the first quarter of next year. He said that on completion the academy would cater for 200 students. "These would be drawn from the host country and its neighbours such as Gabon and Cameroon among others," he said. Apart from meeting the group’s human resources needs, the academy was also expected to train personnel for other hotels.

The initiative was expected to ensure the group would have "brain gain rather than brain drain" and would mean there would be uniform structures across the continent in terms of qualification and training. It was also expected to help boost the group’s operations on the continent where it is already operating hotels in Nigeria and South Africa with additional hotels being planned for other countries such as Tanzania and Botswana. The group was aiming for a top three ranking in sub-Saharan Africa under African Sun where it hopes to capitalise on strong collateral in southern Africa. In his statement accompanying the group’s half-year results for the period ending March 31 2008, African Sun’s chairman Mr Eben Makonese said human capital remains a key success factor as the group penetrates Africa. "The group has therefore, intensified its training and development programmes in the region," Mr Makonese revealed. The academy, which is a joint project with the Equatorial Guinea government, was being undertaken with the group’s in-house training school — the Hospitality Training Academy. African Sun’s in-house training academy aims to open similar satellite academies in West Africa where there would be a centralised record system to cater for the emigrants to the region. The group’s academy has received accolades for its role in developing human resource. It was recently awarded the Human Resources Development Award by the Zimbabwe Institute of Management (ZIM). African Sun’s initiative comes as another local hotel giant Rainbow Tourism Group recently opened its first hotel school, the Rainbow Business School two months ago. The school which offer graduates the American Hotel and Lodging Certificate, caters for in-house staff as well as graduates from hotel schools and staff from other companies within the tourism sector.

Labels: AFRICAN SUN LIMITED, HOSPITALITY SECTOR

posted by MrK @ 9:43 PM