Impoverished, unskilled young people in southern Africa are specifically recruited by the SA College for Tourism (SACT) for their year-long courses in hospitality. They aim to teach students vitally important, highly sought-after skills for the tourism industry, with graduates able to return to their communities as entrepreneurs with small tourism businesses or to work as part of the local eco-tourism industry within or around conservation areas. The idea is to grant opportunities to learners from rural areas in order to break the poverty cycle.
Hospitality is one division of the SA College for Tourism, owned and operated from what used to be the Panorama Hotel with top notch facilities and resources. Sitting on eight hectares overlooking Graaff-Reinet in South Africa, the Panorama was a gift to the college by one of the Rupert family foundations, which also funded the upgrade of the property into a state-of-the-art training facility. It makes the perfect base for the training course.
The year’s training covers all aspects of hospitality, from the kitchen and restaurant to housekeeping, front-office and more.
Most of the students are young women and, with 90% of recruits going on after the course to find permanent employment. This is an important stepping stone towards improving the quality of life for impoverished families.
Some graduates have also opened their own guest houses and coffee shops. One is head of housekeeping at a well-known 5-star hotel in Cape Town, and others are now working overseas or even on cruise ships. Many students are from areas where Peace Parks Foundation works, and the hope is that some return home to these areas to cater for visitors to the transfrontier conservation areas.
The Peace Parks’ aim is for transfrontier conservation areas across southern Africa to become self-sustainable over the long-term, and so it is important to develop high-standard tourism offerings with sufficient experiential value to keep tourists coming back. The hospitality course at the SA College for Tourism is invaluable in teaching operational and management skills for the lodge and guest house industry.
