Kenya Utalii College has partnered with a recruitment company from Jersey seeking to interview and recruit professional personnel for the hospitality industry in the United Kingdom’s Jersey Island.
GR8 Recruitment firm undertook its interviews of Kenya Utalii College alumni between Saturday 30th November and Sunday 1st December, 2019. The interviews for 200 hospitality professionals in Kenya seeks to plug staff shortages being experienced in the Island’s hospitality industry. Successful KUC alumni are expected to be flown to Jersey from January 2020 where they will work within the 9-month non-EU hospitality work permit permissions.
Kenya Utalii College is recognized as a leading African hospitality and Tourism training institution. Established 50 years ago, the College has trained over 69,000 graduates from around the world who continue to serve in the local and international Hospitality and Tourism Industry.
“We would like to assure the Jersey Island’s hospitality and tourism industry that the College is continuously reviewing the relevancy of its training to respond to the changing trends and global demands for skilled manpower”, Mr. Hashim Mohamed, Principal and CEO.
The GR8 Managing Director, Mr. Lee Madden said they had selected the College because of its distinguished history of providing world class training for both the local and international Hospitality. This exercise is a further testament to the quality trained staff in Kenya, more so, for the hospitality industry. Those recruited will serve as Ambassadors and ultimately lead to other international agencies to consider Kenya and KUC as their source for professional personnel for the hospitality industry.
The College trains students in different course groups namely; Hotel Management, Travel and Tourism Management, Travel Operations, Front Office Operations, Food Production, Food Production Apprenticeship, House Keeping and Laundry and Food and Beverage Service and Sales.
According to Bailiwick Express, a Jersey’ online paper, the country’s immigration policy was changed earlier this year to allow for 150 short-term seasonal work permits in a bid to ease the recruitment crisis in the island’s hospitality industry.
In the country’s new arrangement, the Kenyan staff upon selection will begin work in early 2020. The islands regulations require those selected to leave Jersey for three months after the expiry of the nine-months permit and return after another three months’ subject to permit approvals.
Simon Soar, the Chief Executive of the Jersey Hospitality Association (JHA) told Bailiwick Express that the easing of the regulations would provide a significant boost to the industry ahead of the 2019 tourism season. “We are absolutely delighted with this result,” he said.
The company has launched social media and recruitment campaigns which has led to the identification of over 100 professionals from entry level to management positions.