Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov.20 / Trend Life Vugar Imanov /
AZTA - The Azerbaijan Tourism Association today announced the opening of a new hotel management school, Hospitality Business School (HBS).
In Azerbaijan the HBS will be the first education program in English initially offering various professional certifications for line, supervisory and managerial levels of the hospitality industry. American Hotel and Lodging Educational Institute's (AHLEI) "Specialization Certifications", "Hospitality Management Diploma", "Dual Diploma" as well as the new high school curriculum, Hospitality and Tourism Management Program (HTMP) will be part of the academic concept of the HBS.
The AZTA signed a memorandum of agreement with the AHLEI in August 2011 and has already organized a first workshop on CHT (Certified Hospitality Trainer) in which the certified new trainers will work to train and certify line and supervisory employees to develop a quality workforce in the hospitality industry of Azerbaijan.
The AZTA has organized the first CHE (Certified Hospitality Educator) workshop for Azerbaijan Tourism Institute's (ATI) lecturers. This award-winning program is the only professional development opportunity designed for hospitality educators around the world and enables them to strengthen students' critical thinking and motivation to learn more.
The HBS will establish its first location within the grounds of a well-known Sea Breeze Residences & Hotel, a premium class villas and hotel property located in Nardaran, within 30 minutes driving from the center of Baku.
"We aspire to build our school as a leading regional provider of professional education in the hospitality field", says George Ubbelohde, CHA, CHE, CHT, the newly appointed Director of the HBS. "Our team is looking forward to educating industry professionals, students, enhancing their professional development, and connecting them with the many fine hospitality businesses in Azerbaijan."
The Azerbaijan Tourism Association (AZTA) was established in 2009 by the assistance of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and has been an affiliate member of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) since July 2011. Its overall goal is to develop the tourism sector in Azerbaijan and to create healthy, strong inbound and outbound tourism.
Established in 1953 as a nonprofit educational foundation of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, the Educational Institute's mission is to continue being the preferred provider to the lodging industry, hospitality schools and related hospitality industries by developing and providing quality resources to train, educate and certify hospitality professionals worldwide.
The Sea Breeze, a part of the Crocus Group, is developing rapidly the Caspian Riviera.
The territory of the Sea Breeze is a completely recreated landscape of 46 hectares with more than 20 000 trees and 10 000 shrubs, 80 residential villas (from 400 m2 to 1000 m2), 40 townhouses (from 300 m2 to 400 m2) and a hotel.
Infrastructure of the Sea Breeze is carefully planned and includes the Sea Breeze Hotel (5000 m2) in an area of 2.6 hectares (32 rooms; 3rd, 4th, 5th floors are for private apartments from 83 m2 to 685 m2), a private sandy beach of 1,2 km length (13 ha), a pier for yachts and boats, a Sports Club (1000 m2) with indoor pool (108 m2), sauna, outdoor pool (270 m2), a tennis court (600 m2), a football field (600 m2), a playground for kids, water sports, and other facilities.
George Ubbelohde is an accomplished hospitality industry executive, a professional trainer and an educator with comprehensive blend of hands-on international hospitality industry and academic experience in several countries. He has excellent first-hand experience in assessing training needs, developing and delivering training programs, measuring and evaluating results. He is Certified Hotel Administrator (CHA), Certified Hospitality Educator (CHE) and Certified Hospitality Trainer (CHT) with considerable International Hospitality Industry Expertise. George is Excellence Assessor EFQM (European Foundation of Quality Management) and Quality Assessor for KALDER (Turkish Quality Foundation). He has expert knowledge in national and international accreditation and quality certification framework models for business and education.
George speaks several languages fluently and can conduct all workshops in English, French, Greek and Turkish. He is Belgian, married with one daughter.