Hotel School Graduates Association to offer 200 scholarships

26 October 2015 06:30 pm

A team of office bearers of the Ceylon Hotel School Graduates Association (CHSCA) together with Chairman, Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority-Paddy Withane and Deputy Director General, Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism & Hotel Management (SLITHM)-Prabodh Kulatunga met with Minister of Tourism & Christian Affairs John Amaratunga at his office recently. 

The primary focus of the discussion was the critical need to bridge the impending “skill level” manpower shortage in the hotel industry and on how the Ceylon Hotel School Graduates Association could engage with the Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism & Hotel Management to bridge the gap in the very near short-term.    
To this end, the Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism & Hotel Management (SLITHM) has designed a one month crash course on “Skill Development” to commence in mid-November in Colombo and at all regional locations of the SLITHM. The course will be rolled out on a back-to-back bi-monthly basis.

As an outcome of the discussions with the Minister, The Ceylon Hotel School Graduates Association (CHSGA) decided to offer 200 scholarships to needy participants of the Skill Development crash courses. Further, considering the critical need to bridge the skill level gap, CHSGA offered its’ members employed in the regions as support bases to the SLITHM and appointed Hospitality Learning & Development Specialist-Amal Nanayakkara to co-ordinate the initiative with SLITHM on behalf of the CHSGA.

The Ceylon Hotel School Graduates Association team was led by its President-Sunil Dissanayake and comprised Past Presidents Palitha Wijemanne, Upul Gamage, S. Anandaraj, Trevine Gomez and Treasurer Priyal Perera.