Cumbria pioneers Euro management certificate
THE first European hospitality management certificates to be awarded by the Hotel, Catering & Institutional Management Association (HCIMA) were yesterday presented in Cumbria to 22 cateringmanagers.
The certificate is designed to demonstrate a manager's competence with a qualification recognised throughout Europe.
Cumbria was chosen by the HCIMA to pilot the new certificate because it has an important tourist economy and there was a great deal of enthusiasm in the Cumbrian branch of the HCIMA for the project.
After research and development of distance-learning materials, candidates and mentors were selected to work on a programme in parallel with similar groups in Paris and Amsterdam.
The certificate used an Accredited Prior Learning (APL) system to measure the competence of the various candidates who included industrial caterers, hotel managers, private hotel proprietors, accommodation services managers and catering lecturers.
Maureen Agars of the HCIMA Cumbria branch said many of the candidates had come up through the ranks from a craft base and, although they almost certainly had completed in-house and part-time courses, they did not have a professional management qualification recognised across Europe.
APL uses a point system and a checklist of competencies which have to be supported with documentation. It sounds formal but is simply a way of making sure people have reached a certain management level and standard.
The programme also takes into account the changing nature of jobs and assesses whether people have initiated new tasks within their jobs or have inherited a job description.
Angela Ringguth, a consultant for the HCIMA and project leader of the pilot scheme, said that once a report had been made to the HCIMA and to FORCE, the European Commission body which co-funded the scheme, it would be necessary to build up to a recognised European qualification.
"We have to find some impetus from somewhere in terms of resources to set up a permanent running programme. That impetus may come from Hotrec [the Brussels-based European hospitality employers association]," she said.
In order to set up the pilot on the Continent, the HCIMA contacted members working in or near Paris and Amsterdam.
The members whohave so far agreed to become mentors to help run the project included the vice-president of operations at Euro Disney, the general manager of an 800-bedroom Parisian hotel and the owner of two Irish pubs in Paris.
In Holland, the catering management of North Sea Ferries became involved in the project and encouraged some of its staff to become candidates. Other candidates from independent businesses were found through personal contacts.
Ms Ringguth said the project took more work to organise on the Continent because the HCIMA and APL were unknown there. Because there was no Dutch or French equivalent of the HCIMA, national trade associations were being approached for help.
