Heritage Park Hotel staff star in Welsh teaching CD

Staff at an independent hotel in South Wales have become the stars of a CD-Rom developed to help students on catering and hospitality courses.

The CD, called Behind the Scenes, has been produced by the local Education Support and Inspection Service and uses the 44-room Heritage Park Hotel in Pontypridd, Rhondda-Cynon-Taff, as a model to illustrate how a "real-life" hotel operates. Staff in various jobs are featured.

It has been designed to support GCSE and GNVQ Catering and Hospitality (Intermediate) courses, and was developed in association with Ystad Mynach College and schools in Caerphilly, using Education Business Partnership (EBP) funding. It cost £15,000 to produce.

According to Heritage Park proprietor Peter Hands, the idea grew out of a need to promote hospitality as a profession. "Attracting good staff is a growing problem in this part of the country," he said. "We wanted to help demonstrate the career opportunities to be found in hotels."

Copies of the CD will be available soon from the Caerphilly branch of the EBP, tel: 01495 235612.