Letters
Disbelief at a graduate's arrogance
I read with a growing sense of incredulity the letter from the Oxford Brookes University student (10 November). He expressed his disappointment that after "collating and analysing business accounts", being "acting night manager for a month" and three years of theory, he was only offered a position as a trainee manager.
I am incredulous that anyone was prepared to offer the graduate any sort of position at all.
Management in the hotel industry is getting more complex, more professional and more demanding every day. Companies such as Hilton, Metropole, Forte and ourselves require managers with a greater depth of knowledge, experience and maturity than ever before.
Above all else, we need managers with a desire to continue learning and developing their skills.
We have no need of managers who believe that they know everything and think that a few months' industrial experience gives them the right to manage staff with many years of experience.
If you want to be a professional manager, take the time to learn the business properly - your degree will be of benefit to you but you still need to develop your experience and skills, and that does not happen overnight.
DAVID FENDER
Operations Director,
Scott's Hotels, Slough, Berkshire.
Great to help staff be guests…
As a mature HND (Hotel and Catering Management) student, I not only commend Ian Guthrie on his Rombalds Experience Voucher scheme, but I think it should be positively encouraged throughout the industry.
After some 20 years in hospitality in some form or other, being among the (lucky) 1% he refers to, I find it rather sad that most of my colleagues past and present have not had the experience of being a customer of a first-class establishment.
How can we successfully "sell" a product we know little about from personal experience?
Since "familiarity breeds contempt", perhaps Mr Guthrie's scheme should be experienced in such a way that exchanges take place between like-minded establishments to give staff even better experience.
DIRK MARTENS
Suffolk College,
Ipswich.
…and give them more pay as well?
I agree wholeheartedly with Ian Guthrie's idea of encouraging his staff to stay at his hotel as guests and thus experience and appreciate the products and service for themselves.
It certainly seems an excellent and, provided paying customers are not turned away, cost-effective way of training staff.
Isn't it a shame then that most hotels in my experience are run on such tight staffing budgets that the very idea of allowing them such a freedom from their work is almost out of the question? ("But there's always their night off", I hear some cry).
Would it not be marvellous if the industry in general was not so poorly paid? That way hoteliers could even encourage their staff to eat out and stay at other quality establishments - that would be real perception-gap bridging.
MICHAEL GOUGH
Lydiard Tregoze,
Wiltshire.
An NVQ guide already exists
Your article about the North Yorkshire Training and Enterprise Council (TEC) and local employers publishing a guide to National Vocational Qualifications gives me cause for concern at the waste of resources.
The Department of Employment (the TECs' boss) asked the HCIMA to publish such a guide as an altruistic service to our industry. In conjunction with the lead body and others we did just that in January 1994 and since then have already sent out some 5,000 copies.
I will forward copies of the guide NVQ/SVQ - A Guide for Managers and Supervisors to the Devonshire Arms at Bolton Abbey and the North Yorkshire TEC. If others want a copy, please contact the HCIMA at 191 Trinity Road, London SW17 7HN.
Alternatively, contact the nearest branch of HCIMA or your nearest catering college for information on NVQs, or drop me a line.
DAVID WRIGHT
Head of physical resources
HCIMA vice-president, Newcastle College, Newcastle upon Tyne
Free help with training jargon
The fact that three out of four employers have heard of National Vocational Qualifications (News, 17 November) is encouraging news.
However, many of your readers will sympathise with personnel manager Anne-Marie Pearson of the Devonshire Arms, Bolton Abbey, on the subject of NVQs and the problems caused by jargon in some of the literature.
The Hotel & Catering Training Company recognised the need to address this some time ago and published Your NVQ/SVQ Questions Answered.
This publication deals with terms used through a glossary which gives answers to those questions most frequently asked by employers. The guide is available free from our research department in Ealing.
We are also able to offer a free advisory service through our national network of staff for employers who might be considering introducing NVQs.
MIKE FELLOWES
Hotel & Catering Training Company,
London W5.
Seeking a lost acquaintance
I am trying to contact an RAGB acquaintance. If anyone has any information about Bruce Brace, formerly chairman and managing director of Winstons Night Club in Mayfair, London, please get in touch with me on 081-802 5299, or at the address below.
ANTONY ASHLEY
15 Clifton Gardens,
Stamford Hill, London N15 6AB
