Face-to-Face: Anouk Tenten, Glion Institute
In our latest Face-to-Face interview, Travel Daily chats with Anouk Tenten, Partnership Manager at the Glion Institute of Higher Education, about the online tourism and hospitality courses currently being offered…
Q) How many students do you currently have?
Currently we have 250 students from across 70 countries learning online, with an average age of 37 and over 15 years work experience each.
With a learning ethos that combines half a century of knowledge and the very latest industry trends, we are recognised as one of the top three hotel management schools in the world and teach annually to students from over 90 countries. So you could say our programmes are helping to improve the standard of hospitality staff globally, including the Asia, which is our top growth market.
We’re very proud of our steadily growing community of online students. The nature of virtual learning means that we’re attracting hospitality professionals who already have established careers but recognise the need for continual development. We have also forged partnerships with a number of major hotel groups who are keen to put employees into our programmes.
Q) How does your curriculum aim to meet current industry challenges?
At Glion we regularly consult with major hospitality organisations to ensure our programmes reflect the needs of the industry. We therefore know from experience that an organisation which encourages its employees to pursue education receives loyalty in return from staff. In a more practical sense, an MBA-level academic degree creates leaders from managers. In regions such as Asia where there is an exciting amount of growth, leaders are irreplaceable for companies who wish to continue to develop and be successful.
Students learn in an online environment that has been specifically designed to fit around the demanding schedule of hospitality professionals… meaning our multinational cohort can access the class when their schedule is free. In addition to highly trained faculty, we use webinars and a team of support staff to assist each class from enrollment through to graduation.
Q) How does your approach differ from that of other schools?
In creating an online classroom we are giving our students the opportunity to continue to grow professionally without putting their career on hold. Our interactive learning approach means students debate with classmates from around the world and can apply the concepts and skills learned immediately into their working environments, offering far more to both student and employer than a more traditional distance learning programme.
Q) What new elements have you added to your curriculum recently?
We now use social media to get the students more integrated and feel part of a real class. With online learning, different from distance learning, we want students to study and eventually graduate together. The beauty of studying online is that the basics of the curriculum might be the same, the discussion, new theory, up-to-date articles, assignments etc can change on a day-to-day basis and be made relevant for the world we are working in today and tomorrow.
Q) What do you see as the biggest challenge in training people for the hotel and tourism industries in Asia?
Right now Asia and Middle East is one of the most exciting markets globally. The speed of development has been astonishing. The key now is to invest in the people who make the industry tick and ultimately decide its long term success, in doing so the APAC and Middle East can become the premier hospitality destination for employee, organisation and customer. We belief that these markets and key players become very important, hence we are already expanding our partnerships in various regions. The biggest challenge for us would be to keep up with the growth and the quick change of payers and staff.
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