At the Alumni Presidents Chain Handover Ceremony held this week at the Carlton Castletroy Park Hotel, Maurice Bergin, MD of Hospitality Solutions Consulting Ltd, was announced as Shannon College of Hotel Management’s new Alumni President. Mary Buckley, Group Operations Director, Tifco Hotels and outgoing Alumni President, formally handed over the chain and the role to Maurice Bergin at the ceremony.

As her final task as Alumni President, Mary Buckley presented Shannon College with a cheque for €8,000 towards scholarships for students starting their degree studies at Shannon College next year. The money was raised at alumni networking events throughout the year and will be provided as scholarships to students requiring financial assistance to pursue third level education. 

 Shannon College Alumni have been making their mark on the Irish and international hotel industries for 60 years. The current alumni network has over 2,000 members reaching across 49 countries worldwide. The incoming president, Maurice Bergin, graduated from Shannon College of Hotel Management in 1981 and has over 30 years’ experience in the hospitality sector ranging from hotels, restaurants, guesthouses, marketing, lecturing, food hygiene management and more recently as an environmental specialist. He is currently the Managing Director of Hospitality Solutions Consulting Ltd. and Managing Director of Green Hospitality Programme.

€8,000 Scholarship Presented by Alumni to Shannon College

Phillip J. Smyth (Director, Shannon College), Mary Buckley (Outgoing Alumni President), Kate O’Connell (Registrar, Shannon College), Maurice Bergin (Incoming Alumni President)

Limerick Based Graduates Attend the Chain Handover Ceremony

Elaina Fitzgerald (Fitzgerald’s Woodland House Hotel), Denis Deery (Carlton Castletroy Park Hotel),  Roger Beck (Parkway Shopping Centre), Maurice Bergin (Hospitality Solutions Consulting Ltd), Phillip J. Smyth (Shannon College), Ralph Parkes (Fine Wines & Parkes Properties), Donnacha Hurley (Absolute Hotel & Spa), Henry Anderson  (Bacchus Wines) Tracy Hegarty (Shannon College), Kate O’Connell (Shannon College), Mary Buckley (Tifco Hotels), David Fitzgerald (Fitzgerald’s Woodland House Hotel), Mary Bergin (Airport Lodge Cork) 

At Irish Hospitality Institute Founders’ Banquet and Hospitality Management Awards last week, Shannon College graduates received the top awards across many categories: 

Lewis Quinn
Graduate of 2010
Hospitality Graduate of the Year

Gillian Chambers
Graduate of 1993
Human Resources Manager of the Year

Shane Downey
Graduate of 2005
Young Hospitality Manager of the Year

Edward Stephenson
Graduate of 1989
Enrolled to the College of Fellows

Anthony Moloney
Graduate of 1999
Nominated for Environmental Manager of the Year

The prestigious awards ceremony was held at the Four Seasons Hotel, Dublin and were presided over by this year’s President of the IHI, Fergal O’Connell. Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Leo Varadkar, T.D. was the Guest of Honour and officially opened the ceremony, commenting “hospitality is the bedrock of the tourism industry, so it’s only appropriate to honour those who have made an outstanding contribution in this field over the past year. The nominees, and the recipients, have achieved the highest levels of excellence in the hospitality sector.”

Photograph
Back Row L to R: 
Phillip J. Smyth (Director, Shannon College), Deborah O’Hanlon (Placement and Operations Manager, Shannon College)
Front Row, L to R:
Shane Downey (Graduate of 2005), Gillian Chambers (Graduate of 1993), Lewis Quinn (Graduate of 2010)

15 Students Graduate from the Seychelles Tourism Academy

Seychelles Nation Newspaper Article
05/08/2011:

The principal of the Seychelles Tourism Academy (STA), Flavien Joubert, has said the completion of the hotel management course constitutes “another success story” for our country.

He said as the first group of a very high-profile course, the 15 students who graduated on Wednesday faced many challenges, which they overcame and four years later, are ready to move on to the next step, which is the Bachelors degree at Shannon College of Hotel management, in Ireland.

Mr Joubert recalled that at the launching of the Seychelles Tourism Brand at Val de Pres on August 7 last year, in the presence of hotel and tourism facilitators as well as trade partners, President James Michel also shared his vision for the industry with all of us. The President, Mr Joubert called on Seychellois to take the opportunities offered by the tourism industry and be more involved. The President also said that great success stories stem from the passion to make dreams come true.

“Graduates, remember these words from President Michel always, as they will guide you along your path to become the first pioneers of hotel management professionals trained in our own country,” Mr Joubert said.

The group started with a mixture of A-Level students, straight from the School of Advanced Level Studies and mature students from the industry.

“We have seen your group blend well together during the last four years and we have seen you grow up and develop into very mature ladies and gentlemen,” Mr Joubert told the graduates.

The Bachelors degree at Shannon College will start next month. Once again, Mr Joubert urged the graduates to learn, study well and results will follow. He had special thanks and appreciation to the Seychelles Government, the chief executive of the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB), Alain St Ange and deputy chief executive Elsia Grandcourt who supported the programme fully and believed in what the STA was doing.

The Registrar of Shannon College, Kate O’Connell, said she was delighted and honoured to attend the first graduation ceremony of the advanced diploma in hospitality management at the STA and to be able to grant the students an exemption into the final year of the Bachelor studies in international hotel management at Shannon College.

She said Shannon College was established in 1951 – 60 years ago. There are now almost 2,000 graduates working all over the world in senior management positions. A recent graduate of 2010 is presently night manager at the Four Seasons Hotel on Mahe. She said the founder of the College, Dr Brendan O’Reagan, believed that tourism would be one of the drivers that would increase the prosperity of Ireland. Ms O’Connell said that over the past year, many of her colleagues have visited STA to teach students and work with developing staff capacity and sustainability in both quality assurance and academic areas.

She quoted from Seychelles Strategy 2017 which states “The success of the industry will be achieved by restructuring the existing hotel school as a centre of tourism excellence. It will be dedicated to meeting the needs and skills requirements of the industry and to further development of the Seychellois labour force. Increased Seychellois holding of equity in the tourism industry, the growth of a Seychellois managerial class and the world class standards fostered by the centre of excellence will result in improvements in the perception of a career in the tourism industry.”

Ms O’Connell told the graduates that the country has invested a huge financial investment in their ability.

“You must give something back – I look forward to the day when you become key hotel managers in Seychelles.”

In a vote of thanks, graduate Vanessa Albest thanked the government for giving the green light to implement this course, thus creating opportunities for future hospitality professionals. She noted that STA principal Joubert was always there pushing for this course; seeking the resources that are needed, engaging the hotels so that they become more involved and acknowledge the students as future team leaders and managers in their organisations.

“When we say promoting, we mean it, because Mr Joubert is a very enthusiastic person.”

Vanessa also thanked the lecturers, especially Terence Max and Stella Bergmann.

“You were there during both the good and bad times, supporting us and pushing us forward.”

During the four-year course, this first cohort of hotel management students also served on attachments to several top hotels. These are the Banyan Tree, Beachcomber St Anne, Constance Lemuria, Four Seasons, Northolme Hilton and Alamanda T-Club.

LINK TO SEYCHELLES NATION