Costa opens its on-board hotel training academy

Genoa - The new Academy for Advanced On-Board Hotel Training opened at its prestigious Villa Figoli Des Geneys di Arenzano (Genova) facility. It will be the first school in Italy dedicated exclusively to the training of hotel professionals who will work on passenger ships: cooks, pastry chefs, bakers, event leaders, client service specialists and other roles linked to on-board hospitality and entertainment. The initiative was created through collaboration between the Region of Liguria, the City of Arenzano and the Fondazione ITS Accademia Italiana Marina Mercantile, which will operate the school with the goal of promoting Italian excellence in the on-board hospitality sector. One very important part of the new school’s activities will be dedicated to the cruise sector, thanks to the “Italian Cruise Hospitality Academy” project, through which Costa Cruises will partner with Fondazione ITS Accademia Italiana Marina Mercantile. There are already four courses available as part of this project. The Technical Higher Education (ITS) course for the training of on-board pastry chefs and bakers, financed by the Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR), and aimed at young people seeking employment, will have an overall duration of about 1 and a half years and will alternate classroom training experience with on-board apprenticeships. There will be 22 places available, and Costa Cruises has committed to hire at least 70 per cent of the trainees who successfully complete the training programme. Registration will be open until 9 January 2017, and classes are scheduled to begin in February 2017. Three more courses, financed by the Region of Liguria and the European Social Fund, for which registration closed in February 2016, are designed to train tourist event leaders, client service specialists and cooks, and offer 60 places (20 per course), which are reserved for those over 24 years old and seeking employment. The duration of the courses will range from 300 to 415 hours, with guaranteed hiring by Costa for 60% of the eligible students. Registration is already open for the event leader and client service specialist courses, and will end in mid-January 2016, with the courses starting in February 2017: these will be the first students to enjoy the new equipment and facilities at Villa Figoli. Registration for cooks will start in mid-February 2017.