NEW GOLD STANDARD IN HOSPITALITY STUDIES ARRIVES

In response to growing market demand, paired with a growing global shift to a service-focused and experience economy, the IIE has established the IIE School of Hospitality & Service Management. 

Through the school, The IIE seeks to specifically address the rapidly expanding need for service, hospitality and customer-centric education, spanning entry-level through to management-level qualifications. 

Says Renee Hill, MD of The IIE School of Hospitality & Service Management: “The IIE School of Hospitality & Service Management represents the embodiment of a new gold standard in industry-aligned service and hospitality-focused qualifications, each underpinned by a strong commercial learning foundation. 

"Graduates will complete their qualifications with the relevant knowledge, skills and experiential learning to make them day-one contributors at their employers of choice," she says.

Qualified students will be able to enter a multitude of positions within companies, including sales, marketing, accountancy, HR, consultation, product development and more. All these are roles that require a strong customer-centric attitude and employees who understand client interface and can handle various crises and diversity. 

“The opportunities for graduates are limitless,” adds Candice Adams, Academic Manager. 

The IIE School of Hospitality and Service Management will commence with its inaugural intake in 2021 and offer two courses at its campuses in Rosebank, Johannesburg and Stellenbosch in the Western Cape. The IIE Higher Certificate in Hospitality Management is a full-time one-year course with intakes in March and July 2021. It also creates a pathway to enroll for the IIE degree. The IIE Bachelor of Hospitality Management is a three-year degree course with intakes in March and July 2021. Both qualifications meet international standards.

The IIE School of Hospitality and Service Management will leverage all the past experience, expertise and foundation of excellence established by the Independent Institute of Education across a wide variety of business, management and similar qualifications already developed within the IIE Faculty of Commerce. With the establishment of the new school, the IIE seeks to extend the impact and influence of commercial service management focused qualifications and training beyond the traditional and immediate realm of the hospitality sector to include a far broader array of service centric industries.

Hospitality graduates of leading global hospitality institutions have long been sought to fill senior roles in service-focused sectors as they bring with them a strong commercial acumen, an understanding of high pressure environments and most importantly a customer-focused and service-centric empathy and work-ethic that makes them highly adept at navigating customer experience driven industry roles.

Through the IIE School of Hospitality and Service Management, the IIE is determined to deliver global standard graduates into the expansive career opportunities available to graduates who earn a more comprehensive and expansive qualification encompassing both the hospitality and service management disciplines.