The Gambia Hotel School (GHS) in collaboration with the Organisation for Tourism and Hospitality Management (OTHM), UK, last Thursday, injected new internationally recognised professional programme into the school curriculum, at an occasion held in the school premises in  Kanifing.  

The new integrated course is part of the strategy to increase the variety of courses at the GHS and as well, to introduce professional management certificates and diplomas to satisfy current local demands in the tourism and hospitality industry in The Gambia. This new programme was introduced to the school by Tim Murari, chief executive officer and director of Marketing and Planning, Omar Kolley, OTHM international education consultant and Daniel Ivanov, key account manager of OTHM headoffice.

Speaking at the occasion, Tim Murari said OTHM is happy to collaborate with the GHS. He said their intention is to bring added value to The Gambia Hotel school and make it internationally recognised, which will allow students to contribute more to the tourism industry. According to him, these new programme that were designed to add to the existing  programmes of the hotel school, will increase the output of trained personnel both in quality and quantity. He said the course will commence in July 2009.

Kaliba Senghore, permanent secretary at the department of state for Tourism and Culture described the introduction of this course as a good development for the tourism industry hence the need to up grade the hotel school cannot be over- emphasised. He commended the school for the excellent and quality training they are offering their students. He however noted that at this moment “the school can only accommodate 120 students annually while they are receiving over 1000 applicants.

This is due to the quality of training offered compared to other training institutes.”  He added that tourism contributes a lot to the economy of The Gambia which is about 16 per cent of the GDP. “This is a very high percentage in any country’s economy. Therefore, this is one of the right steps in a good direction and hopefully within the next 12-24 months GHS will become a vibrant institute where high calibre staff will be trained.” He assured the school of necessary support from the government that will enable them to meet up their demand.