4 minute read
RECORD LEVEL OF TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES
from Hotel SA July 2024
by Boylen
From the CEO
The AHA|SA is committed to raising the bar when it comes to industry training and development. The complexity of managing a modern hotel, the pace of change and ever-evolving compliance demands mean that today’s hotel owner or manager and indeed their staff need to commit to “lifelong learning”.
Our goal is to help you gain a competitive edge in the increasingly competitive hospitality sector. This of course can be an expensive exercise, which is why we are committed to sourcing as much funding as possible to deliver as many services as we can either free of charge or at a heavily subsidised rate.
In this column, I want to provide a short overview of the broad suite of free services/training that we currently have on offer at the moment.
Small Business Fundamental Program:
Financial Management, Cash Flow & Budgeting. Particularly valuable for those businesses looking to solidify their understanding of the fundamentals of business and cash flows and is tailored to the hotel industry. This is timely in the wake of COVID and now the cost of living crisis.
Leadership & Management. This has been particularly successful. Sessions are being regularly booked out in record time. We are looking to see if we can source additional funding to enable us to continue to run these sessions.
Digital Marketing. These sessions are aimed at leaders or managers in small and family businesses. Topics range from website user experience and SEO, to social media and integrating digital into your marketing plan.
Hospitality Focused Sustainability Workshop. This is being delivered with 2XE as part of the Small Business Sustainability Support program and follows the successful launch of the Sustainability Guide for the SA Hotel Industry (Green Industries SA). It’s an interactive and practical workshop designed to help you to get the most out of the Guide and how to implement it.
The Guide has been extraordinarily well received. It’s easy to understand and packed with ways to easily make your business more sustainable and save money through the introduction of sustainable practices.
Bystander Intervention Training. Practical training for owners, operators and staff tailored to the hotel industry and designed to provide strategies to identify and address inappropriate conduct within venues. This training will take you from Bystander to Upstander.
Customer Conflict Resolution Training (Maybo). Extremely practical, this is another course that has been very popular.
Mental Health First Aid Training (Breakthough Mental Health Research Foundation). We care about the mental health of everyone in our industry, including patrons and guests. I’m pleased to report that this workshop continues to be very popular.
Government Funding
The team at the AHA|SA has done a very professional job in securing funding for these initiatives.
We are very grateful to the government for their contribution.
Now I urge members to overwhelmingly support these workshops so that we continue to receive funding in the future.
Regional Needs
In developing these programs, we have made sure they are being delivered in our regions, either in person or online.
It’s been noted before that rural areas face unique challenges in finding and developing staff.
This is one part of the solution.
Think of Your Staff
While you may not need these courses at the present moment, think of your team.
Giving them the time to participate is an investment in making your hotel a better place to visit.
Upskilling leads to great productivityand profitability. And well-trained staff also translates to fewer problems and people who can grasp new opportunities.
The Future
The training we offer will continue to be needs-based and targeted to the hotel industry.
We are now providing the strongest suite of free training and services in AHA |SA history.
But watch this space because we will be releasing details of even more initiatives in the months ahead.
