Sandals Corporate University signs MOU with TCI Community College
Sandals Corporate University is now an official partner of the Turks and Caicos Islands Community College (TCICC) and the two will be working together to create hospitality specific courses to equip students.
During the MOU signing on April 29, Rachel Taylor, Minister of Education, Youth, and Sport, explained the process, describing it as a visionary initiative,
“Through this collaboration TCICC and SCU will jointly develop and implement training content tailored specifically to the needs of the hospitality industry covering crucial areas such as rooms, food and beverage service, field management, watersports and technical and mechanical training.”
The Minister explained that the custom-made curriculum would also be enriched further by experts from Sandals and Beaches Resorts via guest lectures.
In addition to that up to 100 TCICC interns will be placed at Sandals Resorts for experience annually; lecturers at the TCICC will also be given resort experience periodically to make sure that they’re using the most modern teaching methods.
“This is not just a formal agreement but a shared commitment to the future of our people both young and seasoned; and the robust growth of our hospitality and tourism industry,” Taylor said.
She was backed up by Adam Stewart, Chairman of Sandals Group International
“You will have 100% support from my office,” he promised
Adam Stewart, Chairman of Sandals Group International
Stewart who flew in for the event explained that the idea for a joint teaching space had come about over a lunch of conch chowder with TCI officials, including the Governor, only months earlier.
”The best thing you can do for the people of the Caribbean has got to be education. We have seen time and time again, division by division and island by island across the Caribbean, where we invest in people, we see [returns],” Stewart said.
He highlighted that SCU is the first hotel-led Corporate University in the Western Hemisphere and now connected to the Turks and Caicos Islands Community College (TCICC). Beaches Turks and Caicos is the largest hospitality employer in the country and is currently understaffed and in need of hundreds more workers.
“I’ve never seen an MOU come together faster, I’ve never seen the private in public it to work together in [such] a way which to me signals how serious this is,” Stewart said.
The MOU was signed by Dr Luz Longsworth (on behalf of Sandals) witnessed by Stewart and Washington Misick, TCI Premier.
Attending the event was a host of dignitaries including Dileeni Daniel Selvaratnam, TCI Governor, Jamell Robinson, Deputy Premier and Minister of Physical Planning and Infrastructure Development, Josephine Connollly, Minister of Tourism, other ministers, TCICC executives and Sandals officials.
