Dusit Thani College, Thailand’s leading hospitality education institution under the Dusit Thani Hotel Group, has annually participated in the PHIST or Phuket Hotels for Islands Sustaining Tourism event, which this year was recently held at SAii Laguna Phuket Hotel.
PHIST is an innovative event rallying the hotel industry and its stakeholders to discuss environmental sustainability and community benefit. It is a collaboration between the Phuket Hotels Association, Greenview and C9 Hotelworks. On this occasion, Dusit Thani College, led by Simon David Lloyd, Executive Dean Hospitality Management and John Lohr, Executive Director of External Affairs, along with international students from the Hospitality Management and Professional Culinary Arts programs hosted a workshop titled “Engaging with Education to Deliver Social Sustainability and Develop, Retain your Talents” which was tell attended by GMs and industry partners of the Phuket Hotel Association.
In the program Simon and John discussed the direction that education is heading in and how employers can engage with education providers, like Dusit Thani Collete to equip and inspire faculty and students with the latest trends and innovations in hospitality. The session also highlighted the potential opportunities for hospitality operators to secure a sustainable skilled workforce while at the same time, delivering meaningful impacts to the communities within they operate.
The presentation was enhanced by a panel of Dusit Thani College students from the Professional Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management programs who shared their opinions of why they chose to study hospitality, what career they are looking for and what they look for in future employers which was well received by the audience. The presentation then ended with an information session for the new Dusit Hospitality Academy, a skill based, short course training program designed to deliver real world practical skills and knowledge to enable career starters, switchers or climbers to join or advance in the hospitality industry.
Simon and Jogn also participated and led discussions with students and youth from Phuket schools and universities hosted by Lecturers from Prince of Sonkla University where they inspired young students to brainstorm ideas on how they can bring more sustainable practices to hotels on Phuket Island.
In addition to the workshop Simon and John networked with hospitality companies, healthcare providers and world organizations such as the World Travel and Tourism Council and PATA to further build the College’s connections with the wider hospitality industry and to make other collaborations in the future.
