Zendai Opens Hotel Training Institute in Shanghai

The Shanghai-based Zendai Group has opened one of China’s largest in-house training institutes for hotel professionals in a purpose-built facility close to the Himalayas Center in Pudong, Shanghai. Zendai Hotels will open two Shanghai hotels in 2010, the Zendai Hotel Yin and Zendai Art Hotel.

The new center offers an hospitality curriculum which has a strong focus on art and culture, as well as international standard training in hotel management and operations - from housekeeping and front office, to F&B and spa therapy. Students can also gain a deep understanding of Chinese culture through courses in tea knowledge, martial arts, seasonal nutrition and wellness, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), calligraphy, painting, Chinese opera, I Ching, floral arrangement and Chinese music appreciation.

State-of-the-art facilities within Zendai Hotel Institute include: a professional demonstration kitchen and bar, language laboratory, computer lab, six classrooms and an exercise studio. There is also a 260-bed residence offering students free accommodation and meals.

Trainees are recruited from vocational schools and universities across China based on strict selection criteria. After between three and twelve months of “Zendai Himalayas style” training, the best graduates will be offered full-time employment at the Zendai Hotel Yin or Zendai Art Hotel.

Zendai Hotel Institute will also interact with the local community by offering short vocational courses in food preparation, housekeeping and Chinese culture for domestic helpers, private cooks and butlers.

“We want to lead by example in showing that Chinese owners should invest money in human resources and training in order to make their operation efficient and develop the industry here so that China will become renowned for its culture of great Chinese hospitality,” said Mr. Jean Pierre Dosse, Hotel Managing Director of Shanghai Zendai Himalayas Real Estate Company Ltd. and Dean of the Zendai Hotel Institute. “Our aim within the next five years is to be the best-known hotel training ground in China and the preferred employer in the hotel industry. We hope to expand nationwide with our concept of ‘Modern Chinese Hospitality’, where art, culture and hospitality combine.”

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