The OUC recently signed a cooperation agreement with the CIBT Education Group initiating an international hotel management programme. The project aims to produce outstanding graduates in the field of hotel management in an effort to develop the high-end domestic market by introducing international curriculum resources and training methods. In order to promote this, a promotion conference on hotel management projects in Chinese radio and TV universities was held in Lianhua Hotel in Kunming, Yunnan.

The promotion conference was co-sponsored by the OUC School of Continuing Education and the China Operations Department of the CIBT subsidiary American Hotel & Lodging Association Educational Institute (AHLA-EI). Nearly 40 representatives from 15 local open universities throughout the country attended the conference.

The project leader of the AHLA-EI explained that cooperation on the international hotel management programme with the open university system includes the two modes of diploma/degree courses and certificate training. The former offers cooperative training programmes with an AHLA-EI professional certificate/diploma and diploma or degree conferred by the cooperative institution. The certificate training programme falls into the two categories of training for the domestic market and for the international market, according to the final employment of the graduate. Through systematic professional training, the students learn about management and general operations in the hotel industry and equip themselves with the capacity to do internships and get employed in high-end hotels at home and abroad.

The sponsors hoped this conference would be an opportunity to promote the cooperative training project on hotel management in the open universities via a variety of flexible cooperations. The local open university representatives agreed that the employment-oriented design of the training project is its most outstanding feature. Bilateral cooperation will introduce to the open university system the universally recognized international vocational education curriculum system, benefiting the practical exploration of international professional training in the open university system.

The AHLA-EI was founded in 1953. It is an authorized non-profit educational institute of the American Hotel & Lodging Association in vocational education, training and certification, as well as the premier institute delivering hotel management education and training programme and providing qualification appraisal services to global hotel management schools and the hotel industry. More than 13,000 global hotel groups have adopted the AHLA-EI professional qualification criteria and joined in its professional qualification licensing system. In addition, the AHLA-EI teaching materials are widely used by over 2,300 universities and colleges in the world, with credits acknowledged and interchangeable.

The OUC and CIBT Education Group signed a cooperative framework agreement on October 16th 2009 to commit themselves to several joint projects on the basis of their complementary features. The international hotel management programme is a key project launched early among the 12 projects between the OUC and Canada. After a period of bilateral consultation and market research, the project has now entered the phase of substantial promotion and implementation.

By Chen Haishan, OUC