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Fresh faces have been added to the Kempinski Grand & Ixir Hotel Bahrain City Centre team in a bid to encourage Bahrainis to join the hospitality sector and a chance to gain experience in the field.
The five-star luxury towers rang in the New Year with the Teen Concierge initiative, which provides students from across the kingdom with training, confidence and people skills.
The concept came about when Kempinski’s general manager, Puneet Singh, saw a similar idea at one of the hotels in the US during his travels and believed it would work well in the kingdom. Now, the Bahrain-based hotel is the first of its chain to launch this programme with six candidates already learning the ropes.
Mr Singh said: “The feedback from both the guests and the teens themselves has been fantastic. The teens and their parents too, can be proud of themselves. They are doing a great job and demonstrating a wonderful can-do attitude with a nice smile to compliment it!
“The benefits of this are many-fold. The enhanced guest experience will enforce our position as the leading family hotel in Bahrain even further. We also want to position ourselves as an employer of choice for the locals.
“Additionally, we are happy to provide the future generation, who will lead this country, with beneficial work experience.”
Candidates were chosen during an event staged at the Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre. Secondary school pupils attended the exhibition to get a better idea of what they wanted to do in life and gain some work experience.
Mr Singh said: “We spoke to the pupils about the project and took the details of those interested. We then invited them, together with their parents, to attend a presentation at the hotel where we explained the initiative in detail.
“Then they did a couple of days of job observation to ensure that this is what they really wanted to do and finally they attended an intense, custom-designed orientation course made by our training department.”
After the process was complete, Ghali Trakgi, 16, Yasser Alali, 18, Adel Nadeem, 19, were eager to put on their green polo shirts with the Kempinski logo and ready to assist guests with whatever they needed, using their local knowledge to its full potential.
Ghali, a student at Muharraq Secondary School, from Muharraq is pleased to have joined the team. He said: “I have done different things such as help the bellboys and assist guests on where to go for entertainment or tell them what movie is playing in the mall. I am planning on studying this field at university.”
Yasser, a student at Hamad Town Secondary School, from Hamad Town added: “This could be a future career for me. I am gaining really good experience and it’s great to add to my resume. I love seeing the smile on the guests’ faces. Customer service is very important in this industry.
“My parents are proud of me. Now I know what to expect when I start working.”
Adel, who studies at Bahrain Vocational School, from Isa Town loves to meet new people and found this programme the perfect fit for him.
Adel said: “My favourite part about working at Kempinski, aside from it being such a big name, is interacting with the staff and guests. I am learning so much from them and am showing tourists the beauty of Bahrain through my eyes.
“I don’t just help guests with their luggage, I advise them on where to go if asked. This has been such a great experience so far. It truly breaks the misconception that many people have in the Middle East about working in the hospitality business.”
The teens work during the weekend from 10am to 6pm and the hotel intends to keep the budding venture up and running.
Mr Singh said: “Being locals, the teens know their country and of course, very importantly, they speak Arabic, which is fantastic, as so many of our guests are Arabic speakers.
“The work contracts with the teens are open-ended and they can stay with us as long as they want. We expect the concierges to change every now and then due to the fact that they are students and will move onto higher education, which will obviously open the positions for other students.
“Their work experience with us will enrich their skills and of course it allows them to earn some pocket money too. As hoteliers we also hope that some of them will choose hospitality as their future career path! For anybody interested we are always happy to receive CVs, even if we don’t have a position available at the time, we will most certainly keep them on file.”
Aside from the Teen Concierge project, the hotel has embarked on another initiative with Tamkeen and Third Wave International (TWI), which seeks to empower young Bahrainis with training and provide them with employment.
After a tough interview process, including an ‘experiential interview’, the chosen candidates are provided with training of an international standard.
The institutions providing training will include William Angliss, an institute ranked among the top five hotel management schools in the world. Upon completion, the applicants will receive a certificate and become members of the Kempinski team. The globally-renowned hotel chain is present in over 30 countries and has a total workforce consisting of over 30,000 employees around the world.
Mr Singh said: “We are excited to be part of this pilot project to recruit and train Bahrainis into the growing field of hospitality in the kingdom. As Europe’s oldest hospitality group we have a wealth of knowledge to share, developed over 116 years that we have been in operation. For young Bahrainis interested in hospitality there is no better stepping stone than this programme to begin their career as hoteliers. We look forward to welcoming the first candidates into the programme.”
For details, contact 17171000 or visit www.kempinski.com/Bahrain.
