The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE Tribune Business Reporter nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net WITH the completed $3.5 billion Baha Mar mega resort to add 6,000 new jobs, Baha Mar's senior vice-president of administration and external affairs Robert Sands said Baha Mar has initiated multiple outreach programs to impact potential hires as its Training and Service Academy develops. Mr Sands told Tribune Business: "The service academy is a critical part of the preparation in the beginning stage of this process but also the nurturing and retraining in the ongoing stage. "It will sensitise persons about the offerings of job opportunities when we open and before we open to become a part of it. We are working towards the organisation of the Baha Mar Service and Training Academy. That organisation is being evolved and developed but in the interim we have been doing a number of training initiatives in a variety of areas," Mr Sands said noting that the academy will be headed by Kristen Wells. Mr Sands said Baha Mar has already been doing training in conjunction with the Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute (BTVI) the Bahamas Contractors Association (BCA) and other organisation. "We have done some with BTVI, the BCA and we have also done a number internally for existing and current staff. We have done multiple outreach programs to impact potential hires under Baha Mar." He added: "We are reaching out to kids to grade 10 and 11 at this stage advising them of opportunities so they can focus their career paths toward hospitality related training or a discipline that can be matched within our sector and that's over 1000 job opportunities. Our whole role would be to have persons go through what we call the micro-training in the area of hospitality skills, social, skills, basic etiquette, basic disciplines that we would then thereby create a pool of potential hires for these brands to then pull from and then do the final decision for hiring going forward." Baha Mar will spend about $8 million for the establishment of the academy as well as the operational training and retraining once it is established. The mega resort which is scheduled to open in 2014 will offer some of the world's most famous hotel brands, including Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, Morgans Hotel Group (Mondrian Hotels) and Hyatt Hotel and Resorts. The four hotels will bring on stream more than 2,200 new rooms.