DLS-CSB offers two diplomas in one degree course

MANILA, Philippines - The first batch of enrollees this June of the Hotel Restaurant and Institution Management (HRIM) of De La Salle- College of St. Benilde, whose academic partnership with Lyon, Paris-based Vatel Groupe Institut, was approved only last year by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) will be receiving two diplomas—a Filipino and French diploma—at the end of almost five years (of trimester schooling) at HRIM.

CHED approved last year on a pioneering status the DLS-CSB and Vatel partnership which will also enable students to be tutored by visiting leading French hoteliers and restaurateurs and obtain two kinds of internships—local and foreign.

Vatel and DLS-CSB held a press conference recently to announce the partnership which will be fully operational this June to enable students to be truly globally competitive and improve their employability in the tourism and hotel businesses here and abroad, said Brother Victor Franco, president of DLS-CSB. But the partnership was signed two years ago and had since been going through program refinements in anticipation of the CHED go signal.

Initially, DLS-CSB is looking at an enrollment of 15 sections with 40 (at most) students per section. “We would like to limit the enrollment to a manageable size so that we do not sacrifice curriculum content and quality of education. As far as possible, we would like to limit the student-teacher ratio to 20 to one teacher especially for the laboratory subjects,” said Dean Lettie O. Delarmente of the School of HRIM.

Vatel, the hotel management school in France was founded by Alain Sebban (himself a product of hotelier family) with 23 Vatel institutions in 14 countries. For 2009, Vatel will be opening eight more campuses in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Mauritius, Singapore, Bulgaria, Israel and others.

Sebban said in Asia, Vatel has put up campuses and partnerships in Bangkok, Delhi and Singapore and the Philippines is its fourth choice of institutional partnership. The contract between DLS-CSB and Vatel is for seven years, renewable thereafter.

Sebban said Vatel teaches the students not just to be world-class tourism and hospitality practitioners but inculcates the Vatel spirit of “service, hospitality and respect.”

The world tourism sector employed 231.2 million people or 8.3 percent of total worldwide employment and by 2017, the sector is expected to generate 262 million jobs worldwide or 8.8 percent of total employment.

 Because of the world-class teaching and facilities offered by the partnership, DLS-CSB vice president for Academic Affairs Robert Tan is confident that graduates will have 100 percent chance of getting employed in hotels, restaurants and other tourist-oriented facilities here and abroad.

DLS-CSB has been running the tourism courses and found out that students who have had internships abroad would rather return to the Philippines and serve in local hotels, restaurants or in their own family businesses, said Tan.

Delarmente said DLS-CSB has been renovating and upgrading its facilities, spending as much as P70 million last year, to ensure that students will have world-class experiences in the classrooms and internship proper.

“Our professors are also practicing industry professionals while those teaching purely from books or academics are given the basic or freshman classes to teach,” said Lhoree Valerio, a marketing professor at DLS-CSB.