Introduction

The Episcopal Technological and Vocational Training center and the Arab Evangelical School are taking big steps forward this year. We started the first Hotel Secondary School in the West Bank with a challenge of creating new opportunities in the hospitality industry in Palestine. These are firm steps in providing young ladies and gentlemen an enriched and valuable profession and education, as well as serving the needs of the hospitality industry in Palestine. The hospitality industry is known for its customer service, but we can see that at times, professional training of personnel in the industry has been lacking and narrow in scope.

Only very few schools and universities developed programs in hospitality management programs in Palestine. The ETVTC with AES worked so hard together to start the first hotel school in Ramallah by the beginning of the school year 2008-2009. At our school we will work on professional training with a solid foundation of general education to truly serve the needs of the students. We hope that the knowledge that each young student receives from his/her study at the ETVTC enables him/her to be a strong and qualified and able to work well in his career.

Mission statement

To be a leading Palestinian high school specialized in hospitality education, aiming to educate and train students from different educational backgrounds and are interested in the hospitality industry, to raise the hospitality standards and to meet the needs of the industry.

Goals

• Supply the Palestinian labour market with qualified, well trained young people that will meet the industry requirements.
• To provide students with a graduate degree or apprentice that will give them financial security.
• Be a leading Palestinian Hospitality High school.
• Develop a modern curricula and training materials.
• Attract the students from all the Palestinian regions.

Our plan for success

At the ETVTC and AES, we will offer a comprehensive and balanced program of study for the 11th and the 12th grades, where academic learning is mixed with professional experience, making our students distinguished in the General Secondary School system and able to get the Tawjihi certificate after finishing the 12th grade, and also ready to join the labour market and the hospitality industry itself.

Program of study

Our program is spread over two years, starting by the 11th grade students and ending by the 12th grade students. The program will consist of four regular semesters including summer training in one of the Hotels or Restaurants in the area of Ramallah. The curriculum is designed by the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education.

Hotel Services program

During the past few years a number of new hotels have been built and new restaurants opened in Ramallah. In 2005, the ETVTC created a restaurant service and hotel program to train cooks and food and beverage service workers for these facilities.

Students in the cooking program learn how to plan menus, to obtain ingredients, and prepare menu items. The areas covered include both cooking and baking. Food and beverage service students also learn how to properly staff, setup, work and serve beverages and food in hotel and restaurant dining areas. On-the-job training is provided by the preparation of meals for the guest house and dining room operated by the center and internships at local hotels and restaurants.

The Center intends to expand this program to provide training in other aspects of hotel service employment based on marketplace need.

ETVTC work with the facilities:

• A hospitality library.
• Modern hospitality laboratories.
• An onsite laundry facility.
• A hotel reception.
• A housekeeping simulator.
• A modern fully equipped and furnished theory classroom.

The future facilities:

• A simple kitchen with the basic equipments and tools.
• A basic dinning room with seating capacity of 80 guests.
• A simple furnished guesthouse (15 rooms) with accommodation capacity of 40 guests.