The William Angliss Institute entered into an agreement with Crown Sri Lanka Resort to provide hospitality training through the Colombo Academy of Hospitality Management (CAHM) recently.

“The agreement is a very open one whereby the CAHM will provide the basic training in hospitalityrelated services to Crown Sri Lanka Resort, provided the project continues. William Angliss has already had some experience working both with Crown and the casino sector in terms of hospitality training requirements,” William Angliss Institute (WIA) Manager Strategic Project Development Jim Irwin stated.

Currently, Crown Sri Lanka Resort is expected to have a staff requirement of approximately 2,500 employees. It is estimated that the CAHM may handle as much as 60 percent of the resort’s training requirements.

“At present, the Malabe campus has a maximum capacity of around 300 students and we having just started courses in January this year we have about 150 students enrolled; however, if the partnership with Crown is to go ahead, it is highly likely that we will have to expand facilities to deal with this new demand,” Irvin noted.

He added that basic training across a wide area of specialization from guest relations to grooming and other soft skills would be provided by the CAHM while noting that casino-specific skills would be handled by Crown itself.

Increased student intakes as a result of the agreement may also see the CAHM entering into short-term leases for new facilities in Colombo.

The establishment of new casinos in Sri Lanka has become a politically charged issue in recent months due to concerns from religious leaders over moral and cultural implications for Sri Lanka, in addition to criticism over tax concessions for the Crown project in particular by opposition political parties.

Nevertheless, Irwin, who is himself a graduate of the William Angliss Institute and supervises training programmes in the casino and nightlife hotspot of Macau, stated that the establishment of a Crown resort in Sri Lanka would be a positive development for Sri Lanka’s tourism industry.

“Our experience with Crown has been that they are committed to long-term growth. In Melbourne Crown made significant investments in training in order to uplift standards and it is likely that they will do the same in Sri Lanka if the project proceeds.

The hotel itself is designed for approximately 450 rooms and with higher standards it is quite likely that the resort will attract tourists over its room capacity. This will have a positive spillover effect for hotels in Colombo and the rest of the island,” Irvin predicted.

Irvin further noted that the establishment of a Crown property in Sri Lanka, in combination with the continuing growth of the island as an all-round tourist destination, would likely serve to drive service quality within the industry.

Australian Cricket Captain, Michael Clarke, will also serve as Crown Education Ambassador to Sri Lanka, a move which Irvin stated would help to draw more youth into the service industry. “It is a very clever strategic move to appoint Michael Clarke as education ambassador to Sri Lanka. The service industry is capable of providing significant opportunities for those looking to develop a career path and this will be an innovative way of delivering the message to the Sri Lankan youth,” Irvin observed.

The CAHM is a joint venture between the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) and the William Angliss Institute and represents the internationally renowned hospitality school’s first presence in the South Asian region.