Deal seals school for hospitality workers
Budding Hong Kong hospitality workers are set to benefit after tycoon Henry Fok Ying-tung and the Vocational Training Centre teamed up yesterday to establish a training school in Guangdong.
The Fok Ying Tung Foundation and the centre signed a letter of intent to set up the school in the Nansha district of Panyu , Guangzhou. The foundation will provide the school building, while the centre will provide advisory services such as staff training, and course content and facilities.
Both Hong Kong and mainland students will be eligible after the deal for the Nansha Ying Tung School of Hospitality was signed at the Institute of Vocational Education in Chai Wan.
Foundation representative Ian Fok Chun-wan said the aim was to provide students with knowledge of the hospitality industry, including catering and tourism.
There were still no detailed plans, however. Mr Fok said: 'We are still at the beginning, it depends on our scale of operation and we need to take it step by step.'
He said the foundation planned to set up practical courses to meet the mainland's growing demand.
The school will be housed in a two-storey, 10,000-square-metre former furniture store in the foundation's Nansha Economic and Technology development zone. The school plans to provide 2,000 full-time higher diploma places.
The institute's acting vice-principal, Lillian Wong Sin-ying, said the upper floor would become classrooms, while the lower floor would be used for practical work.
Centre executive director Carrie Willis said the school would award certificates valid both in Hong Kong and on the mainland.
This would require research into syllabuses that could take one to two years, after which an application to launch the school could be filed.
