The Hotel, Catering and Tourism Training Institute (HOTCATT) has graduated 69 students who pursued various courses at the institution.
The graduates undertook courses in Front Office Services, Kitchen Skills, Tour Guiding Skills, Food and Beverages services, House Keeping Skills, Conference Banqueting as well as Event Management and Restaurant Management.
They were made up of 37 students who completed in May 2022 and 32 others who completed in November of the same year.
The graduation ceremony held last Friday was on the theme: “Employment Through Tourism and Hospitality Training”.
At the event, the Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mark Okraku-Mantey, called on the graduates to prioritise customer service to boost their profession.
According to him, customer service was essential for customer satisfaction.
“That is the only way you can sustain your business; the more your business gets sustained the more your income goes up,” he said.
Mr Okraku-Mantey admonished graduands to treat customers like the way they would like to be treated, adding that each service encountered by a customer must be worth remembering.
“Unfortunately there are people who will visit your hotels and other places and would go back not happy and would not keep quiet.
So make sure to treat customers to the extent nobody would have anything bad to say about you,“ he emphasised.
Mr Okraku-Mantey urged the graduates to see customer service as a necessity that should form a key part of their businesses.
Employability
The Principal Accountant of HOTCATT, Elsie Klufio, noted that employability was central to the school’s objective as it aimed to equip students adequately to meet the challenges of hospitality and tourism industry.
Ms Klufio said HOTCATT had provided the graduates with the appropriate practical lessons to enhance their understanding through experiential learning.
“Graduation certainly does close the door on one era and begins a new one but our doors will always remain open to you and HOTCATT will always remain your intellectual home,” she said.
The National Executive Secretary of the Ghana Tourism Federation, Caleb Kofie, urged the graduates to be conscious of the kind of attitude they adopted since that would make a difference in their career.
He, therefore, emphasised the need for a change in attitude as far as customer service was concerned, adding that “good attitude was the only way to get to the top and maintain your spots”.
The Valedictorians, Mary Yawson and Martha Narh, expressed their gratitude to the institute for nurturing them and creating an enabling environment for their academic success.