Zimbabwe Students to Study Hospitality at Lake Garda Hotel School
From Zimbabwe to Lake Garda to learn the art of welcoming tourists. There will be 13, possibly 15 students from the African country who will come to study at the hotel management institute in Bardolino. For them, the high school will create a dedicated class, where teachers will speak in English.
This was the announcement, in some ways unique (there is no news of a similar initiative in Italy), made by the leaders of the Lake’s hotel management school, following the visit of Zimbabwe’s ambassador, Margaret Muchada. Two days ago, after ongoing negotiations between the two countries, she visited the school facility hosted by principal Maria Teresa Lugheri and vice Domenico Bongiovanni.
Agreement between Italy and Zimbabwe
The architect of the agreement, which will open new scenarios in the relations between Verona and the African country, was Fernando Morando, advisor to the Chamber of Commerce and delegate overseeing the tourism sector, and a candidate to become the next provincial president of Asco Unione.
“Zimbabwe is a beautiful country with immense tourism potential in terms of its natural landscapes,” Morando explained. “Their facilities aren’t bad either—they need to build new ones, but they inherited some very beautiful hotel complexes from the English. Their main problem is that they lack a leadership class capable of managing these complexes, they are missing skilled cooks and all those high-level figures that are the core of a four-star hotel or a fine dining restaurant.”
From this need arose the mission to train a group of young people, which we recognized and were quick to address. This class, composed solely of African students, should be established already for the next school year, or at the latest in spring 2002, once all bureaucratic procedures are completed.
Details of the training project
The project, which should also involve the Verona Chamber of Commerce, will include internships in hotels and restaurants, giving students the opportunity to gain experience and earn a salary at the same time. “But what matters,” explained the ambassador, “is that Verona exports its professionalism abroad and that these young people can create a future in their homeland.”
In Zimbabwe, we have a very large lake called Kariba. When I saw your Garda, I immediately told Mr. Morando that we must initiate new contacts to soon reach a twinning agreement between Garda and Kariba.
Enrico Merenda, former president of the Garda Tourism Promotion Agency and currently a teacher at the hotel management institute in Bardolino, was also present at the meeting. “The project is very valuable and will include the activation of specific courses for these young people. We have opened a path that can be expanded in the future, transforming the institute into an international tourism training center.”
Trade relations and future activities
The ambassador’s visit also provided an opportunity to explore another aspect of what could be future commercial relations between Verona and Zimbabwe: the processing of granite produced by the vast quarries in the African country.
Regarding this, Guglielmo Fedrigoli, president of the Videomarmoteca of Dolcè, showed Ms. Muchada the newly inaugurated structure. “I received confirmation of the high technological level Verona possesses, which has already been successfully exported worldwide.”
In Zimbabwe, granite exports (of excellent quality) are controlled by a cartel of American companies, but if Verona is willing to bring its know-how here to help us export processed products, we could break this monopoly.
