Happy New Year once again and wishing all of our students and clients a prosperous 2008!!
What a great year 2007 was, and with 2008 promising to be even more so I thought I might start off by re-capping some of the main events of 2007 and providing an outline of major projects underway for 2008.
Throughout the year we continued to work closely with our Industry Advisory Board resulting in the school organising the first Hospitality and Tourism
Careers Village, which took place at the Perth Convention and Exhibition
Centre. This event, the first of its kind in WA was a roaring success with
the opening by Ms. Katel Lamont - Chair of the Board of Commissioners -
Tourism WA. Already discussions are underway for a similar concept to take
place in 2008.
The Year started off with a bang where in January we agreed to bid and host
the APacCHRIE conference in Perth in May 2008. The bid was well supported
with Perth Convention Bureau providing significant support and intelligence
to the bid document. In May 2007 we travelled to Beijing and were awarded
the conference against Singapore and are proud to now say we are well on
track to hosting the first conference of its kind in WA, an international
academic and research conference specialising in Hotels, Restaurants and
Tourism research. For further information see: www.apacchrieconference.com
The relations with Southern Cross University grew from strength to strength
following the work and effort that Dr. Pery Hobson started during his time
as Head of School. Prof. Dick Braithwaite held the reigns as Acting Head of
School for the early part of 2007, later handing them to Prof. John Jenkins
who was appointed in the later half of 2007. Since Prof John Jenkins
commencement we have added two more SCU courses to the Perth offering and
are currently exploring a number of new exciting ventures including the
appointment of a Chair Professor Position in Perth.
Late 2007 saw us lease new premises in Northbridge, directly over the
railway line from our Perth campus at 243 James Street. These premises see
the addition of two more custom built commercial kitchens and classrooms to
compliment the existing facilities and support the student number growth for
this field.
Over the December break, our hardworking core team of staff assisted in
ensuring the many changes planned took place as smoothly and as efficiently
as possible. These included a complete overhaul and replacement of our
entire IT network at a cost of $240K, replacement of all flooring, carpets
and vinyls throughout, purchasing of new furniture and improving storage and
archiving facilities. I really trust and hope all students will benefit and
enjoy the new look and feel of the school.
For 2008 we planning some great new features for students. The importants change will be an internal re-organisation and the set up of a new department: Student Services. The Student Services Department will be our friendly first point of contact for all student queries regarding a range of matters including; social, financial, personal, academic the well-being of all students.
Finally the student login we be launched and we also will launch eNews on a monthly basis. Over the last months we have already made significant changes to our school database and this will continue in 2008 to provide you with a greater and better service.
Finally I wish to congratulate all of our graduates of 2007 and wish all of
the new students a warm welcome for 2008.
Yours in Education and Training
Alan Williams
Managing Director
