From the 25th to the 27th of August, Chef Hugues, the Programme Director and Head Chef Instructor at the Culinary Arts Institute, as well as Vesselina Dimitrova, the Head of the Career Centre at VUM, conducted their staff mobilities for training at Atlantica Hotels and Resorts – Cyprus.
During their mobilities, both VUM representatives underwent training in the respective departments – Chef Hugh got acquainted with the specifics and skill requirements for the culinary students conducting their internships in the hotel kitchens and had meaningful conversations with the head chefs of these departments. Vesselina Dimitrova underwent training at the HR department of Atlantica Hotels Management LTD and got valuable insights about how to optimise the placement processes and organise better the paper work behind the student mobilities for traineeships that Atlantica is going to host.
In addition to that hey both had a number of meetings with the hotel representatives. On Sunday, 25th August, they met Mr Loukas Kakkou, the Operations Manager of Atlantica Mare Village in Ayia Napa and had a talk with the student Peter Setiamanah (first-year student at the Gastronomy and Culinary Arts program), currently conducting his placement in the kitchen. In the afternoon, they had a non-formal meeting with the students Hristiyana Filcheva and Ilina Dimitrova, who were completing their internships at Atlantica Bay Hotel in Limassol.
On Monday, August 26th, they visited Atlantica Oasis Hotel, where they met first with Mr Nikos Katsounotos, the Group’s Director of Operations, and Mr Vakis Karantonis, the hotel’s manager. At Atlantica Oasis Hotel, VUM representatives had a meeting with other students, currently completing their student mobilities for traineeships at that hotel: Joel Kurian and Ashwin Sasidharan (both 1st-year students at the International Hospitality Management programme), Illia Vasylenko (1st-year student at the International Business Management Programme) and Olga Kritskaya (2nd-year student at the Business Administration programme) and get direct in-situ feedback from their internships.
Next, they visited the Atlantica Bay Hotel and met with Mr Kyriakos Kyriakou, the Manager of Atlantica Bay and the Chef of the hotel, Konstantinos Hadjiyiannis. The programme was followed by a lunch at the Sands Beach Bar and Resto, were they had lunch with Stephanos Chrysanthou, the Group Chef for Atlantica Hotels in Cyprus.
The last two days of the mobility took place at Aphrodite Hills Hotel and Resort, the only PGA golf club in Cyprus. There, Chef Hugh and Vesselina Dimitrova met with the manager, Mr Loizos Telemachou, the Executive Chef, Paul Polyviou and Chef Aris Stylianou, the F&B Manager, Mr. Andreas Bisbikas and Mrs. Thekla Kasapi ( HR manager of the Aphrodite Hills).
Through numerous meetings with all concerned, we reviewed how VUM can better prepare our students for their internships and discussed future cooperation, where involving further student and staff mobilities.
Thank you very much to Atlantica Hotels and Resorts for hosting us, it was a very knowledgeable and instructive trip!
