One of the most exciting features of the hotel management course at the Vatel Hotel and Tourism Business School, Sushant University Gurgaon is the special privilege that its students get to visit Vatel Nimes, France for summer internship ranging from 5 to 7 weeks. This little town located at a little more than 700 kilometers south of Paris is a quaint historic city, which houses the Vatel hotel, the training institute and the hostel for students.
“The unique advantage of a hotel management course at the Vatel Hotel and Tourism Business School, Gurgaon is the academic collaboration we at the Sushant University have with the Institut Vatel which has more than 50 institutes located in 30 countries worldwide. The curricula of all the schools is so meticulously mapped that under the Marco Polo student-exchange programme any student from any school can follow a full semester of study at select Vatel schools. The international exposure is incomparable” said Dr. Garima Parkash, dean of the school.
This unique Summer Internship Programme under which the students get to work at the different restaurants, kitchens, kitchen stewarding, housekeeping, laundry and at the rather extensive rejuvenation centers of the hotel creates opportunities for these students to meet and look after guests from the different parts of the world, especially during the high tourist season in France. They are exposed to different live situations, which build a lot of confidence within them. The internship is very well structured which keeps a close count of the number of hours a student must expose himself/herself to in order to come to terms and to learn the real operations, systems and procedures. There is a system of fortnightly evaluations of training, the report of which is sent to the deans of the concerned schools from where the students are visiting.
“I took admission to the Vatel Hotel and Tourism Business School, Gurgaon, especially due to the opportunities of international exposure that I knew I am going to make use of. And this visit to Nimes is an exceptional opportunity for me as, in France, I am going to learn the real art of French cooking, about the different varieties of cheese and wines, all of which are so essential in cooking and add a lot of style and elegance to food. Plus, this is going to be the greatest opportunity for me to improve my spoken French” says Hazel Kaur Sogi, a II Semester student.
The Vatel hostel at Nimes allocates single rooms to all the students and these rooms are equipped with comfortable bed, a well illuminated study table, a lot of storage space, a microwave oven, a refrigerator and the bathroom has running hot and cold water and all the amenities. The students just need to pay for their travel tickets and for their visas. Their entire stay and their meals are taken care of by the Vatel Nîmes.
In this trip 9 students have gone to France and in the next trip which is expected in the middle of July, another set of 10 students will take the trip. As the waiting group keeps getting information about how exciting the current process of training at Nimes is, they are going to be getting more enthusiastic and thrilled to visit France, says Chef (Dr.) Saurav Chhabra who is the main coordinator of these summer internships.
Apart from gaining valuable operational inputs from the different departments the students also get to visit the ancient sites and monuments around Nimes, which has a moderate weather during the days and the nights tend to become a bit chilly. What’s more, the students just need to pay for the ticket and the visa, the entire boarding and lodging is taken care of by Vatel Nimes.
Once you are a student at any of the Vatel schools around the world, you get to become a member of the Vatel fraternity worldwide and you can network with students from many countries around the world. This can be super advantageous as the vatel students continue to exchange a lot of valuable inputs about the latest trends in hotels from the different parts of the world and get to know about the best practices adopted by them to make their guests more cheerful, happy and satisfied.
