Empowering Gambia’s hospitality future: Collaborative trainings to elevate industry standards

Story by: PUM

The Gambia Hotel Association and The Gambia Tourism & Hospitality Institute play a crucial role in the development of The Gambia’s tourism industry, one of the country’s main economic pillars.  The hospitality sector is one of the focus areas of PUM in The Gambia. Since PUM is phasing out its services in the country, the two hospitality institutions sought collaboration with PUM to organise a specialised training programme for hospitality professionals.

The Gambia Hotel Association and The Gambia Tourism & Hospitality Institute sought PUM’s expertise to enhance the skills and knowledge of local hospitality professionals. Two PUM experts in Hospitality Education, Igor Klein and Martin Huizinga, were invited to co-create a targeted hospitality training. The project began with an online briefing, followed by the development of a comprehensive work plan. This resulted in a dynamic curriculum featuring both practical and theoretical components, ensuring a well-rounded learning experience for the participants. Topics covered menu costing and planning, menu engineering, plating techniques, housekeeping, bartending, HACCP standards, food and beverage management, and banqueting.  

Once the plan was approved, the PUM experts travelled to Banjul, The Gambia, where they met with Marion Nyang and Peter Mendy, representing both institutions, to finalise the details. The training was conducted over several days, with the first two days dedicated to theoretical instruction and the final day focusing on practical assessments. Participants were tasked with creating signature dishes and cocktail recipes, demonstrating the skills they had acquired. WhatsApp groups were set up to facilitate communication and provide access to course materials and quizzes. The training was delivered twice, reaching over 80 participants in total, all of whom were employees of enterprises within Gambia’s hospitality sector and members of the two institutions. 

In addition to the training, Igor and Martin visited local hotels to assess service quality. They also collaborated in developing a quality checklist for hotels to use in maintaining and improving their standards. This checklist covered various aspects, including quality of the website, facilities and rooms, and guest satisfaction. The final report was presented to the Gambia Hotel Association at the conclusion of the project. The collaboration between the PUM experts and the two institutions is expected to have a lasting impact on the hospitality industry, as the knowledge gained will continue to be disseminated locally.