State offers 60 scholarships for students from East Africa Community

By Geoffrey Mosoku

The Government has offered sixty fully paid scholarships for students from the East Africa Community (EAC) region to study hospitality courses at the Kenya Utalii College.

According to Kenya Utalii College Principal Dr. Kenneth Ombong'i the scholarships given through the Ministry of Tourism, East Africa and Commerce will be shared equally among the EAC partner states.

Each country will have 10 scholarships including 10 for mainland Tanzania and 10 for Zanzibar.

The Utalii Principal was speaking on Wednesday after returning from Bujumbura, Burundi where he attended the 5th Meeting of the Sectoral Council on Tourism and Wildlife Management of the EAC.

The high meeting attracted technical officers, permanent secretaries and ministers of tourism, Immigration and Heritage from the EAC region.
 
“It was clear in the meeting that one sector that Burundi has earmarked to fast track its economic development is tourism. Consequently, Burundi is one of the beneficiaries of scholarship opportunities for the EAC states, which have been offered by Kenya Utalii College. “

Dr. Ombong'i said the programme clearly demonstrates the role Utalii College has played globally as a hotel school of choice in Africa adding that Utalii is committed in attracting top students from the EAC region and beyond. 

"We are grappling with the challenge of meeting 21st century hospitality training needs which are constantly changing but we are up to it. As we expand to the region, we don't want to forget our mandate and responsibility to the Kenyan hospitality sector which keeps us going through the payment of the training levy," he said.

The hospitality college boss said the institution was striving to provide high quality training in the tourism sector to meet the market demands.

"We are working relentlessly to keep our standards of training high because that is what we are known for. In tandem with this, we will continue to enhance partnerships with the local hospitality sector, international hotel schools and international hotel brands to maintain the best international practices in training.”

Dr. Ombong'i said he and top Utalii official visited the celebrated Luccern Hotel School in Switzerland and Cornnel University in the United States on a benchmarking trip to enable them remain at the edge in our training programmes. 

‘On Monday, July 15th 2013 I will host chief executive officers of Spermalie and Tudon Hotel schools, the most outstanding hospitality training colleges in Belgium. The aim of this meeting is to exchange ideas on how we can benefit from these institutions on a mutual basis in student and lecturer exchanges,” he added.