A newly hired employee, wanting to excel in a job she’s never done before, needs to calculate how many supplies will be needed until the next delivery.
A clerk needs to know how to help a guest have a positive, memorable experience.
A manager needs to reduce turnover and help the business train and retain the workforce.
Sometimes, businesses need to help train employees already on the job to improve skills quickly, and Coconino Community College is developing a non-credit program to help with just that. We are excited about this program and the potential it has to help businesses in the hospitality and service industry provide exemplary experiences to the visitors of our beautiful Northern Arizona.
Called “Hospitality & Service Training – Taking Service & Training to the Next Level,” the program, offered through CCC Workforce Training, is meant to provide relevant training for current and prospective employees at businesses that foster success in the hospitality and service industry. This idea has been in formation for some time, but a recent meeting I had with Mayor John Moore in Williams helped us at CCC begin crafting an outline for the program. Williams is a community that relies on giving guests from around the world a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Mayor Moore told me that being able to train service staff is important for a positive visitor experience, and many businesses don’t have the time to do it themselves.
There are three modules to the program: Service and Soft Skills; Restaurant and Food Service; and Managers and Supervisors. In the Service and Soft Skills module, employees learn presence and employability, communication and presentation, and guest services and customer experience. In the Restaurant and Food Service module, employees are brought up to speed on staff etiquette and teamwork, applied math and accounting, techniques for improving the customer experience, and product knowledge. Finally, in the Managers and Supervisors module, managers are trained on selecting and retraining staff as well as training approaches and techniques. All the modules contain components from CCC’s Hotel and Restaurant Services Certificate and Associate of Arts in Hotel and Restaurant Management.
CCC Executive Director of Extended Learning Kay Leum explains that the program is for people who are already at work and need to improve their skills quickly, something she calls “go-to-work” courses. The format is unlike CCC’s Hotel and Restaurant Management associate of arts degree path, which is a series of for-credit courses to prepare students to transfer to a four-year program.
The instructors for the modules are all set, and the training being developed is meant for all levels of experience – from entry to experienced. The model will not only serve the Williams community, but will also be applicable to Page, Fredonia, Tusayan and more.
The courses are designed to be adaptable to the needs of the businesses, and they can be delivered during a single session in a day, or many shorter sessions over several days and times. Interested business owners, managers and supervisors should determine which module is needed, how many employees will undergo the training and during what time period.
The modules will begin rolling out later this fall and winter. For further information, including costs, about CCC’s Hospitality & Service Training, contact Meghan Remington, Extended Learning Operations Coordinator at 928-226-4174, or email CCC2Community@coconino.edu.
CCC is a great place to be. Onward! FBN
By Colleen Smith, Ph.D.
Colleen A. Smith, Ph.D., is the president of Coconino Community College.
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