Caribbean Times 94th Issue - Thursday 9th February 2017

10 c a r i b b e a n t i m e s . a g
Thursday 9th February 2017
Award-winning Sandals Manager says
training staff must be mandatory
Dickenson Bay, Antigua
– The importance of training
and developing human
resources for the hospitality
sector cannot be taken for
granted, and is a key requirement
for the success of the
industry, not just in Antigua
and Barbuda, but throughout
the world.
This from Matara Murphy,
the training and development
manager at Sandals
Grande Antigua, who received
the Tourism Management
Award at the National
Youth Awards on February 5,
2017.
“At Sandals, we have set
up the Sandals Corporate
University (SCU) which not
only allows us to assist staff
in obtaining industry-recognised
certification, but we
also provide scholarships
for them to further specialisations
and even pursue full
degrees,” she said.
Twenty-eight-year old
Murphy, who is also the
current Antigua Hotels and
Tourist Association (AHTA)
Young Hotelier of the Year,
believes that even if a company
cannot do something on
that scale, it can find local, or
affordable online resources,
which can teach customer
service and the basic skills
needed for any job function.
Altogether over 11,000
persons have benefitted from
the SCU’s numerous certificate
programmes throughout
the Caribbean, while just under
800 have received professional
certification as a result
of scholarships given by
Sandals amounting to almost
US$1 million.
Sandals Deputy Chairman
and Chief Executive
Officer Adam Stewart is
mindful of the contribution
of team members to what the
resort has achieved …after
all, Sandals Resorts International
has been voted World’s
Leading All-Inclusive Company
21 consecutive years.
“A big part of why we
are so successful is the input
of our team members. They
are among the finest in the
world, and we are proud to
invest in their training and
development.
“No one else invests in
people the way we do, not
just internally, but for the
wider community through
our Hospitality Training Programme,”
Stewart said.
Matara is herself a success
story that has come
out of the Sandals training
system. She is a graduate of
the Antigua & Barbuda Hospitality
Training Institute’s
Hospitality Management associate
degree programme.
She started in the industry, at
age 19, as a concierge agent
at Sandals Grande Antigua
and later, with the help of
Sandals Corporate University,
gained a scholarship to
complete a bachelor’s degree
from Monroe College in
Saint Lucia.
Murphy returned to Antigua
in 2014 as the raining
manager for Grand Pineapple
Beach Resort and in 2015
became the Training and Development
Manager for Sandals
Grande. During her tenure
at Sandals she has built
on the Hospitality Trainee
Programme (HTP), facilitating
the training of over 200
young people in the tourism
industry.
“After going through our
training, young people in Antigua
are ready for the world
of work and we have historically
been able to employ
most of them. For those who
we cannot engage on a permanent
basis, other resorts
and restaurants, confident in
Sandals training standards,
look to us for recommendations,”
Murphy said.
General Manager of Sandals
Grande Antigua Gaurav
“Mr G” Sindhi had words of
congratulations for Murphy
on her most recent award.
“I can’t think of anyone
else in the industry more deserving
of the accolades than
Ms Murphy,” he said.
“As a citizen of Antigua
& Barbuda, she is passionate
about the industry, always
looking for better ways to
improve the standards of the
resort, and continuously is
seeking to help develop her
colleagues.”