Tourism minister welcomes student chefs from South Africa |13 June 2017

Twenty student chefs from South Africa who are here on work attachment in different tourism establishments, were officially welcomed yesterday morning by the minister responsible for tourism.

This was in a short ceremony at Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine Minister Maurice Loustau-Lalanne’s new office at the Botanical building, Mont Fleuri.

The Seychelles Tourism Academy (STA) and the government of South Africa, through the department of tourism have organised, through a pilot project, the internship programme which provides opportunities for student chefs from South Africa to come on work attachment in Seychelles’ beach resorts.

The 20 students arrived in Seychelles in April this year and will leave in March next year.

They are already in possession of a basic certificate, a diploma and an advanced diploma from the South African Chefs School. And they are currently placed in the following establishments: Raffles Praslin; Berjaya Beau Vallon Bay Resort; ISPC & La Plage Restaurant; Kempinski Seychelles Resort, Baie Lazare; Beachcomber Sainte Anne Resort & Spa; Coral Strand Hotel; Hilton Labriz Silhouette Resort; Hilton Double Tree Seychelles Resort and Hilton Northolme Seychelles Resort.

Minister Loustau-Lalanne welcomed all the students in his office saying: “We are pleased to welcome you all in our islands. I recently met the Minister of Tourism of South Africa and the first thing she asked was how are my students? She is very attentive about your internship and she responded positively to an invitation to come for a visit to Seychelles.”

Minister Loustau-Lalanne said this is the largest cohort of students trained as a group in Seychelles in a specific job.

“The feedback I am getting is very positive and the intention is to allow you to get experience working in beach resorts. The environment is different from your country and I hope that you are beginning to settle down and enjoying the experience. With this agreement we will also be able to send our students to South Africa for the same experience. You are in good hands and the administration is making all arrangements for you and will keep us updated about your good work,” added Mr Loustau-Lalanne.

After taking notes of some of the students’ concerns, the minister urged them to make sure that wherever they are they should remember that they are on training here.

“Make sure your environment does not take you as a full time worker. Part of the responsibility of the establishments is to fill up a form where they have to record in what you are being trained for. We need to ensure that you are getting trained,” he said.

Minister Loustau-Lalanne also explained that “training the foreign students is part of a diplomatic agreement. Tourism is international and wherever the students go it will be beneficial for us and for them.”

Flavien Joubert, principal of the STA, said soon the students will be able to enjoy a South African night and they will finish the year with a Seychellois night. After completing their training in Seychelles, they will all receive a certificate endorsed by the tourism minister.

Murla Gabriel, senior coordinator for external relations at STA, said the group is made up of mature students.

The chef programme is for three years ‒ year one is certificate level where only basics are taught. Year two is diploma level where they learn hot and cold kitchen. And finally, year three is advanced diploma where they specialise in pastry and baking. They sit for City and Guilds certificates at all three levels.

All the students are being taken care of by the Ministry of Tourism of South Africa, and it’s the STA that has arranged for their internship in hotels here.  

Shanka McGuire, one of the students attached at Raffles, thanked the Seychelles government for hosting them.

“This is a unique opportunity for us to learn a lot. Of course when we first arrived we were homesick but now things are getting better and we are being assisted properly. We are learning about the different cuisines and also about the different cultures.”

Ntando P. Nombela, another student, is attached to the Sainte Anne Resort & Spa and he pointed out that “my objective is to gain a lot of experience on how the industry works here. It will help me improve myself as a chef and be able to work with different communities”.

Yesterday, the 20 students also had an excursion day and visited the tourism academy at La Misère.