In a mini-exhibition room, framed pictures showcasing various coffee plant species, a global map of specialty coffee and steps of brewing and tasting coffee hang on walls. Marie Merci Nsengiyumva opens a grinding machine, prepares a tiny weighing scale. She then rinses coffee beans through the grinder before putting a filter paper on the jar. After about five minutes brewing, the coffee, which happens to be black coffee, is ready and a group of about four people are given small cups to taste and before we can start asking questions, everyone appreciates. Rica Rwigamba. Courtesy. Nsengiyumva is a professional senior barista at Question Coffee, and mastering that art of making good coffee is thanks for a one-year training programme she acquired through Hanga Ahazaza programme. “Before I undertook the training programme, I wasn’t really professional and I looked at the barista work as something that one cannot pursue for a living. Today, it’s a different story,” she narrates. A few kilometres away from where Nsengiyumva works, sits another facility, Vatel Hotel and Tourism Business School. A group of students dressed in black and grey suits are undertaking different course work, both practical and theories. Lacey Burns, an English teacher, asks two questions: where was your practical application and what was your role? Describe a challenging situation you encountered and how you managed it? Students then start discussing. What stands out is that most of them have encountered the challenges in question. The class is more practical, characterized with group discussions, and that’s perhaps why most students seem to be more confident with answering questions. Burns later explains that she wanted the students to reflect about the challenges they may have faced or likely to face and how they can overcome them. But it is also the kind of skills they need in their next careers. “These are communication skills that these students really need when they officially embark on their careers,” she says. The hospitality training that the students undertake, prepares them for different careers in the hospitality and tourism industry, a sector that is currently characterized with unskilled labour and lack of professionalism. Students here study three weeks in a class and spend three weeks in a hotel environment in the hospitality field. That kind of model enables them to get hands-on skills, which the market demands. Vatel is an internationally recognised hospitality academic institution, having started in France before opening more than 30 campuses across the world in countries like UK, Mauritius, Madagascar, India, Singapore, Tunisia, Russia, Turkey, Senegal, and Argentina, just to mention a few. The Rwandan campus has been in existence for two years now. The problem in Rwanda has always been lack of experience to deliver quality services, but with this course, Federico verzilli, another teacher, says students are able to provide professional services in any facility. People like Henriette Umutoniwase and Vincent Gashema, second-year students at Vatel School speak a lot about perceptions. “My parents never wanted me to be here because they didn’t think anyone would pursue a meaningful career in hospitality,” says Umutoniwase. Gashema on the other hand, argues that the first thing that young people need is quality skills because that’s what will drive them to do better. He personally has managed to set up his own a travel company. Both the two are also beneficiaries of Hanga Ahazaza The programme is a five-year $50 million initiative of MasterCard Foundation. Through this initiative, the Foundation seeks to generate employment opportunities for 30,000 Rwandan youth in the tourism and hospitality sector. The programme is part of the Foundation’s commitment to enable 30 million African youth, especially young women, to secure dignified and fulfilling work by 2030. The target According to Rica Rwigamba, the senior programme manager for Hanga Ahazaza, more than one year and a half into the implementation of the programme, already more people like those at Vatel School and Question Coffee are benefiting. “When we started we had about six partners, but today we have 12 partners. In terms of outreach, we have reached more than 3,300 people for skills assessment and training programmes, as well as financed 183 small and medium-sized enterprises,” she notes. The aim, she adds, is to see the hospitality and tourism sector growing to provide unique employment opportunities for young people. The tourism and hospitality sector will have an estimated 151,000 jobs by 2030, according to the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda. Emmanuel Nsabimana, the Head of Tourism Regulation at the Rwanda Development, Rwanda has prioritised tourism and hospitality and that it is through partnerships that targets will be realized. “Tourism and hospitality are one of the priorities of our country. It has lately taken a big focus because we believe in its transformation power. We have been doing mass tourism but we are now focusing high-end tourism, which requires strong partnerships to achieve,” he notes. Such partnerships, he adds, will turn the sector into a professional industry as well as respond to some of the existing challenges in the sector, which includes lack of adequate skills and professionalism to deliver quality services. editor@newtimesrwanda.com
