SHMA opens its first SSG center of at Naula National Youth Corps in Matale

The Swiss Hotel Management Academy Pvt. Ltd. (SHMA) of A. Baur & Co. Pvt Ltd., also known as Baurs, in its pursuit to empower the country’s youth to take on the hospitality industry to greater heights, recently announced its first center of the Skills for Sustainable Growth (SSG) program at the Naula National Youth Corps based in Matale district.

This initiative comes after a careful evaluation based on the wide spread of hotels in the surrounding areas and considering the low-income levels of the potential students in Matale district. Recently, SHMA signed an MoU with the National Youth Corps of Sri Lanka (NYC) where many other centers will be established across the country in phases.

The SSG program is a private and public sector partnership between Baurs and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the agency for international cooperation of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) of Switzerland.

Currently, SHMA has enrolled a total of 54 students at the Naula National Youth Corps centre, facilitated by Damitha Alwis who inaugurated the batch of students, and applying a centre learning approach to ensure their success through the facilitation of the program. The course content, which is based on a Swiss Vocational Skills Development (VSD) curriculum, includes 3 months theoretical lessons,1 and half months blended learning and 4 and half month’s internship at a star class hotel. Further, soft skills development workshops are being provided to develop underprivileged students to challenge their unconventional thoughts and behaviors and excel in the hospitality trade.