IHG Launches Training Programme for Food & Beverage Teams

InterContinental Hotels Group has launched a bespoke training programme for the food and beverage (F&B) teams in its hotels across the Asia, Middle East and Africa (AMEA) and Greater China regions.

The programme, initially rolled out with more than 10 courses incorporating over 500 video lessons, was developed in collaboration with global hospitality education provider Lobster Ink. The company has plans to develop more courses over time.

More than 7,000 employees across 325 hotels are currently undergoing training in various courses, with close to 2,000 already completing them.

Certain courses are tailored to the company's brands including InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Hotel Indigo.

For every course they complete, participants also receive accreditation by both the Institute of Hospitality and IHG which formally endorse their qualification and recognise the high quality standards they are delivering to the hospitality industry.

Phil Broad, Vice President, Food & Beverage, AMEA, IHG said, "Food and beverage is a key part of our business and over 80% of our guests eat breakfast with us. We know that if a customer has a good experience at breakfast, they are more likely to come back for lunch and dinner. It is vital our hotels understand and are delivering the right breakfast standards according to what our guests want and need, and that sparked the development of the IHG F&B Training System."

"Since the development of our bespoke breakfast standards course, our training has gone on to include topics such as lunch and dinner standards and problem resolution. Since its launch, the programme has been very well-received amongst our colleagues and we are confident it will provide the F&B teams in our hotels with the tools they need to deliver high quality, consistent experiences for our guests and customers dining with us," he added.

IHG is one of the largest casual dining operators in the world with over 5,400 restaurants and bars, and more than 800 dining outlets across 246 hotels in Asia, Middle East and Africa.

More than 200 restaurants and bars will be unveiled in AMEA as IHG opens the 137 hotels in its pipeline over the next three to five years.