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> Swiss Education Group is targeting hospitality students from Asia
FLORENT Rondez has more than 20 years of experience in international hospitality management and education. He is a key player in the Swiss Education Group (SEG), in which he has held several operational positions since 2000. As chief executive officer, Rondez oversees the positioning and promotion of SEG and its reputation as a world leader in hospitality education.
He also leads the development of strategic relationships with Swiss and foreign government authorities to improve the image of Switzerland abroad.
Prior to joining SEG, Rondez had the opportunity to hone his skills in a number of locations including Hong Kong, Macau and San Francisco. He graduated from Ecole hoteliere de Lausanne and is a certified American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute instructor.
Rondez is involved in several local associations, holding positions as vice president of the Leysin Private Schools Association and vice president of the Switzerland Hotel Schools Association.
In an interview, he talks about SEG’s marketing strategy and the importance of the Asian market.
Sixty five per cent of Swiss Education Group students are from Asia today. Why is that so? We were the first school to open a recruitment office in Singapore back in 1995. Asia is a dynamic market, especially China and India. Big events are being held in Asia such as the coming Winter Olympics in South Korea. We are the largest school in Switzerland and we have seven campuses, both in the city centre and up in the mountains. Students and parents have a choice where they want to study. Although we have a lot of Asian students, we still have the largest non-Asian students in Switzerland.
Where are most of your Asian students from? In terms of numbers, we currently have the most Asian students from China but in terms of growth, I think Africa is the continent to watch.
If we take Myanmar, three years ago we had no students. Now, we have 15 students. That’s a growth of a thousand per cent. We are also looking at Central America and the Scandinavian market. Every country is different; every country has potential – Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia.
What makes Swiss Education Group stand out? Besides getting the best hospitality education, our students undertake two internships as part of their curriculum to obtain real-world experience and develop their soft skills. They also have exclusive access to the bi-annual International Recruitment Forum held each year in Montreux, where they get to meet with over 70 recruiters at each event.
What is your opinion of Generation Z in the hospitality industry? We think we know the expectations and motivations of Generation Z, but this doesn't always match up with reality. We have noticed that the students are really very different from others. This is why we did a study to better understand students’ expectations as well as the concerns of professionals in the sector.
Is Swiss Education Group leveraging on online learning? We know students are more mobile than ever before. Today we teach the whole of our programme in Switzerland where students live three years here. We will need to change somehow in the future. Online education is a big debate. We are not a big fan of online education because we believe face to face education is still the best for our courses.