The Edge Hotel School, the UK’s first hotel school based entirely in a fully operational commercial hotel, has announced it will award nine Savoy Educational Trust scholarships worth £3,000 each for students enrolling in 2012.
The course combines a degree awarded by the University of Essex earned while working in a luxury hotel, the newly refurbished Wivenhoe House, and restaurant. Students will have the option of earning a one-year foundation degree or a BA Honours degree in two years, both awarded by the University of Essex.
Savoy Educational Trust scholarships worth £3,000 each are available for nine students over three intakes.
Ramon Pajares, Chairman of the Trustees of the Savoy Educational Trust, said: “The Edge Hotel School impressed us as an initiative that will benefit the entire hospitality industry. Growth in demand for additional hospitality staff is expected to reach 638,000 by 2017 at the same time as the sector is suffering a significant skills gap. This innovative model combining work with academic study in a commercial operation is a fantastic way to prepare tomorrow’s hospitality managers for the demands of working in the sector.”
Alan Jenkins, Principal of the Edge Hotel School, said: “With their impressive reputation built over 50 years of developing education, training and qualifications in the hospitality sector, the support of Savoy Educational Trust is a significant endorsement of our mission based on a model of ‘learning-by-doing’. We are honoured to be working with them.”
Scholarships will be awarded by a panel based on a combination of criteria from the application form and supporting statement. The curriculum has been developed in collaboration with some of the sector’s leading employers and well-known industry figures including Michelin star chefs and 4 and 5 star hoteliers.
The new hotel will feature period suites and rooms, a new garden wing, a signature restaurant for more formal dining, a brasserie for informal dining and meeting rooms.
Applications for a scholarship can be found at http://www.edgehotelschool.ac.uk/how-to-apply/scholarship-scheme or contact the Edge Hotel School directly at admissions@edgehotelschool.ac.uk or call 01206 872858.
For press queries, please contact Elizabeth Hess, Edge Hotel School, 020 7645 8968, elizabeth.hess@kaplan.com.
About the Edge Hotel School
The Edge Hotel School will be the UK’s first hotel school based in a fully operational hotel, Wivenhoe House, in Colchester. A partnership between the independent education foundation Edge, the University of Essex and its academic partner Kaplan, it will combine a luxurious country house hotel and innovative hotel school, where the future leaders of the hospitality industry learn their profession. Students of the Edge Hotel School will ‘learn by doing’ as the basis of their two year, fast-track degree-level qualifications in hotel management and culinary management. The Edge Hotel School works closely with the hospitality industry to ensure the curriculum is relevant and students graduate equipped with the knowledge, skills and experience employers want. For more information visit: www.edgehotelschool.ac.uk.
About the Savoy Educational Trust
The Savoy Educational Trust is an independent, grant giving charitable trust established in 1961whose main aim is to advance and develop education, training and qualifications within the hospitality industry. In order to fulfil this aim and help meet the current and future skills needs of an industry that is a major employer and contributor to the UK economy, the Trustees award grants for a variety of hospitality-related projects to educational establishments, trade associations, charitable organisations/social enterprises, and individuals. For more information visit www.savoyeducationaltrust.org.uk or please contact Margaret Georgiou, Trust Administrator, on 020 7269 9692, email: info@savoyeducationaltrust.org.uk.
About the University of Essex
Founded nearly 50 years ago, the University of Essex is ranked in the top ten universities in the UK for the quality of its research and in the top 20 mainstream English universities for student satisfaction. It is the most internationally diverse campus-based university in Britain, with more than one third of its 11,000 students coming from outside the UK. The University has three campuses in Essex, and partnerships with a number of other education institutions across the region. For further information, please contact Jenny Grinter, Head of Communications on 01206 872400, e-mail: comms@essex.ac.uk.
About Edge
Edge is an independent education foundation. It is dedicated to raising the status of practical and vocational learning, so that all young people have the opportunity to achieve their potential, and the UK's future workforce is equipped with the skills to be successful in the modern economy. Edge believes that 'learning by doing' is as important as academic learning, and that there are many paths to success. For more information visit www.edge.co.uk or please contact Susan Higgins, Press Officer, on 020 7960 1546, e-mail: SHiggins@edge.co.uk.
About Kaplan
Kaplan is a global provider of training and education and part of The Washington Post Company. For further information please contact Elizabeth Hess, Director of Communications, Kaplan Europe, on 020 7645 8968, e-mail: Elizabeth.hess@kaplan.com.
About Wivenhoe House
Once painted by Constable, the newly restored Grade II listed eighteenth century country house will include 16 bedrooms, most of them period suites, the dining room which will become the hotel’s signature restaurant, and elegant public rooms. The new garden wing will be home to a further 24 bedrooms, a brasserie for up to 120 diners plus additional meeting and function rooms, all equipped with the latest technology. The hotel is open for bookings from summer 2012.
For more information, visit: www.wivenhoehouse.co.uk.