PETALING JAYA: Boustead Hotels and Resorts Sdn Bhd has invested about RM60mil in its latest Royale Bintang hotel in Penang.
“We are hoping the hotel in Penang would be completed by early November, and another hotel in Cherating, Pahang, be completed in two years' time,” Boustead Hotels and Resorts director of operations Datuk Mokhtar Khir said. The four-star Penang hotel will have 180 rooms.
Of the five hotels currently in the stable of the company, a subsidiary ofBoustead Holdings Bhd, all but one are four star The Royale Bintang Kuala Lumpur, The Royale Bintang The Curve, The Royale Bintang Resort and Spa Seremban and The Royale Bintang Damansara. It also owns and operates the five-star The Royale Chulan Kuala Lumpur and manages The Royale Aryani Resort in Terengganu.
Although the expansion of its hotel chain augurs well for the company, it faces a shortage of workers.
Yesterday, Boustead Hotels and Resorts and UNITAR International University signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the latter's undergraduates and graduates to be integrated into the hospitality sector.
Mokhtar said “we hope that through the MoU, it would somehow fill this gap”.
“We also want to train graduates to be future managers of the hotels,” he added.
The MoU aims to provide a platform for both organisations to collaborate on the establisment of a career framework for industrial training for permanent employment opportunities for UNITAR students at Boustead Hotels and Resorts.
UNITAR Capital Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Wan Ahmad Saifuddin Wan Ahmad Radzi said the MoU was the third inked by the university after Maxis Bhd and Themed Attractions and Resorts Sdn Bhd last year. UNITAR Capital is the operator of UNITAR.
Asked if he saw more collaborations this year, Ahmad said he was hoping to seal several partnerships.
“Right now, we have two partnerships in the pipeline with the IT hardware and IT infrastructure industries,” he said.
The MoU with Boustead Hotels and Resorts is for a three-year period, but Ahmad said both parties were hoping it would extended for a longer term.
The first intake is expected by June this year and would involve at least 15 students in a three to six-month internship.
“We are responding to changing curriculum needs by providing quality access to industry.
“We want to bring the industry into the classroom and the classroom to the industry,” he explained. - The Star
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