Excellence at the ITS

I attended the Institute of Tourism Studies graduation ceremony held on Friday, December 1 at the Corinthia San Gorg Hotel. It was a most enjoyable evening with successful students alongside proud parents, friends and partners basking in the atmosphere of celebration. I had the honour of attending the event to represent the City and Guilds of London Institute and presented two prestigious awards to the Institute of Tourism Studies.

The City and Guilds of London Institute is the largest awarding organisation for vocational qualifications in the UK as well as operating in over 70 countries worldwide. Last year it awarded over 1.8 million certificates and diplomas.

At the graduation ceremony I presented a medal of excellence to one of the students from ITS namely Adrian Sultana who had studied the Advanced Diploma in Food Preparation and Production. In addition, the City and Guilds awarded the Institute of Tourism Studies a Centre of Excellence Certificate. Both these special awards are a testimony to the excellence of the ITS, its entire staff and the students. Malta and Gozo can be justifiably proud of these achievements bearing in mind the rarity of such awards being made internationally and remembering that City and Guilds grants 1.8 million awards across 70 countries annually.

I was surprised that the graduation ceremony did not attract more media attention. Malta and Gozo depend critically on highly qualified people in the tourist and hospitality industries and the graduates from the institute represent a valuable resource to this key industry for the islands.

Compared with the coverage of the university graduations in the media the event seemed to have been overlooked.