Students at the hospitality institute will be taking a first aid module that has been named after a woman who died when she choked in a restaurant last month.
The mandatory module, introduced for the foundation course at the Institute of Tourism Studies, has been officially called ‘Angela Selvaggi’, as a tribute to the 57-year-old woman.
After Ms Selvaggi’s death, her brother Charles appealed for staff in the hospitality industry to be given first aid instruction.
The reaction to his call was positive. Yesterday, the Malta Tourism Authority’s manager of quality and industry HR, John Magri, said the MTA would be organising a free basic first aid course as from January for restaurants applying for the Quality Assured seal. It is now obligatory for restaurants applying for the seal to have at least one person from the establishment trained in basic first aid, Mr Magri noted, adding that ideally at least one person on each shift would receive training.
It is now obligatory for restaurants applying for the seal to have at least one person trained in basic first aid
Applicants for the seal are not obliged to attend the specific course offered by the MTA, and they can acquire a recognised first aid certificate elsewhere. However, the course is also open for catering establishments that do not apply for the seal. Mr Magri noted that unfortunately, first aid had not generally been given much importance in Malta over the years, but there had been positive awareness raising since the incident.
The first aid course at the ITS was already in the pipeline. However, Ms Selvaggi’s death is what prompted the institute to include a first aid module in the second semester of the foundation course.
Some 127 students so far have enrolled for the foundation course, Lino Schembri, the chairman of the board of governors, told this newspaper.
Mr Schembri explained that in this way, all those following a career within the industry through the institute would have basic first aid knowledge, and the ITS was not excluding more intensive courses in subsequent years.
Charles Selvaggi welcomed the decisions from both the ITS and MTA, thanking Mr Schembri, Mr Magri and his colleague, Andre Arciola, on behalf of his family, for taking concrete steps following the appeal.
He was in the meantime still calling on restaurants to have at least one person on shift trained in first aid, noting that on average it cost just €100 every three years to train two employees.