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Genoese villa to house academy for shipboard hotel jobs, backed by Costa

Genoese villa to house academy for shipboard hotel jobs, backed by Costa
Italy's first school dedicated to training hotel professionals for jobs on passenger ships will be inaugurated in October in the prestigious Villa Figoli in Arenzano (Genoa). Training will be provided for positions including cooks, pastry chefs, bakers, entertainers, technicians, customer service representatives and other hospitality/entertainment roles.

The school will be managed by the Italian Merchant Marine Academy ITS Foundation, which has 60 places for students in courses for entertainers, customer service representatives and cooks. This training is a joint effort of the Academy and Costa Cruises.

The first edition of the courses took place in different locations while the second edition will begin in October at Villa Figoli. From these courses Costa has pledged to hire at least 60% of those completing the training, or a minimum of 36 students.

This initial training project will be supported by the Superior Technical Institutes, financed by the Ministry of Education, Universities and Research, for the training of professional on-board pastry-makers and bakers. In this case 22 positions will be available and Costa plans to hire at least 70% of the students who successfully complete the program. The course, which will be free and is designed for young job-seekers, will run for 1.5 years and will alternate classroom lessons with shipboard training.

The regional programming by the Superior Technical Institutes also includes the course for cooks.

'We are quite satisfied that this project is becoming reality. The Superior Education Centre of Arenzano is the end result of the project that began in 2005 and that led to Costa Cruises' hiring of about 500 deck and engine room officers,' said Eugenio Massolo, president of the Italian Merchant Marine Academy.

'Villa Figoli represents a new starting point in the cruise sector for training highly qualified personnel in the hospitality and catering areas,' he added. The results so far, and the encouraging prospects for training and employment, are cause for 'great optimism and with the aim of expanding cooperation in this sector,' Massolo said.

In Villa Figoli, Costa will offer its training partner new opportunities with the aim of hiring Italian and European Community seamen and providing training for those already working for the line, Costa president Neil Palomba said.  

'We also appreciate how the public institutions were able to create a school that never existed before in Italy,' he added, 'and which will certainly offer a new opportunity and be a driving force for the seafarer professions.'

Villa Figoli is 18th-century villa surrounded by a park and gardens extending across 35,000 square meters. The villa's renovation, carried out by the Liguria Region and the Municipality of Arenzano, involved constructing nine rooms, a library, a tea room/exhibition hall, a multipurpose tapestry room, a refreshment area, a bar and a kitchen to be used for lessons. The facility will also be equipped with a dormitory to house 50 students.