Hospitality project Gambia

Back on the Road for PUM
Commissioned by PUM Senior experts Netherlands and at the request of the Gambia Hotel Association and the Gambia Tourism & Hotel Institute, two Hospitality education. Experts travelled to Banjul Gambia last August for one of the last missions to Gambia as part of the Gambia Hospitality project. In October, a mission will be carried out to Gambia for the last time because from October 2024, Gambia will no longer be one of the countries to which PUM offers advice and support.
Two experts, Igor Klein (for his first mission and Martin Huizinga (an experienced expert) were asked to work on the following components: “Menu Costing, Menu Planning, Menu Engineering, plating Techniques, Housekeeping, Bartending, HACCP, F&B management and Banqueting. A very extensive assignment for such a short mission.
After first contacting the client and the online briefing, a work plan was sent to Gambia to submit to the client. This was accepted and the preparations could start. A varied lesson package was developed and compiled with evaluation tools, both practical and theoretical, and the journey could begin.
This time the flight departed from Zaventem Brussels, so both gentlemen had to get up early. The flight left half an hour later than planned and after a stopover in Dakar the plane landed on time. After paying the visa costs and the necessary stamps in the passport by the immigration service, both experts could pick up their suitcases and their driver was waiting neatly at the arrival terminal with a sign in his hand on which their names were written. After a drive of about 40 minutes. The experts arrived at the Sunset Beach Hotel and after checking in quickly to the rooms and dropping off the luggage to then eat something in the restaurant and then to bed because it had been a long day.
The next day the experts had an appointment at 11:30 with Marion and Peter Mendy respectively from the Gambia Hotel Association and the Gambia Tourism & Hotel Institute. The work plan was discussed again and in addition it was asked if the experts wanted to visit a number of hotels as mystery guests. This was planned on Saturday and Sunday together with some cultural excursions to Kololi the Crocodile Pond and Tangi.
On Wednesday August 7th both experts started their program in the morning. Because not everyone has an email address, both experts had created a WhatsApp group for both groups where students could register with a QR code, which was a bit of a challenge, but in the end most of them were registered in the WhatsApp group. The two experts had also jointly developed a registration form where students could register so that they had the correct information when they had to draw up certificates later, convenience serves man after all. Through these WhatsApp groups they could also send the presentations to the candidates afterwards and take quizzes.
The first two days of the program were filled with theory and on the last day there was the test where what had been learned had to be put into practice. For the kitchen part the question was to design and prepare your own signature dish and for the service part a cocktail recipe had to be provided for the service part a cocktail recipe had to be provided and prepared.
The advantage of a mission with two experts is that you can evaluate daily and share knowledge and experience because two know more than one.
The program started at 9:30 in the morning with a few breaks in between and at 1:45 a break was held for prayer and lunch.
On the practical day, the students were divided into several groups so that one group could do the test in the morning and one in the afternoon.
In the meantime, the training of both groups has been successfully completed and a total of around 80 employees of the companies affiliated with the Gambia Hotel Association have been trained. All candidates who had completed the test well in both practical and theoretical aspects received the coveted PUM Certificate at the end of the mission.
Both experts have also developed a quality checklist for the hotel companies so that they can perform these quality checks themselves in the future. Among other things, research was conducted into the quality of the websites, the quality of the facilities and the rooms, but also guest satisfaction was investigated. This report was presented to the Gambia Hotel Association during the final discussions.
According to Igor "It is a special experience to be in Africa and also Gambia for the first time with the friendliest people he says he has enjoyed the participants so far who all did their very best". I have come to know Martin as a very experienced expert.