Eighteen ambitious team leaders and supervisors from across the hospitality and tourism industry have successfully completed a transformative training programme to develop their management and leadership skills and shift their mindset from managed to manager, focusing specifically on goal setting, inspiring trust, making better decisions and effectively delegating.

The Tourism and Hospitality Team Leader Programme was introduced through a collaboration between HATS Network, HIT Scotland and We are Extraordinary Training, and funded by Tourism NI to address a heightened need for team leaders and supervisors to become better people managers and to possess the skills and confidence needed to engage, support, develop and motivate their teams.

Roisin Mckee, Project Director, HATS Network comments:

“Businesses are facing intense competition to recruit and retain talent. As industry continues to recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the key challenges that we are facing can only be adequately dealt with by having in place strong leadership and management across all areas of our sector.

“We introduced the Tourism and Hospitality Team Leader Programme to motivate and develop top talent, helping businesses to recover faster and provide new skills, insights, tools and techniques to team leaders and supervisors to allow them to get the best performance from themselves and the rest of their team.”

The graduates were joined by programme sponsors and industry champions as part of a celebration lunch at The Grand Central Hotel Belfast, where a panel of experienced leaders shared leadership lessons with the graduates.

Contributors included JP McCafferty, General Manager of Bishop’s Gate Hotel, Derry, Eimear Callaghan - Head of Industry and Experience Development for Tourism NI and Christopher Telford - General Manager - MountCharles at Belfast International Airport.

Eimear Callaghan, Head of Experience & Industry Development at Tourism Northern Ireland comments:

“We were delighted to join such an inspirational celebration event today to congratulate graduates of the programme. It’s critical we support the development of future talent and we’re pleased to have funded the programme to give leaders the tools to manage change, make better choices and decisions, delegate effectively and manage performance within their teams.

“Well done to graduates and a huge thank you to the industry champions that joined us at the event to impart their knowledge and show support for our aspiring young leaders of tomorrow.”

Speaking of the benefits from attending the programme, graduate Anita Steenson - General Manager at Fish City comments:

“Throughout the course, I have gained a much wider and varied management toolkit that I can apply in real time with my team, from the importance of self-care and providing effective feedback to building trust and resilience within the team. I have really enjoyed working with and learning from my peers in the hospitality industry, and I am thankful for the expertise and care my instructors shared with me.”

Graduate, Laura McCool - Senior Events Co-ordinator at Dunadry Hotel & Gardens adds:

“I have really enjoyed participating in the Hospitality & Tourism Team Leader Programme; I have picked up many skills and tools in which I can implement into my own daily schedule. Overall, I really enjoyed getting to know other people working in the industry and being able to discuss any issues – I found it quite refreshing to learn we are not alone in challenges we are facing.”