For more than two centuries now Switzerland has been paving its way to becoming the European home of hospitality as it begun catering to wealthy travellers from all around Europe before tourism became a global industry. With the world’s best hospitality institutes located in Switzerland, the country has become the destination for hospitality studies.
Having been elected Top 3 hospitality and leisure management institute in the world (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2020), Glion Institute of Higher Education, is a chosen destination for many international students due to its applied, experiential study method which is a hands-on approach providing practical experience in addition to theory.
While the demand for the bachelor’s in international hospitality business at Glion remains high, some international students are currently unable to arrive on campus due to various reasons such as travel. To help these students not to delay their studies, Sommet Education, the leading hospitality education group that Glion is a part of together with its sister schools Les Roches and Ecole Ducasse, have created a special study programs - “Glion Connect” (and similarly “Les Roches Connect”) - allowing students to remotely engage in the first semester program before pursuing it on campus in January 2021.
The unique blended study solution will provide for a specially designed mix of 10 weeks of remote learning and 10 weeks of on-campus studies for students willing to integrate the programme of International Hospitality Business at Glion. While the teaching methods will be different to those on campus, both will provide identical learning outcomes.
In order to provide the students with an immersive experience in hospitality, the whole of the first semester is focused on hospitality’s Practical Arts. Respecting the experiential method, the remote program will provide the students with versatile and modern tools to acquire the theoretical and also practical knowledge through videos and teasers, power point voiceover and materials, live sessions with faculty and award-winning professionals, ongoing assessments and personalized coaching and mentoring. Moreover, all students in the connect program shall be granted a special welcome kit with essentials necessary to participate in wine tastings, pastry classes, cocktail making activities and more.
The remote half of the semester shall focus on four modules: Induction, The Art of Gastronomy, The Wine and Bar Universe and Rooms Division and Hotel Operations. All participating students will be able to engage in such extracurricular activities as competitions, games and challenges, additional online courses, follow guest speaker interviews and meet the experts online and through special live demonstrations.
The four modules shall be taught by both Glion and Les Roches faculty and world-renowned experts in Practical Arts, such as Christophe Raoux and Luc Debove, both Meilleurs Ouvriers de France and Executive Chef and Executive Pastry Chef respectively at Ecole Ducasse. They will be joined by many other world-class title bearing experts, such as Paolo Basso, World’s Best Sommelier in 2013, and Reza Nahaboo, Best Swiss Sommelier in 2016.
Once arrived on on campus in January 2021, the students having followed the Connect program will join their classmates in practical assignments and continue the first semester together. We are excited to engage with our students both in person and remotely and look forward to accompanying them in this the academic adventure.
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