Third-party hotel management company Aimbridge Hospitality announced that this year’s class of apprentices through the AHLA Foundation’s Lodging Manager Apprenticeship program is the largest to date, with 73 high-performing candidates currently enrolled.
“Our 2021 AHLA Apprentice class is by far the largest in company history. These 73 hotel associates, representing a broad spectrum of our hotels across all eight verticals, or product categories, have tremendous leadership potential, and Aimbridge is committed to investing in their success,” said Ann Christenson, chief human resources officer of Aimbridge Hospitality. “This program is also a testament to our Aimbridge general managers, who commit time and energy to foster and mentor hospitality’s future leaders. It’s a worthy effort and a core part of our company culture and values to support an in-depth training program that will help our associates accelerate their hospitality careers with Aimbridge.”
The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) Foundation partnered with the National Restaurant Association Education Foundation (NRAEF) to create the first hospitality apprenticeship program, funded by The Department of Labor to expand apprenticeship in the hospitality industry. The Lodging Manager apprenticeship program, which Aimbridge Hospitality participates in, provides an avenue for management companies to increase “bench strength” across the industry for supervisory and managerial positions and qualified candidates.
Rosanna Maietta, president of the AHLA Foundation, added, “The hotel industry is in the business of people, serving our guests, and providing lifelong careers for our employees. Apprentices in the AHLA Foundation program with Aimbridge Hospitality have the unique ability to fast-track their careers into management. The Lodging Manager apprenticeship program allows apprentices to earn competitive wages, gain new skills, have hands-on mentoring with company leaders, earn an industry-recognized certification, and obtain college credit to further their education if they so choose—all at no cost to them. We are proud to have some of the brightest future leaders at Aimbridge Hospitality as part of the program and look forward to supporting their career journey every step of the way.”
Apprentices, made up of some of the highest-performing employees showing an aptitude for management, benefit from on-the-job training and related educational instruction and the ability to learn new skills while receiving paychecks from day one. In turn, the apprenticeship program benefits participating companies by creating highly skilled employees, raising productivity levels, opening the door to potential federal and local funding, and decreasing turnover rates, with roughly 94 percent of apprentices continuing employment with the company where they apprentice. While the program is self-paced, it usually takes apprentices about one year to complete while also working full-time at their respective hotels.
