Orlando, Florida, March 2015—Taylor’s Dining Room, a student-staffed restaurant and experiential learning lab at Oklahoma State University’s School of Hotel & Restaurant Administration, has earned the designation of Certified Guest Service Property from the American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute (AHLEI). They are the first collegiate property to achieve this designation. To earn the title, the students working at the restaurant completed AHLEI’s Guest Service Gold® training and earned the Certified Guest Service Professional (CGSP®) designation.
Latoya Gibbs, who teaches the Service Management in Hospitality Operations class, (pictured with graduate assistant Haemi Kim) explained that the 50 students in the class are divided into five daily shifts and rotate through front-of-the-house positions at Taylor’s Dining Room, including manager, server, host/hostess, and barista. The restaurant is open from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. each weekday, and also hosts private functions and events. In previous semesters in another class, the students had the opportunity to work in back-of-the-house positions at the restaurant.
“Many of these students will be going out into the field after graduation as managers in food and beverage and hospitality,” Gibbs explained. “It’s important for them to get experience working in every position that they may be managing someday. This training is essential to their success.”
In the fall 2014 term, Gibbs added the Guest Service Gold® training to her course. Students did the training online and took the Certified Guest Service Professional (CGSP®) exam, which they all passed. The training and certification will be a standard part of the Service Management in Hospitality Operations class going forward. Gibbs noted that she adopted the certification in order to give her students an edge in the job market.
“Industry certification is key,” she said. “I want my students to have both an academic degree and certification. Especially in a service industry, it’s important that they can demonstrate the education they have received. Having the CGSP® shows employers that they know what they are doing.”
Students in Oklahoma State’s hospitality program also have the opportunity to earn the Certification in Hotel Industry Analytics (CHIA). Gibbs also plans to pilot AHLEI’s new START for Restaurant Server online training and have students sit for the Certified Restaurant Server (CRS) exam, providing them with additional opportunities to graduate with professional certifications in their career field.
For more information on Guest Service Gold® and becoming a Certified Guest Service Property, visit www.ahlei.org.
