Hilton Colombo Residences participates in Hilton’s largest annual global career initiative

• Careers@Hilton Week showcases the diverse and rewarding career opportunities in hospitality for job seekers around the world

Hilton Colombo Residences joined in to support Hilton Global’s annual global career event, ‘Careers@Hilton Week’ with a line-up of events aimed at showcasing the many opportunities available in the hospitality industry for young job seekers. Adding a ‘first’ to the hotel chain’s activities, the events took the form of a roadshow in the hope of reaching the rural areas of the country where a stigma still exists in working in the hospitality field, especially for young women.

Conducted in two phases, Hilton Residence’s activities kick started in May with phase one launched in Jaffna and Tissamaharamaya. Phase two will be wheeled out in June covering five other areas of Sri Lanka. 

The initiative to kick start the program in May came with the intention to be in line with the global initiative which saw Hilton hotels and corporate offices around the globe hosting hundreds of events portraying the exciting and diverse career opportunities in the industry.

On 10 and 15 May respectively, teams from Hilton Colombo Residences travelled to Jaffna and Tissamaharamaya and received an overwhelming response from the students as well as teachers who partook in the event. With two successful events under its belt, the property is eager to kick start its second phase covering northeast, central hills and the west coast.

Expressing his sentiments Hilton Colombo Residences General Manager Karim Schadlou, said: “It was indeed a pleasing moment to witness the level of enthusiasm the students showcased during our visits. During phase one, our team was able to reach out to over 300 students from the respective locales and we are proud to be the first hotel to conduct a workshop of this nature in Jaffna. We will be moving forward with phase two in June where our teams will travel to Trincomalee, Kandy, Badulla, Nuwara Eliya and Negombo.” He also shared that the underlying objective of this Roadshow is to reach out to over 1,500 youth in key locations around the country. “It is imperative for the future of the industry as a whole to provide them with an understanding of hotel operational and administrative functions.”

This initiative is a part of Hilton’s ‘Open Doors’ commitment, which aims to positively impact at least one million young people by 2019 by connecting them to opportunities in the hospitality industry, preparing them to reach their full potential or directly employing them. Hilton is on track to reach this target, with nearly 800,000 young people impacted through global partnerships, talent pipeline and local activations to date. Participants join Hilton for events ranging from résumé clinics to networking, as well as presentations from current employees about their career paths in hospitality.

For more information about Hilton’s Youth commitments, please visit http://newsroom.hilton.com/index.cfm/misc/youth. For information on job opportunities with Hilton, visit http://jobs.hiltonworldwide.com/.