A massive turnout is anticipated for the DART hospitality job fair on Wednesday October 11th. The event at the Kimpton Seafire Resort and Spa will feature the full range of job and career opportunities at DART for Caymanians, permanent residents and holders of Residency and Employment Rights Certificates.
With an outlook for a booming 2023/2024 peak season, demand for staff is high, said Dianne Conolly, Hospitality Programme Manager at DART. At Hotel Indigo alone there are 365 vacancies to be filled in time for when it comes on stream in April 2024.
She was the guest on the Caymanian Times podcast, Cayman Conversations with Ralph Lewis.
“We encourage anyone who is interested in positions whether it is at the Kimpton Seafire Resort and Spa, the Ritz Carlton Grand Cayman, or Hotel Indigo opening next year in April 2024. If they’re interested in a position there, there are quite a lot of openings, we have 365 openings at Hotel Indigo, so quite some opportunities.”
We definitely encourage people to actually go online and register their interest so that they can be given a time to come in and have a one-on-one with the managers.”
She further explained that prospective employees can speak with managers who’ll be available to answer all their questions and outline the possibilities in the hospitality sector, especially working at DART.
“They can speak to them about opportunities. They can also learn more about training programmes that are available and can inquire about careers within the hospitality sector. So quite an opportunity here.”
Among the main attractions alongside the career prospects are pay grades, career progression and job security in the industry, a point brought up by Cayman Conversations host Ralph Lewis and addressed by Dianne Conolly.
Pay rates can be up to $12 and even $30 an hour at peak times with gratuities added to basic wages as confirmed by some employees.
“Well, let me tell you some of them get paid really, really, really well. More than some of us out here. Especially when you come into high seasons you really have some good gratuities coming in. Yes, it does have the high season and low season and that balances it out. At high season you can expect to be working quite hard and long hours and one of the things that we also want to highlight is that when you’re working in the world of hospitality, you have to be flexible,” she said.
In addition to the job prospects, training opportunities are available on the DART Hospitality Training Programme, Ms Conolly said as she outlined the range of roles available from entry-level to professional.
“All our programmes and what we are putting together will help to entice more Caymanians into the hospitality field for sure. Between the opportunities and sharing with them what they can possibly do because a lot of people don’t understand how diverse the opportunities are in hospitality. Accounting we need accountants, we need marketing, all of these positions can still fill up with hospitality for you. And so it’s about teaching that to our key managers, especially the younger ones about where they can go and what opportunities are out there. And I think we’ve kind of seen that on some of our programmes and the training itself.”
The DART Hospitality Programme Manager also stated that their focus is to encourage and attract more Caymanians into the sector.
“We’re hoping that by next year we will see more Caymanians in the frontlines, that they will take up the training that’s needed to be better equipped to be out there and being representatives for the Cayman Islands. And also inquire; talk to other people about what their career looks like so that you understand whether this is a good fit for you or not. So definitely a year from now we would like to see a lot more Caymanians and that’s one of the biggest things of this drive.”
An official statement from DART said that with hundreds of positions to be filled, the objective is to attract as many interested Caymanians as possible to be part of an authentic visitor experience.
The job fair is open to Caymanians, permanent residents and holders of Residency and Employment Rights Certificates.
The job fair follows DART’S bid to provide training to young Caymanians to be the destination’s ideal tourism ambassadors through the DART Hospitality Training Programme, which features three months of paid on-the-job training and exposure across a variety of roles in one of the main pillars of the Cayman Islands economy.
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