Congratulations to the following award winners celebrated at the PIHMS Graduation yesterday. They are:

PIHMS Award for Dux of Post Graduate Diploma in Hotel Management Course
HEMBUNG RAI

PIHMS Award for Dux of Bachelor of Applied Hospitality and Tourism Management Course
DAVID EARBY

The ACCOR Award for Dux of Diploma in Hotel Management Course
TRACEY DUNCAN

PIHMS Postgraduate Award for Effort and Initiative in Industry
JITENDER SINGH

PIHMS Certificate in English Language Award for Effort and Achievement
DUC DUY NGUYEN

PIHMS Award for Effort and Initiative
PAULA ROBERTS

International Hotel Tourism and Training Institute (IHTTI) Award for Attitude
STEPHANIE NEW

PIHMS Workplace Achievement Award
SOPHIA SIMONSON

Leading Hotels of the World School Award for Most Dedicated to Campus Life
NATHAN CULEVSKI

Chairman of PIHMS Board of Directors Award for Leadership
MICHELLE HSU

Matt Warner Student’s Choice Award
NATHAN CULEVSKI

Students who are citizens of 16 different countries took the stage at the PIHMS’ Graduation Ceremony today to collect their degrees and diplomas.

As usual on graduation days, the campus was abuzz with families arriving from all around the country and overseas, gowns being donned, and congratulatory hugs, handshakes and bouquets of flowers.

The guest speaker at the Graduation was Mr Roy Pilott, Editor of the Taranaki Daily News.

Numbers Graduating:
32 Post Graduate Diploma in Hotel Management
14 Bachelor of Applied Hospitality and Tourism
35 Advanced Diploma of Hotel Management
9 PIHMS Certificate in English

Graduating Students are citizens of: Australia, Austria, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Taiwan, USA and Viet Nam

VIPs attending the Graduation Ceremony include:
Hi Excellency, Mr Dato ’Hasnudin Hamzah, High Commissioner of Malaysia
Mr Jonathan Young, Member of Parliament of New Plymouth
Deputy Mayor of New Plymouth, Alex Matheson
Deputy Mayor of South Taranaki, Alex Ballantyne

Taranaki children facing adversity will be the beneficiaries of a fun and innovative event run by PIHMS Degree students.

The students organised a challenge called Bigger & Better, in which teams competed by swapping a packet of Mallowpuffs (chocolate biscuits) for various products and services which would be used to enhance the lives of families in Taranaki with children facing adversity.

The event was run on behalf of the Mellowpuff Trust, which was set up in memory of Melissa Long who lost a long battle with cancer in 2006. Her father, Terry Long says her dying wish was to repay the support her and her family received from a large number of Taranaki people. He set up the Trust to remind the children that they are special no matter what their circumstances are. The Trust aims to provide financial assistance, an experience or a function that will ease their worries, even for one day.

Ten teams competed in the Bigger & Better challenge. Each team started off from the Icons Sports Bar in central New Plymouth with a packet of Mallowpuffs which they were able to swap for bigger and better products and services. In just 4 hours spent persuading local business people to do swaps, they managed to collect products and services worth over $3,300 plus cash donations of $215.

The collection of products & services included a number of dinner vouchers, a voucher for Nice Hotel ($380), an electric guitar with case ($340), ROC sunglasses ($250), a trailer of firewood ($200), clothes, toys and vouchers for beauty treatments. These will all be distributed to deserving families by the Mellowpuff Trust.

Degree student, Moin Shaik says the event, which concluded with a prize-giving at the Icons Sports Bar, exceeded everyone’s expectations.

Congratulations to the students and staff who did us proud in the Taranaki/Wanganui Hospitality Competitions held in the weekend.

Year 1 student, Martin Barlok’s experience shone through and he achieved a gold medal in the Cocktail Making section of the competition.

In the Table Setting, Clearing and Crumbing Down class of the competition, Aleisha Tomlinson won a silver medal and Lisa Fairclough came away with a bronze. Lisa also won a silver medal in the Original Table Setting and Decoration class and Aleisha won a silver in the Barista competition.

Second year student, Tom Imrie won silver medals in the Setting, Clearing and Crumbing Down and Innovative Cocktail/Mocktail competitions

In the New Zealand Regal Salmon Main class, staff member, Nikolas Han was awarded a silver medal and Year 1 student, Matt Fenney gained a Merit. Chef Tutor, Kent Riddell was awarded a Merit in the Taranaki/Wanganui Chef of the Year competition.

It is hoped that buoyed by these good results, our students will be encouraged to enter the National Hospitality Competitions.

PIHMS enjoyed hosting 38 prospective students from all over New Zealand at a Career Week during the second week of the school holidays.

The attendees all stayed in the student accommodation on-campus and were given the opportunity to experience what it is like to live and study at PIHMS. PIHMS offers a highly practical learning environment and the attendees experienced this with shifts in the kitchen and restaurant.

Staff were really impressed that some of the attendees even managed to carry three plates to the tables and were really professional in their demeanour.

Attendees also spent time in the Housekeeping Department learning the correct way to make a bed, folding sheets in the laundry and taking turns on the floor polisher. This is harder than it looks and there was much laughter as attendees chased the floor polisher around the squash court.

Career Week attendees were also given a tour of New Plymouth which included a stop at the best ice-cream shop in town, a jaunt on the coastal walkway and a run down the giant sand dunes at Back Beach, where the Women's World Surf Champs were being held. On the Thursday, they also got their first glimpse of Mt Taranaki which had been hidden behind cloud in the earlier part of the week.

PIHMS is looking forward to seeing many of the Career Week attendees back at the school as many have already indicated they are going to enroll.

Photos of the April 2011 Career Week can be viewed on PIHMS' Facebook page, www.facebook.com/PIHMS.

In the past couple of months, a few of our students on industry placements in hotels in Queensland, Australia and Christchurch, New Zealand have had to cope with some extreme situations.

Firstly, a couple of students were caught up in the major flooding of Brisbane, then a few more had to hunker down for Cyclone Yasi which hit hard some of the island resorts in the Great Barrier Reef area. Then in late February, a number of our students were working in hotels in Christchurch when the devastating 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit.

To read of some of their personal experiences of these situations, please go to www.facebook/PIHMS.

PIHMS has welcomed over 230 students to the New Plymouth campus for the semester starting in February 2011. 76 of these are new students embarking on study towards a Diploma in Hotel Management.

Over 20 nationalities are currently represented on campus. Of course there are many New Zealanders and also the usual big groups from India, Russia, China, Korea and Viet Nam, but this year we also have students from countries such as Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Cambodia and Slovakia.

Students who are citizens of 8 different countries took to the stage at the PIHMS Graduation Ceremony to collect their degrees and diplomas.

As usual on graduation days, the campus was abuzz with families arriving from all around the country and overseas, gowns being donned and congratulatory hugs, handshakes and bouquets of flowers. A fire evacuation just before the ceremony only added to the general excitement.

The guest spakers at the Graduation was Ms Bridget Ashby, Human Resources Administrator, InterContinental Hotel Group, Wellington.

Numbers graduating:
20 Postgraduate Diploma in Hotel Management
18 Bachelor of Applied Hospitality and Tourism
24 Advanced Diploma of Hotel Management
5 PIHMS Certificate in English

Graduating student are citizens of: China, India, Korea, Malasyia, New Zealand, Russia, Taiwan and Viet Nam.

International VIPs attending the Graduation Ceremony included:
Dr Rosli Mohammed, Director, High Commission of Malaysia and Mrs Rosmawati Ahmad
Mr Andrey Kornyukhin, Senior Counsellor and Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of the Russian Federation
Mrs Maria Renata Hutagalung,First Secretary, Indonesian Embassy

PIHMS staff had fun at the recent CATE conference where they met up with many of the secondary school Careers Advisors from around New Zealand. PIHMS Marketing staff are happy to visit schools throughout the year to tell them about the hospitality industry and what PIHMS qualifications are all about. PIHMS is represented at all the major Careers Expos around the country but are also happy to attend Career Expos held at single schools. To invite PIHMS to an expo, please email marketing@pihms.ac.nz.

The school's student accommodation has come through an external audit with flying colours. Qualmark New Zealand rates PIHMS student accommodation as equal to the best in the country with 4 plus stars. The spacious twin share rooms with ensuite bathroom get a big tick as does the social, cultural and recreational programmes.

The Pacific International Hotel Management School has recently hosted two groups from Asia. The first was a group of hoteliers from Vietnam and the second a group of tertiary students from Taiwan.

Nineteen Vietnamese hoteliers from 4 and 5 star hotels in Hanoi visited PIHMS to undertake professional development on how to operate within a Westernised organisastion in their own country. As more international hotel chains open properties in Vietnam, local staff are being required to adapt to Western style management systems.

The hoteliers visiting PIHMS were mainly Deputy General Managers and Heads of Divisions in hotels such as Intercontinental, Sofitel and Mercure. Their 5 day programme of study at PIHMS included seminars on Event Management, Finance Management in the Hotel Environment, Business Communication, Human Resource Management, and Improved Management Skills in the Hotel Environment.

The programme at PIHMS was organised by the Hanoi Travel and Tourism Corporation which is a government body. PIHMS has now signed an MOU to develop this relationship over next 5 years so the school expects to host more groups like this along with others made up of middle level management and also front line staff.

PIHMS attracts a number of Vietnamese students each year to its Diploma in Hotel Management and several students have completed 6 month industry placements in hotels in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Meanwhile, the group visiting the school from Taiwan was made up of 15 Food & Beverage and Travel and Tourism students and a teacher from the Technology and Science Institute of Northern Taiwan in Taipei. The students undertook an intensive one week course in English language and Barista skills. They also had the opportunity to do sightseeing in Taranaki, Waitomo Caves and Auckland.

PIHMS hopes that some of these students may choose to return to the school in the future to undertake the Diploma, Degree or Postgraduate programmes.