1. Aptitude

There is no minimum level of qualification necessary for acceptance under the scholarship scheme. However, each of the courses involves a sustained period of reflection and study and the assessment panel will want to be sure that the candidate has the necessary aptitude to benefit from, and contribute to this experience.

2. Industry experience

The level of previous experience within the industry will depend upon the chosen course. The General Managers Programme at Cornell requires all candidates to be practising hotel General Managers. Ideally those attending the Accelerated Talent Development Programme course at Cranfield will have recently become, or whose next position should be, General Manager. Candidates for Lausanne should show the ambition and potential to be General Managers in the future.

3. Communication

Group study and interaction with fellow students is central to each course and the assessors will wish to be confident that the chosen candidates have the capability, and communication skills to contribute to the overall learning experience of the course. The assessment panel will be looking for an awareness of topical issues both within and external to our industry and the ability of the candidate to hold and present a view on these issues.

4. Self awareness

Awareness of one’s own strengths, weaknesses and learning needs is an important pre-requisite to successful study and the assessment panel will be looking for evidence of this.

5. Need

The scheme was initiated and developed to help the ‘rising stars’ employed in smaller, independent businesses that may not have the resources usually found in the larger companies to provide the time or money to support such development. Priority will therefore be given to those candidates who can demonstrate the greatest need for financial support for their management development.

The scheme aims to support as wide a spectrum of applicants as possible. Each applicant is decided on a case by case basis. Multiple applications from a single organisation may therefore be disadvantaged.

6. Value

The assessment panel has a duty to ensure that the greatest value is obtained from the funds invested in the scheme by the sponsoring bodies. They will therefore wish to be satisfied that each award achieves the overall objective of advancing management skills in the UK Hospitality industry.

The candidates will therefore need to demonstrate a clear long term commitment to the industry and a willingness to use their skills to encourage others to enter the industry, and to further develop others in the industry.