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USAID/CAPS (http://www.caps.am//) and the Armenian Restaurant Association recently hosted a Hospitality and Restaurant Management training course; the American National Restaurant Association (NRA) Educational Foundation’s ManageFirst Program. The training was conducted by Dr. Mahmood A. Khan, Ph.D., R.D., F.M. P., a Professor at the Department of Hospitality & Tourism Management at Virginia Tech / Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in the USA, who was invited to Armenia for the 4th time. Dr. Khan has been involved in administration, teaching, and research in the area of hospitality and tourism management for the past 30+ years.

Dr. Khan has also developed, reviewed, and evaluated curricula for hospitality and tourism programs in Malaysia, Australia, Cyprus, India, Korea, Taiwan, and the USA. He is a licensed trainer and proctor of a number of NRA courses.
The course took place in October and was followed by an exam on November 1 to allow participants to qualify to become internationally certified trainers. On January 18, at CAPS office, all successful participants will be receiving certificates issued by the American National Restaurant Association.

According to the CAPS Workforce Development Specialist Anush Shahverdyan, “This time we provided a unique opportunity for senior-level managers of the hospitality industry to provide exposure to international experience and an opportunity to evaluate their knowledge vis-à-vis American National Restaurant Association criteria. Now, they can continue studies to qualify to become internationally certified trainers and spread the obtained knowledge in the field”. As she states, the USAID/CAPS Project is contributing to wide-scale changes, which is possible only as a result of training in all levels within the field.

CAPS has conducted a number of training courses for middle-level managers of hotels and restaurants, whereas this recent training was aimed at top managers. Senior managers of various restaurants and hotels took part at the training: Bravo Restaurant, Jazzve, Cactus, Café Central, the Club, Square One, Artbridge, LeBouchon, Baobab, Arthurs Hotel Resort, Golden Tulip Hotel Yerevan, and Vayk Hotel. The program was offered to representatives of Armenia’s restaurants, food service and hospitality industry to assist in setting high management standards and enriching the skills and abilities of the workforce. According to the participants’ assessment, this was an effective and highly important training in providing valuable skills and knowledge to representatives of the hospitality industry.

Dr. Mahmood Khan is considered to be one of the best experts in hotel and restaurant management skills building programs and has a good mastery of the secrets of effective customer service. In Armenia, he conducted six training courses for representatives of the hospitality industry, this time introducing a new management training certification program to representatives of Armenia’s restaurants, food service and hospitality industry to assist in setting high management standards and enriching the skills and abilities of the workforce.