Iyanthi imparts quality training for hospitality

Sanjeevi Jayasuriya

Training and development to harness potential pave way for better future prospects. This is also an essential aspect in the country's forward march. Sri Lanka is blessed with trainable youth with multiple talents. They look for openings where education and training provide the key for upward movement in life.

There is an encouraging trend that more women are becoming entrepreneurs by furthering their experience and skills which they acquired while working under an employee.

Iyanthi Goonewardene is no exemption. She gained valuable experience while being a chef and her demanding job which required long working hours deprived her of quality time with the family. Iyanthi decided to venture on her own capitalizing on her skills and experience by establishing a hotel school to impart her knowledge to mould youth to benefit from a rapidly growing tourism industry.

Her Win-Stone Group has carved out a name among the similar institutions at a time where hotel schools are mushrooming for quick returns.

She was interviewed by Daily News Business.

Excerpts of the interview.

Q. How do you describe your line of business?

A. The venture is education centered and we provide hospitality industry related education at the hotel school at Jubilee Post in Nugegoda. It is run under the Win-Stone Group that includes Hotel Developers and Management (Pvt) Ltd and School of Culinary Art (Pvt) Ltd. I serve the Group in the capacity of Managing

Director which started in 2004. The hotel school is directly involved in training people for tourism industry. We are affiliated to TAFE-South Australia and registered at the Training and Vocational Education Institute. The evaluation courses are run by City and Guilds. We have a staff of 15 and a foreign technical advisor. We conduct three main streams in cookery, food and beverage and pastry for three annual intakes with a limit of 35 students per course. We offer certificate, diploma and higher Diploma courses. The qualification is equal to NVQ level. The response is very encouraging and the school caters to the booming tourism industry. We are the only hotel school to run the TAFE commercial cookery level 3 certification. We provide youth an opportunity to be qualified in Sri Lanka with one tenth of a cost of a foreign course.

Q. How do you mange time to handle your personal life?

A. As I am involved in my own venture I have the ability to schedule and prioritize my work. My husband too is involved in the same filed and we have one grown-up daughter. She is independent and this gives me the flexibility to concentrate more on the hotel school.

Q. What motivated you to venture into business?

A. Well, I am a chef by profession. I was looking forward for a venture of my own since that was a demanding job. The experience in the hospitality industry enabled me to eventually to do business in the same field. I was able to relate my skills and experience for this venture where positive environment for industry growth prevails at present.

Q.What are your goals?

A. My goal is to make the Win- Stone Group run hotel school the best hotel school in South East Asia. Though this is a distant dream I am confident of achieving this.

Q. How do you face the challenge of competition?

A. I do not take any problem as a problem, but a challenge and an opportunity to improve further. My competitive edge is quality.

Q. What example do you provide others?

A. The importance of commitment for what you are doing. The straightforwardness and honesty in dealings which involve the future of our young generation. I enjoy what I am doing and as being serious all the time will close doors for happiness. It is vital to manage stressful environment.

Q.What is your specialty?

A. Patience, commitment and strength to achieve success.

Q. What are your achievements in business?

A. The Win-Stone Group hotel school is rated as the best private school in Sri Lanka. We were the first to go online cooking, a project funded by the Asian Development Bank. We also ventured into the Eastern Province after peace and offered online courses with the support of the government. I pioneered the first culinary paper Rasasaraniya which was a popular platform to discuss recipes and innovative cooking. The Training and Vocational Education Institute has recognized the hotel school as an A grade institution.

Q. What is your message to society?

A. Tourism is an industry that is fast growing both locally as well as internationally. This industry has created a huge number of job opportunities and there is a ready made job market for the qualified. This is an ideal avenue to climb the ladder and to reach the zenith. It is a money spinning field for the right person and more youth need to be groomed to become skilled hoteliers. The hospitality industry is a good place for young job seekers both males and females to train and qualify to reach the top. They should be properly guided and need to discipline them. People make mistakes and we need to learn from these mistakes as not to repeat.

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