Under the agreement, Kedah’s education authorities will provide a list of disabled school leavers to the hotels whereby members of the MAH Kedah/Perlis Chapter will help train these students for a specific period.
Upon completion of their training, these students may be offered permanent jobs if they meet the hoteliers’ basic service and job expectations. This partnership arrangement is believed to be the first in the country by MAH to address the labour woes faced by its members.
A number of the hotel staff laid off during the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic-cum-lockdown have either found new and better paying jobs in other industries or started their own business.
Many
of them are reluctant to return to work in the hotel industry given the
uncertainty as to when international borders would be reopened amidst the rising
Covid-19 cases.Eugene Dass
At
the signing ceremony of this partnership agreement held at the Star City Hotel
in Alor Star, the two signatories were MAH Kedah/Perlis chairman Eugene Dass and
Kedah education director Rozaini Ahmad.
According
to Rozaini, each school in Kedah has an average 30 students suffering from some
forms of mental or physical disabilities. While some of these students may be
slow learners, they can be trained to earn an honest living and be accepted by
the community.
Eugene says its Fuller Hotel in Kulim, currently employs two physically challenged staff in its housekeeping division.
Also present at the signing ceremony were MAH Kedah/Perlis vice chairman Razmi Rahmat (General Manager of Adya Langkawi), its honorary secretary Reginald T Pereira (CEO of Tanjung Rhu Resort Langkawi, other hotel general managers from Sungai Petani and Alor Star as well as Kedah deputy education director Mokhtar Ahmad.
SMK Dato Wan Mohd Saman’s special education teacher Mohd Nazri Zulkeply, who was also at the event, welcomes the initiative by the hoteliers to train the physically challenged school leavers, offering them opportunities to be self-reliant.
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