AHLEI: Seven decades of excellence in global hospitality education

It was back in 1953 that American Hotel and Lodging Educational Institute (AHLEI) was founded. The institute began as the educational arm of the American Hotel & Lodging Association and offers hospitality organisations and schools with quality resources to train, educate and certify new professionals. In February 2017, it became part of the National Restaurant Association’s Training and Certification division. AHLEI is widely recognised as the preeminent leader in global hospitality certification. Its solutions enable upward growth and learning in the industry. Professional certification options begin at the frontline level and continue all the way through general management. 

Sharing more information about AHLEI, Dennie Matthews, Business Head, APAC, says, “American Hotel and Lodging Educational Institute has been in the education and training business for the past 70+ years and our primary focus has been on hospitality operations related programmes. Broadly, we have two channels of programmes – one which is for the academic markets (from vocational to higher level curriculums) and the other curated for professionals in the industry, more commonly known as Professional Certifications.”

Matthews adds these programmes are distinct with the former aimed for the aspiring hospitality professional and the latter certifying the hospitality professional. “Besides, since 2017 we are also part of the National Restaurant Association (NRA) USA and now bring the advantage of this new chapter by bringing their finest food safety related programmes worldwide including India.  These programmes and certifications are the finest content and meeting the highest standards of food safety requirements in the US. These are offered as both print and online and we see a shift towards digital consumption of learning content and assessments as the current generation is true digital native.” Apart from academic and professional programmes, AHLEI creates a lot of micro-credential based contemporary programmes and training resources and used for quick addressal of pressing issues in the industry.

Talking about the new offerings, Matthews says, “We have a constant pipeline of programmes in R&D and Product Testing stage. We are blessed with a very strong team of professionals who understand the core issues in the industry and academics which need addressal and refresh existing programmes with newer editions or bringing new ones into the market which are both relevant and in demand.” One of the latest programmes brought into the market in Q1 of 2024 is a refreshed, enhanced and better delivered vocational level certification titled START programme – covering about six different skills for the industry. 

“We are proud to have partnered with Tourism and Hospitality Sector Skill Council (THSC) to offer these programmes in India as a dual certification to our partner schools. We truly believe this would elevate the level of skill certification in hospitality in our country and we could be setting this as a precedent of high quality affordable programme at the line level, which incidentally is a crying need of the industry. Besides this, we have more programmes around restaurants and hospitality operations in the making, including for hospitality managers leading to a certification titled Certified Hospitality Manager,” shares Matthews.

On how AHLEI is different from its competitors, he says, “We operate in a different space and level. We do not see others in education and training as competitors but instead more of complementing partners in both academia and industry. We work from high to vocational schools and independent hotel schools to universities. We are also associated with the industry – both hotels and restaurants. Finally, we work closely with tourism boards, governmental and non-governmental agencies as well as workforce development projects. Our  contribution is bringing relevant, contemporary, authentic and global programmes to our partners in every corner of the world.”

AHLEI, Matthews says, has an enviable Education Advisory Council with a blend of top industry professionals and academicians. This combination leads to great output in creating programmes which reduce industry-academic divide in the content which the learners consume.  “We see ourselves in a very unique yet highly collaborative business model to operate in,” he concludes.