CAPTION: Mosese Tamanitoakula will be spending a year in China on internship with the Sheraton Qingdao Jiaozhou Hotel.
It was a dream come true for a student from the University of the South Pacific who is looking forward to travelling to China for an internship, next week.
Mosese Tamanitoakula, a third year Bachelor of Commerce in Hospitality Management student, will spend a year at the Sheraton Qingdao Jiaozhou Hotel in Beijing, where he will receive training in hotel operations.
The Sheraton Qingdao Jiaozhou Hotel is the first Sheraton branded hotel, as well as the first hotel managed by Starwood Hotels & Resorts, in the new district of Jiaozhou, near Qingdao city in Shandong province.
The 25 year old student from Macuata, Fiji, says that although he is excited about his trip to China, he knows that working at an international hotel will be demanding.
“The trip is not a vacation but an opportunity for me to gain valuable international work experience. Therefore, I will need to overcome the challenge of working in a new environment and work hard as possible, as people in China are known to be very hardworking,” he added.
Tamanitoakula says he wants to make the best use of the opportunity to not only learn about the hotel industry but also to discover the Chinese culture and meet new people.
Before being selected for the China placement, he was very fortunate to spend around two months working for the InterContinental Fiji Golf Resort & Spa, which was a great experience.
Tamanitoakula had expressed his interest in obtaining an international placement, and the University’s School of Tourism and Hospitality Management (STHM) successfully facilitated this request.
The Coordinator of the Hotel Management Programme at USP, Mr Greg Cornwall, described Tamanitoakula as a hardworking and capable student. He elaborated that STHM is committed to providing its students with high standard practical work attachments to further enhance their learning and understanding of the tourism and hotel industry.
Tamanitoakula believes the experience and skills he learns in China will immensely benefit his tourism career in the future.
“During my stay in China, I hope to learn Mandarin and learn five star hotel working skills to help me prepare well for a career as a hotelier. Given that tourism is a major revenue earner in Fiji, it is important that upcoming professionals in the tourism and hotel industry are given practical exposure to help improve the standard of service in hotels and resorts in Fiji,” he pointed out.
During his internship, Tamanitoakula aims to perform to the best of his abilities to further enhance USP’s reputation and to encourage more students to do their placements overseas.
To overcome the barrier of language, Tamanitoakula has been learning the Mandarin language at the USP Confucius Institute to prepare for his trip to China.
He will return to Fiji next year after completing his internship to complete his fourth and final year of studies.
PRESS RELEASE