Leading local hotel group, Fortis Hotels, has successfully pioneered a training programme to qualify and then employ trainee chefs that are hearing-impaired.
Fortis Hotels prides itself on being a family business with extensive training and skills development programmes. Despite its national footprint and affiliation with the Protea Hotel Group, Fortis Hotels has maintained this personal touch throughout the company and with their staff. During 2015, the “Deaf Chefs” initiative was spearheaded by Fortis Hotels’ MD, Derick Tait and the groundbreaking programme became a first for South African hospitality.
“We wanted to find a way to upskill and empower trainee chefs and thought what better way to do this than by assisting a handicapped group and creating a completely new category of opportunity for them. The feedback we have had has been incredible and the way that the staff in our kitchens have welcomed and assisted the ‘deaf chef’ trainees has been really exceptional,” says Tait.
Fortis Hotels’ properties consist of five Protea franchised hotels and the Fortis branded hotels, Fortis Hotel Evander and Fortis Hotel Malaga. The hearing-impaired chefs hail from the Trans-Oranje school in Pretoria.
