Rosset Bespoke Butlers conduct training in Barbados

The National Transformation Initiative (NTI) is creating access to gold standard training for everyone, as staff from across a range of properties recently experienced.

Having started in October, NTI recently wrapped up international gold standard professional butler and house management training with global expert Simeon Rosset of Scotland. He is the CEO and Head Butler of Rosset Bespoke Butlers and the Rosset International Butler School.

Discussions between Invest Barbados, the TVET Council, the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association and NTI materialised with Rosset coming to Barbados to conduct a four-week pilot training for 12 students, with the intention of a longer-term arrangement in the future. NTI will share an update on that pilot programme separately.

His visit coincided with an outreach to NTI by Madaline Headley-Woodroffe of the Gazebo, who was proactive in her desire to retool her team before the Barbados Employment and Sustainable Transformation (BEST) programme was announced for the tourism sector in the Throne Speech on September 15. As a result, NTI Director Dr Allyson Leacock visited the Gazebo and discussed the option of having Rosset conduct bespoke training for their team after his clearance from quarantine just before beginning his one-month pilot.

This customised training for the Gazebo took place on October 31st and achieved what NTI is striving for: that every establishment, whether big or small, in Barbados offers the best experience across the island.

As a result, the small team at the Gazebo which can boast of patrons like Barbadian icon Robyn Rihanna Fenty, and British television personality Simon Cowell, experienced on-location training at their Payne’s Bay, St, James, beachfront grill.

Dr Leacock believes this training is a key fillip to the NTI’s remit to help companies prepare tourism-specific training plans as part of the BEST programme.

“Our access to Simeon’s services was well aligned with the Gazebo’s proactive approach to the NTI even before the announcement of the BEST programme. The relationship has allowed us to showcase a fresh approach to training that enables our tourism workers to learn new skills and approaches for the future world of work both during and after COVID.

“The attention to detail, our understanding of our identity, and appreciation of being the best in class in everything we do will have far-reaching implications for Barbados’ positioning as a superior destination,” Dr Leacock explained.

Extolling the island’s virtues, Rosset detailed the importance of such training at this time in Barbados: “Post-COVID, people are going to be a lot more fussy about where they go. They are going to be looking for so much when they are making that decision, that people are really going to have to step up to still be competitive.

“So, Barbados has the amazing local charm. It has some of the friendliest people in the world,” he stressed, “but they are also going to need that really high level of service… They are going to need to be able to provide that European-style speed and accuracy within their service because people look on a world stage about where they are going to go, and Barbados needs to be able to push them to make that decision to come here.”

Rosset completed his training in Barbados on November 26. (NTI)