A training centre will soon undergo a BD2 million ($5.3 million) revamp to become the country's first hospitality college, preparing people to fill thousands of tourism jobs coming up across the region.

The Bahrain Institute of Hospitality and Retail (BIHR) in Barbar was once home to St Christopher's Infant School.

However, work on expanding the site to include a new college will get underway in August.

Once completed, the new college will offer diplomas and degrees in hospitality, which will complement vocational training courses already on offer at the institute.

Work on the expansion is expected to take seven months to complete, BIHR chief operating officer Dr Roy Wood told the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.

The new college will initially teach hospitality, but will later introduce retail courses.

'The name of the college is yet to be confirmed, but the college will have three-year Bachelor's degree course and two-year diploma in Hospitality Management in conjunction with two overseas universities,' he said.

'One is the Northwood University in the US and the other is a British university that will be revealed later.

'In the long run, we are planning to also have a Bachelor's degree course in retail, which will be accredited from the Australian Retail Association,' he said.

The college will feature training kitchens, a training restaurant, laboratories for teaching practices such as front office services, regular classrooms and faculty offices.

'The college will accommodate 150 students in its first year - we are planning to have more than 700 students by the fifth year,' he said.

'The Labour Fund is placing 300 seats for Bahraini diploma students they will sponsor and 50 for Bachelor's degrees.'

The centre currently caters to 250 trainees, but Dr Wood says it plans to open doors to students from across the world once the new college is ready.

'We are aiming to get GCC students and others from the Middle East, Asia and Eastern Europe,' he said.

It is also planning partnerships in the construction of similar colleges in Pakistan, India, Saudi Arabia and Oman.

'We are building a college in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, called Saudi Hospitality and Tourism Training Company, which will have a hospitality diploma,' added Dr Wood.

He urged Bahrainis to pursue a career in the region's growing hospitality sector, saying statistics indicated a 5,000 increase in hotel rooms over the next five years.

'Hospitality in the hotel sector is an international opportunity and it's absolutely phenomenal,' said Dr Wood.

'This sector is extremely well-paid if you work at the managerial level.

'By the age of 30 or 31 you can become a general manager and earn around $200,000 (BD75,600) to $250,000 (BD94,500) a year.

'Bahrain is growing rapidly and with time, it will be a main tourism destination, helping raise salaries in the hospitality sector,' he said.

Dr Wood is a published author on hospitality management and has just completed his latest book, The SAGE Handbook of Hospitality Management, with co-author Bob Brotherton.-TradeArabia News Service