Maria Del Carmen Garcia Pena, a graduate of Switzerland’s Les Roches International School of Hotel Management, was declared winner of the inaugural Arabian Travel Market (ATM) apprentice programme.

The ATM Apprentice, a new initiative for 2011, was launched by hotel group Millennium & Copthorne Middle East, at the leading travel event in Dubai.

Under this, the winner gets a unique, fast-track career opportunity within Millennium & Copthorne hotel chain which owns, asset manages and operates over 120 hotels in 19 countries around the world.

Pena, a Mexican national, will be employed within the coveted management trainee role, starting at Millennium & Copthorne from August in the new Millennium Plaza, Dubai which opens in September.

“As a future graduate of Les Roches International School of Hotel Management, I am eager and prepared to commence my career,” said an excited Pena.

In learning the key hotel management skills, she will rotate across the group’s various divisions and also its different properties across the region.

Chris Watson, regional head of Human Resources, Middle East & Africa, Millennium & Copthorne Middle East, said, “Pena’s enthusiasm, commitment to build a career in the industry and to live and work within the region set her apart from the strong cast of candidates ATM Apprentice attracted.”

Scores of candidates submitted written applications via the Apprentice website, with the best of these entered into the second stage which involved completing various assessments.

These judged performance across a variety of scenarios within the ATM Apprentice’s human resources and sales and marketing categories, including management of workplace conflict, innovative thinking and creativity.

“It was an incredibly diverse mix of candidates, drawing men and women of various ages, nationalities and career stages, from entry level to mature age. The advantage of the ATM Apprentice programme is that it enables candidates to fully express their personality, charisma and positivity,” Watson said.

So strong was the standard of applicants for ATM Apprentice that it will select candidates for other roles, including two each within its HR and management trainee teams.-TradeArabia News Service