About Us

The Franschhoek Hospitality Academy & learning Centre is a registered not-for-profit Charitable Trust Reg no: IT000107/2017(C), NPO 208-586 and PBO: 93005749.

Franschhoek, known as the Wine and Food Capital of the Western Cape, boasts a quaint village where a host of award winning restaurants, hotels, guesthouses, local shops, the Franschhoek monument and museum, wineries and arts and crafts are situated.

However, among all this beauty is a dire need for trained and skilled professionals within the hospitality industry. There isn’t an affordable institution within this area to provide disadvantaged students/staff the right to a well-recognized education and basic training and this is where the Franschhoek Hospitality Academy & Learning Centre comes in.

Most hospitality colleges would charge upward from R15,000 per year with in-classroom training and are located a distance of at least half and hour or more away from Franschhoek, making it difficult for members of our community to commute.  This just isn’t affordable or manageable for most people living within the Franschhoek Community and surrounding areas.

How wonderful would it be if a mother, who works in one of our great restaurants/hotels/guest houses, could provide her son or daughter with the opportunity to stay in the area and develop and grow into a job within this field while being able to provide an opportunity to sustain his/her family locally?

Not only will this assist the Community and simplify their already strained lives but this would also benefit our fantastic restaurants and hospitality establishments to have local, skilled and well trained staff available at their doorstep without having to incur high Human Resource costs.
And so our journey began…

EDUCATION IS LIGHT AND BRINGS HOPE

The Franschhoek Hospitality Academy & Learning Centre was established by two individuals, Michaela Julian and Tarryn Corlett, who saw a gap within the industry and wanted to change this by assisting those who can’t afford the opportunity to educate themselves in private/government institutions. Being involved within the Hotel and Tourism Industry, it became apparent that there was a lack of basic training, skills development and hospitality education.

"Workloads are increasing and it is becoming harder and harder for owners of smaller owner run establishments to find the time to train their staff. Many of us may also have insufficient training ourselves and therefore lack the knowledge to teach," says Michaela Julian, Boutique Residence owner and Co-Founder. This was when we decided to find a skills development and training system, that we could offer to our Youth, within the disadvantaged communities, as well as to existing staff within these establishments, at little to no cost.

Yes, that's right, an affordable hospitality training and skills development platform! So how do we go about this?

With the help of Establishments around us, Sponsors, Funders and Supporters, we were able to open our doors in January 2018 at the Franschhoek Community & Sports Centre, in partnership with Hope Through Action and Score. Since 2020 we have moved into our own training facility in Fabriek National, 11 Units G&H, Fabriek Street, Franschhoek. 

The Franschhoek Hospitality Academy & learning Centre is a registered not-for-profit Charitable Trust Reg no: IT000107/2017(C), NPO 208-586 and PBO: 93005749.