Dubai College of Tourism, DCT, is adapting to the changing global realities by providing a range of innovative virtual internships to students who have just finished their academic year.

With the health and safety of students being the key priority of DCT amid current pandemic, the virtual internships were designed to help successful participants of the college’s year-long certificate programmes in five core specialisations – Tourism, Events, Hospitality, Retail Business and Culinary Arts – prepare for the next stage of their career without any disruption to their studies or affecting their mentorship and training opportunities.

Each virtual internship offered across the five key disciplines was one month in duration and all interns received live training and mentoring by experts in their chosen fields.

DCT partnered with Hilton in providing the virtual internships to students that completed the certificate courses in Hospitality and Culinary Arts. These internships, which commenced at the beginning of June, underscore DCT’s ability to leverage its strong connections and continuous collaboration with stakeholders to help build a highly-skilled workforce for Dubai’s tourism industry and other sectors featuring multiple tourism touch points. Dubai Tourism also supported DCT’s students by providing remote internships this year to participants of DCT’s certificate programmes in Tourism, Events and Retail Business.

Commenting on the internships, Essa bin Hadher, General Manager of DCT, said, “With the current situation upending our plans to provide conventional industry internships at the end of the academic year, Dubai College of Tourism has nevertheless secured several virtual internships to honour its commitment to students who have completed certificate courses in the five core specialisations at DCT.”

“The strong spirit of collaboration that exists between DCT and its stakeholders has led to the kind of partnerships that are of immense benefit to our students, such as the significant number of virtual internships provided this year by Hilton, a world leader in the hospitality sector. Working with our industry partners enabled us to provide an invaluable experience for those on the course and ensure that successful completion of these internships will serve as a springboard to exciting career opportunities for all candidates, enabling them to enter the tourist-facing workforce with practical experience and valuable industry knowledge,” he concluded.