The Tribune

By KYLE WALKINE

Tribune Staff Reporter

kwalkine@tribunemedia.net

BAHA Mar yesterday offered more than 150 people jobs at the $3.5bn Cable Beach resort that is set to open on December 8. 

The first graduates of Baha Mar’s Leadership Development Institute (LDI) walked into the Melia resort and took their seats only to find an envelope with a job offer that will be fulfilled after they complete a “special task”.

For some of the students, their temporary assignment or “special task” will run until the hotel’s opening. 

The graduates completed 16 weeks of training, in staggered morning and evening sessions, without pay, in hopes of getting one of the 4,000 positions the hotel hopes to fill by opening day. 

“You will be the hosts of our guests from all over the world that come to us excited in anticipation,” Sarkis Izmirlian, Baha Mar’s chairman and chief executive officer (CEO), told the group.

“We have promised them that the Baha Mar experience will be different in its genuine reflection of Bahamian culture, its individuality and humanity.

“Baha Mar, like many of you has stumbled. We have faced obstacles that would have made many others quit. But we did not. We persevered, regrouped and became stronger. We are smarter and better for it. We showed grit and character.”

According to Baha Mar’s Senior Vice-President Robert Sands, the graduates will take up several positions, such as dealers, front desk agents, pool attendants, security officers and bus boys/girls.

Founder of Brilliance Based Institute, in Orlando, Florida and author Simon T Bailey gave the keynote address. He said LDI’s first crop of graduates is going to transform the tourism industry in the Bahamas. 

“I believe they have hope to make a bigger and better difference,” he said. “For them, coming to Baha Mar is not just a job. It’s about an opportunity to touch a life. I think it’s so amazing today to see the graduates so full of hope and opportunity.”

Dominique Moss, a 21-year-old graduate, said the opportunity to join LDI came at the lowest point in his life when he lost his mother, his grandmother and shortly after, his job. 

“LDI was a blessing to me. This chance came when I had lost the two most important people to me,” he said. 

“The biggest thing I learned in this programme was self-awareness. It helped me to understand people and why they are the way they are. I learned to stop feeling sorry for myself and that no one in this world owes you anything.”

There are currently 300 people in training at LDI hoping to secure a spot on Baha Mar’s team. 

According to Mr Sands the resort is 80 per cent complete with the remaining work to be done, including civil work, being completed from the “inside out.”