By REBECCA WALSH
Sixteen-year-old April Cureton-Griffiths has always told her mother that one day she will manage the Ritz Hotel in London. Already, she is planning how to get there.
The Takapuna Grammar student is one of many at the school keen to join a programme set up by the Hospitality Standards Institute to develop partnerships between schools and the industry.
The Oasis programme - Offering Assistance to Students in Schools - aims to give students a taste of the real thing. Takapuna Grammar and the Centra Hotel have signed the first Auckland partnership, and similar schemes similar partnerships are under way in Wellington and Christchurch.
April, who is in the sixth form, wants to get into hotel management - ideally the top job.
"The hospitality industry is practical," she says. "You see results."
At the end of the school year she hopes to be in fulltime work at the Centra before starting a three-year hotel management course.
Things could happen even faster for fellow student Jonathan Grant, 18, who fancies becoming New Zealand's version of "Naked Chef" Jamie Oliver - "I like his style."
Jonathan, who is in the seventh form, plans to do a certificate in basic cookery at Auckland University of Technology next year and work part-time.
"Hospitality is always going to be there," he says. "People have always got to eat and sleep."
Taste of the real thing for hotel students
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