✺ The program
What do you learn in twelve weeks?
Nine trades, three specialisations and a common base. What ends up on the certificate, subject by subject, without adjectives.
The common base
The first four weeks share a common base, whichever specialisation you choose.
English for the trade
- Technical vocabulary and communicating with tourists from week one.
Applied maths
- Costs, portions, inventories, the till. The maths of the job, not of the exam.
Computing
- What you need for a booking system, a point of sale or a professional email.
Spanish
- Reading and writing. Some students arrive struggling with them, and nobody is left behind for that.
Life project
- One-to-one sessions to decide where everything else is heading.
First practice
- Kitchen equipment, check-in drills, tours narrated in Spanish. From the first week.
Food and beverage
Three trades. For each, what is taught first and what comes next.
Professional cook
- Dominican and international techniques, menus for tourists, food safety, inventories and costs. Then: advanced cuts, hot and cold kitchen, basic baking and pastry, plating.
Specialised bartender
- Classic mixology and tropical cocktails, wines and beers, non-alcoholic drinks. Then: 50 classic cocktails, flair techniques, creating your own drinks.
Waiter of excellence
- International-standard service, menus and pairings, point-of-sale and reservation systems. Then: French, American and English service protocols, suggestive selling, handling complaints.
Practice takes place in Sienna's restaurant, with real service, and then three days a week in beach restaurants, hotels and high-end restaurants in Las Terrenas. At the end: food-handling certification and a professional portfolio.
Hospitality
Reception and front desk
- Booking systems, check-in and check-out, telephone manner, payments and invoicing. Then: advanced hotel software, room upselling, resolving complaints.
Housekeeping and maintenance
- International cleaning standards, laundry, amenities, preventive maintenance. Then: safe chemical products, organising the trolley, quality supervision.
Concierge and guest relations
- In-depth knowledge of Las Terrenas, recommendations, coordinating tours and transport. Then: a local contact network, personalised recommendations, VIP protocol.
Practice takes place at the front desk and in the eight rooms of Sienna's eco-lodge, with international guests, and then in partner boutique hotels. On class days: advanced English for hospitality, specialised software and team leadership.
Local tourism
Certified tour guide
- History of the Dominican Republic and Samaná, flora and fauna, main and secret routes, storytelling, first aid. Then: 15 routes memorised, group handling, humpback whales in season.
Sales and tourism products
- Dominican crafts, inventories and displays, multicultural customer service, sustainable products. Then: the full catalogue of local products, till and payments, packaging.
Activity coordination
- Organising groups, local suppliers, logistics, entertainment, basic water sports. Then: logistics for multiple activities, transport providers, certified first aid.
Practice: real tours from Sienna, the craft shop with visitors, and then three days a week with whale-watching operators, adventure operators, shops and hotel entertainment teams. At the end: the official guide exam, first-aid certification and an employers' fair.
What is learned in all three
Soft skills
- Punctuality, courtesy, how to speak, stress management, teamwork, personal image. A whole phase, with workshops.
Looking for work
- CV and cover letter written by applying to real openings. How to search, how to present yourself, how to do an interview.
Leadership and entrepreneurship
- On the class days of the work-study phase: leadership techniques, entrepreneurship in food or tourism.
Eight weeks of real experience
- Three days a week in a partner company. On a CV, that is called experience.
What is not on the certificate
A curriculum can be copied. What cannot be copied is where it happens: a restaurant that serves real guests, an eco-lodge with real bookings, a town that hires all year round. The teachers are professionals who still practise their trade, and groups never exceed 12 people so that each one gets corrections, not a speech.
Twelve weeks later, what you know how to do you have already done, with customers who paid for it.