Hospitality Career Institute

The Hospitality Career Institute (HCI) at Northampton Community College was established to increase overall service excellence in all areas of hospitality and to accommodate a growing industrial sector within the greater Lehigh Valley and Poconos. The Institute works closely with industry leaders. HCI's curriculum exceeds industry standards and provides the tools for participants to be successful in their careers.

• Open enrollment, public workshops
• Customized, contracted training
• Credit programs

Most of our courses are held at NCC's Fowler Family Southside Center in Bethlehem. We also offer classes at our other campuses and locations as well as web-based classes through NCC's Online Learning program for credit courses and through ed2go for non-credit courses.

• Joining in partnerships with industry leaders such as Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem and the Lehigh Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau.
• Expanding Northampton's highly successful hospitality and culinary credit programs with shorter modules for local businesses to accommodate their needs
• Building on the highly successful community education division of Northampton Community College
• Recruiting a new HCI director with outstanding qualifications and extensive industry experience

MARKET OUTLOOK
Careers in hospitality, food service and retail operations are growing in a region where the economic drivers are changing to include tourism as a major player. In the Lehigh Valley, more than 84 percent of jobs are in the service sector-some 300,000 jobs-up from 72 percent in 1990. Forecast growth in the leisure and hospitality sector is estimated to be 19.0 percent through 2014, with more than 1,000 jobs planned when the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem opens in 2009.

This sector continues to have a large number of lucrative positions such as chefs, hotelmanagers, restaurant managers and event planners. Food servers, utility workers, housekeepers, front desk clerks, banquet workers, sales representatives, hosts and hostesses and line cooks are always needed.

Salaries and wages are quite varied in the leisure and hospitality services sector and rangefrom a front desk clerk earning $7.15 - $13.00 per hour to food service supervisors and managers at $20,000 - $50,000 per year.

Sources:
Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry
Lehigh Valley Workforce Investment Board
Pennsylvania Career Link - Lehigh Valley

David F. Schweiger
Director
Hospitality Career Institute
hci@northampton.edu
610-332-6580