Being 25 years old this year, the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology has celebrated its quarter-century with a recent extension and complete refurbishment to its school of hotel and catering studies. The refurbishment means that the school now has the most advanced technological equipment at the disposal of those taking its degree, diploma and certificate courses.

The equipment will be of invaluable help, too, in the research and consultancy assignments which the school undertakes in collaboration with industry.

Among those courses offered by the GalwayMayo Institute is a national certificate (NCEA) in hotel and catering management. It takes place over two years and offers a course of studies to mature students with experience at craft or supervisory level in the industry.

A national certificate (NTCB) in advanced restaurant service skills lasts for 16 weeks and deals with banqueting and outdoor catering, food commodities and cooking methods as well as new technology and computerisation. The institute's course for the national certificate (NTCB) in hospitality skills is over two years and prepares participants for a variety of work in the hotel and catering industry. Its national certificate in marketing for small tourism enterprises (day release) is aimed at enhancing the marketing skills of proprietors/managers in small to medium-sized tourism enterprises.