Hospitality Grad Numbers Grow
The number of students graduating from the Northern Ireland Hospitality School has doubled within the last year, from 36 in 2024 to 71 in 2025, with all of this year’s graduates remaining in employment in local hotels or going on to further education.
Confirming plans to widen its net to include more hotel partners in the Mid and East Antrim area, the School has also attracted seven new funders from the private sector, seeing support almost double over the last 12 months.
Established in 2021 and initially funded by The Gallaher Trust, the Northern Ireland Hospitality School is a collaboration between three Ballymena-based hotels, Galgorm Resort, the Tullyglass House Hotel and the Adair Arms Hotel. With courses delivered by Northern Regional College, the Northern Ireland Hospitality School was set up to provide opportunities for skills development and in response to the industry-wide issue of recruiting and maintaining highly skilled staff.
Boasting a number of academies covering the bar, chef and restaurant service disciplines, a total of 230 students have graduated since the School’s inception, 128 of these graduating through the bar academy, while 94 have completed the restaurant academy. A total of 11 chefs have also graduated since 2021, with three chefs in this year’s class.
Ashley Douglas, Director of Operations, says:
"Quite simply, our mission is to deliver world-class training to our students that we can eventually expand beyond the realms of Ballymena to additional locations within the Mid and East Antrim Council area and eventually across Northern Ireland."
Pictured are, from left, Ashley Douglas, Director of Operations at the School; Aaron Finlay, Executive Chef at Galgorm Resort; and Djann Balmes, a former graduate and manager of the Conservatory and Gin Library at Galgorm Resort.
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