Vatel Bordeaux earns Qualiopi certification
The school Vatel Bordeaux has achieved Qualiopi certification for all 32 indicators. This quality guarantee is an essential funding requirement for all French training organization. Testimonials from Vatel’s General Manager and Qualiopi Project Manager.
Interview with Ludovic Glorieux (Vatel Bordeaux General Manager) on Qualiopi certification
What is Qualiopi certification?
Qualiopi certification stems from the French act of September 5, 2018, for the freedom to choose one’s future career, which requires that all skills development providers obtain certification from a third-party organization, based on a single set of nationwide guidelines.
In short, national Qualiopi certification offers a confirmation of the quality of the processes and actions we employ as a training provider (continuing education), from a perspective of the development of skills in our trainees. In addition, it makes our range of courses clearer to companies and the students/employees taking them.
To earn this certification, all of the teams at Vatel Bordeaux spent months proving the quality of our training courses, through tangible evidence that demonstrated how we meet the seven quality criteria, broken down into 32 indicators.
We decided to work with the company Modula Formation, represented by Marjolaine Riffaud, because it is a nicely mid-sized firm that is, itself, Qualiopi-certified, and we really appreciated the very personal and professional approach they took in assisting us with our own certification process. Many, many thanks to them for all their help during those long months of work.
We chose AFNOR as our auditor and certifying agency.
What does it mean for Vatel Bordeaux?
Qualiopi certification is the materialization of all of the efforts made by the teams at Vatel Bordeaux to make quality our main focus. It is one of the building blocks of our policy of continuous improvement, to the benefit of the students and employees that we have been training for more than 27 years.
It is recognition of a job well done, for which we regularly receive thanks from our faculty, our students and our professional and institutional partners, but this time, the seal of approval is coming from a completely objective, external organization.
Our auditor noted four key strengths:
- our energetic and extremely close-knit team
- our establishment that is always evolving
- the two labels issued to our hospitality structures, the EU Ecolabel and the “Tourisme & Handicap” accessibility label
- our two campuses and their optimal student services and facilities.
After enduring 18 grueling months of pandemic, it warms all our teams’ hearts to know that we are working diligently to satisfy all of our stakeholders and that their efforts are receiving the credit they are due.
What new prospects does this certification open up for the school?
Qualiopi certification is the foundation for expanding our current initial training courses (Bachelors and MBAs in International Hotel Management) to continuing education and for developing specific programs for professionals working in the tourism industry, as well as in wines and spirits.
This means we will be launching our MBA in International Hotel Management as an apprenticeship in the fall of 2022, and we hope to open up new courses in the coming months, with formats and content designed for working professionals.
On the one hand, this will give students who do not have the financial resources to take a course as initial training the chance to earn a degree as employees, with their employers footing the bill.
On the other, this will satisfy the expectations of hospitality professionals who are suffering from personnel shortages (nearly 237,000 employees having left the hospitality sector in France since February 2020, according to the financial newspaper Les Echos) and who are looking for qualified personnel with the necessary skills, knowledge and know-how.
We will focus on sharing our expertise in our chosen fields and on giving professionals – especially those who are struggling as a result of this unprecedented global crisis – the keys they need, particularly in terms of innovation, thanks to our Hospitality Innovation Lab.
Testimonial from Emmanuelle Beaudet, Qualiopi Project Manager at Vatel Bordeaux
“My role as a Project Manager was, first, to understand the requirements of the national Qualiopi guidelines and, then, to explain them to the teams.
For us, the main challenge posed by Qualiopi was to shine a light on the day-to-day work done by the teams at Vatel Bordeaux. As I said – and repeated – in the months leading up to the audit, we had to painstakingly write out our procedures, because the main points were already in place. Because Vatel Bordeaux has always had a strong quality strategy, this mainly involved documenting our processes to improve their visibility.
The academic and corporate relations departments, which are the very heart of the school, offering daily guidance and assistance to our students and instructors, were able to demonstrate the essential roles that they fulfill every day. In support of that, our other departments also got involved, so that this certification is really a recognition of a whole team’s hard work.
It accentuates our true commitment to transparency, our close ties to the socioeconomic and cultural fabric of Bordeaux and our desire to always do better.”
Testimonial from Marjolaine Riffaud, Qualiopi Project Manager at Modula Formation
“Between the end of 2019 and May 2020, we spent a lot of time preparing for the initial audit, so Qualiopi certification could be achieved in June 2020. We offer more than 150 training courses in a variety of formats (short training modules, group job training, work-study programs, etc.), which is why reviewing all of our practices and documents took quite a while! We were assisted by a Parisian consulting firm, which helped us a lot: a fresh set of eyes is always good for making progress. No such assistance was available in or around Bordeaux, and we wanted to offer real added value to vocational training providers, in the form of truly personalized support, applying very specific methods and using adaptable tools to give those providers confidence in their ability to obtain Qualiopi certification.
Those quality guidelines merely shore up processes that are already entrenched in the practices already in effect at many training organizations. It is important to ensure some degree of monitoring and quality of service in our environment. Preparing for that certification is a real obstacle course for the people responsible for it, because there is a lot of information and proof to communicate, but the team at Vatel Bordeaux did a great job updating and highlighting the school’s practices!
Ms Beaudet and Mr Glorieux rallied the whole team around this common goal, which is no easy feat at an institution with multiple locations. During the guidance phase and their initial audit, they were able to convey their desire to be a part of an extremely comprehensive quality approach. Support for training beneficiaries is a core value at Vatel Bordeaux. I found that my contacts had a forward-thinking vision for the school, in many respects. Its students are in very good hands…”
