Testimony of a student who was hired by the Illa Hotel after his internship
Marco Astudillo is 19 years old and is studying in the third year of high school at Las Cuadras School. He lives in the Santa Barbara neighborhood south of Quito, with his mother and five siblings. He has always been a responsible and dedicated student, for which his teachers hold him in high esteem and admiration. Marco decided to study tourism specialization at the school because his dream is to know his country and promote its natural, gastronomic and natural riches.
As part of the requirements to graduate from the school, tourism students must be linked with a partner in the tourism sector to do their internships, and thanks to the linkage management that the Skilling for Sustainable Tourism project did with the Hotel Illa, one of the most representative hotels of the colonial historic center of Quito, Marco and some of his classmates were able to do their internships at this hotel. When asked to describe his experience during the internship, he replied: “What I liked most about my internship was that I learned many new things, such as the language of some guests and their cultures, also something that surprised me very much was realizing that foreigners greatly value our culture, our history and customs such as traditional games, our gastronomy and our tourist places”.
The area in which Marco did his internship was that of housekeeper and he manifests that it was a very enriching experience since he was in charge of the order and cleanliness of each room. He considers it to be one of the most important areas because it was up to him to make the guest feel comfortable in a clean and orderly place and, above all, to make a good impression of the Hotel and the country. He emphasizes the fact that this experience not only gave him many skills but also helped him in the personal sphere, because he learned to be orderly and to socialize more with people.
When asked how he got a job at the hotel after his internship, he replied: “I think it was thanks to the great performance I showed while doing the internship, but also because of that desire to learn more, since I really liked the world I got to know through the Illa Hotel”.
Marco currently works on Fridays from 14:00 to 18:00 and on weekends from 08:00 to 15:00. His job is to maintain the order and cleanliness of the rooms and public areas and sometimes also receives guests and their luggage. With great joy he mentions that everything he learned during his internship, is now being put into practice and although it takes an hour to get to the hotel, he is proud to have a source of income doing something he likes and brings him closer to his dream.