International Hotel SchoolIHS

The International Hotel School is a private hospitality and culinary school registered with the Department of Higher Education and Training as a private higher education institution under registration number 2000/HE07/005, and separately under number 2009/FE07/077 for further education and training. Its higher education programmes are accredited by the Council on Higher Education, and its degree, diploma and higher certificate qualifications are registered by the South African Qualifications Authority. The school is also an accredited skills development provider with the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations, holding separate accreditation numbers for its Durban, Pretoria, Johannesburg and Cape Town sites, and it runs CATHSSETA-accredited programmes within its traineeship and culinary offerings.

The legal entity is International Hotel School (Pty) Ltd, company registration number 1992/006526/07. The school forms part of the Invictus Education Group, in which the international hospitality education group Sommet Education acquired a majority stake in July 2021.

Teaching is offered in four ways: full time on campus, an in-service traineeship in which a student works at a hospitality establishment while studying online, part time, and fully online. The school describes its full-time model as roughly half classroom learning and half work-integrated learning. Campuses operate in Benoni, Sandton, Roodepoort and Pretoria in Gauteng, in Salt River in Cape Town, in Westville in Durban and in Newton Park in Gqeberha, with an online and support office in Umhlanga.

Qualifications range from a further education and training certificate and national certificates, through higher certificates and three-year diplomas, to a Bachelor of Business Administration in Hospitality Operations Management, with a Bachelor of Business Administration Honours in Hospitality Business Strategy available online. The fields covered are hospitality management, food and beverage, events management, professional cookery and patisserie. Short cooking and baking courses are offered part time.

Entry to the three-year diplomas requires a National Senior Certificate with diploma entry, and the higher certificates require a National Senior Certificate with higher certificate entry, while the culinary arts programmes accept applicants from Grade 10 upwards. The full-time programme pages list March and July intakes, and the online programmes start in March, May, July and October. On fees, the school publishes early-enrolment discounts of between five and ten percent, a five percent discount for settling an account before registration, and interest-free instalment plans paid by debit order.