The National Restaurant Association (NRA) has partnered with the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) to take joint ownership of the American Hotel & Lodging Association Educational Institute (AHLEI). Currently owned by AHLA, AHLEI is recognized as the training and certifying body for the hospitality industry.
Given the nature of the hospitality industry and the intrinsic sharing that goes on between the restaurant and lodging sectors, NRA and AHLA saw a unique opportunity to combine resources to produce an even more robust training program that will benefit employees in their career development and improve overall consumer satisfaction, according to the NRA. AHLA will retain the certification business, and the NRA will assume day-to-day responsibility for AHLEI’s training program business. Under the intended agreement, NRA will purchase the AHLEI portfolio of 180 training products and assets, as well as the Lansing, Mich., building owned by AHLEI.
AHLEI will be run as a separate business under the NRA’s Training & Certification division. The acquisition is slated to be complete by the end of 2016.