Key Club announces partnership with USF Sarasota-Manatee

The Resort at Longboat Key Club and the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee have joined forces, with the Key Club becoming the school’s teaching hotel for the College of Hospitality and Technology Leadership.

In front of nearly 100 guests during a Sept. 3 press conference at the resort, Key Club General Manager Jeff Mayers and USFSM Hospitality and Technology Dean Cihan Cobanoglu announced the partnership and its plans to stimulate the local economy by educating and employing workers in various fields of the hospitality industry.

“We want to educate and employ our students locally,” Cobanoglu said. “Hospitality is a thriving workforce in Manatee and Sarasota counties, and this partnership will help our program not only grow into one of the state’s best, but it will also be a very beneficial, hands-on learning experience for our students.”

The Key Club will be the site of the university’s Teaching Lab program through which hospitality students will shadow key leaders at the resort. The program started this semester with nearly 60 students.

“Florida faces a 17,000-person shortage for open hospitality jobs across the state,” Cobanoglu said. “A new program between the Resort at Longboat Key Club and University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee hopes to take a chunk out of that gap.”

Students will spend 16 hours total working in leadership, front desk, housekeeping and food and beverage areas in the resort to get on-the-job training, Cobanoglu said.

“You’re in real-life situations here at the resort,” Mayers said. “When you’re in the classroom, you could talk about theories, you could talk about processes, but when you’re actually exposed to the day-to-day operation, it really makes you think about how to respond to a decision. That exposure is really going to benefit the students.”

Mayers also announced the partnership will include HospitaBull Evening, the annual fundraising dinner/final exam for hospitality students. It will be held at the resort’s Harbourside Ballroom.

The resort and university will also host the food-and-wine event Bacchus on the Beach, with proceeds going to the USFSM College of Hospitality, Mayers said. The event, held at the Key Club, takes place Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. Tickets can be purchased at longboatkeyclub.com/bacchus-on-the-beach.