Marriott Learn: A World of Opportunities in Hospitality

Marriott International, the world's largest travel company, offers a wide array of learning and development programs designed to cultivate talent and provide pathways for growth within the hospitality industry. These programs cater to individuals at various stages of their careers, from students and recent graduates to experienced professionals seeking leadership development. With a commitment to nurturing talent and providing avenues for advancement, Marriott's learning initiatives provide individuals with invaluable skills, industry-recognized qualifications, and a supportive environment to thrive.

Early Career Opportunities: Launching Your Hospitality Journey

Marriott provides numerous opportunities worldwide for those early in their careers. These include global direct placement and apprenticeships in the Europe and Asia Pacific regions. These programs offer the chance to learn first-hand about a hotel’s operations and find your true calling in the travel industry.

Apprenticeships:

Apprenticeships at Marriott are paid, entry-level job roles that provide individuals at the beginning of their careers with practical experience in a specific area, culminating in a recognized qualification. These apprenticeships are available across various levels and can be a great alternative if university isn't the right path. You can apply for one of our apprenticeships if you’ve left school or if you already work for Marriott and want to hone your skills in a certain area.

Andy's story exemplifies the success that can be achieved through Marriott's apprenticeship program. Initially interested in sports, Andy pursued a leisure club role advertised with Marriott after studying sport science. He found the experience enriching, balancing studies in anatomy, body types, and nutrition with practical application in the gym. This experience led him to a career in human resources, where his sports background proved invaluable for teamwork and communication. Andy is now on the UK Provinces Next Gen Marriott Business Council, where he helps identify new talent and promote apprenticeships.

Voyage Program: A Post-Graduate Leadership Development Experience

Voyage is Marriott International’s post-graduate award-winning, global leadership development program. It is offered in over 50 countries. However, it’s important to note that in order to work in ANY country, you require work authorization there. Voyage grew out of all of that in 2012.

The Voyage Program is not an internship. As a Voyager, you’re a manager - in most cases, you will have people that you supervise on a daily basis. You’ll perform management tasks and be seen as a leader on property.

Voyage Program Details:

Voyagers must have work authorization in the country for which they’re applying AND either be a current senior who graduates with a bachelor’s degree prior to the program starting or be a recent graduate who has received their bachelor’s degree within the past 24 months.
Voyagers are scheduled for 40-hour work weeks, but can sometimes work a little more or a little less than that depending on the hotel’s business demand.
As full-time Marriott associates, you’re eligible for all the same benefits as any other full-time associate.
The heart of our business is hotel operations-hotels can’t function without great customer service and a strong housekeeping team, which requires associates to be in person to make it work. Therefore, 99% of all Voyage roles are in-person. One exception currently is a Sales Voyager, but Sales Voyagers make up 1% of all our Voyage hires, making them incredibly competitive. Getting your foot in the door with Marriott is just the first part of your journey; once part of our team, you can easily change departments in the future.
There are start dates in January, February, June, July, and a small handful in September. A new Voyager is eligible to start their position following graduation.
During your Voyage, you will be able to immerse yourself in the operations of your specific discipline and in other disciplines through mini-departmental rotations. Though you will be able to have some hands-on in multiple departments, this is not a rotational training program as you will be spending 95% of your time in your specific discipline. To supplement your hands-on development, you are assigned the Voyage curriculum which allows you to learn specific discipline and departmental training. In addition, as a Voyager, you have formal monthly rap sessions with your Property Coach (direct manager) and formal quarterly rap sessions with your Property Champion (executive hotel member).

Voyage Program Disciplines:

For culinarians, Marriott is seeking students who have a culinary arts degree, or have significant experience “working the line” if their degree is in another field of study. Culinary Voyagers can expect to be working in the kitchen, so having proper knife skills and training is a must.
For facilities management engineers (we use the term “engineer” to describe the people who keep the hotel in working order, anything from lightbulbs to fire alarms), Marriott is seeking students who have previous experience or a degree in facilities management - being able to fix an HVAC system or a water main break will come in handy!
For accountants, Marriott is seeking students who are accounting majors or accounting minors.

A Voyager's Success Story:

Meet Max. Max is entering their senior year of college as a Comms major and has no idea what’s happening post-graduation. Max wants to enter the workforce, to find a full-time, grown-up job, but has no idea where to apply. Max has never considered hospitality as their full-time career (and between you and me, doesn’t even know that it’s a field of study), but at their college’s career fair runs into the Marriott table. Max is intrigued - could this be the perfect first step in Max’s career? Over the next week, Max hears back from the same patient, enthusiastic recruiter - they made it to the next round! Per the recruiter’s instructions, Max sends their preferences for location (beach-adjacent, please!) and department (F&B or Banquets sound like a fit, given Max’s skillset). Then, Max gets prompted to complete a skills assessment. After that, the recruiter schedules a virtual interview for a few days later - thank goodness, because Max needs time to research and prepare, searching tips on STAR interviews online. Just one week later… Max has an offer! The position: An F&B Voyager at a beach-adjacent hotel, just as requested! Wow, a real, full-time job at a Fortune 500 company with salary, benefits and a relocation bonus - Marriott is even introducing Max to other Voyagers in the new city for potential future roommates. It’s only October and graduation isn’t until May - and Max already has an actual, grown-up job lined up. Jump forward a few years, and Max is the Director of Operations at a different hotel with even better beach views. Max has been promoted a handful of times, is very satisfied with their comp and benefits (especially being able to land cheap hotel rates with the Marriott associate travel discount), adores the team culture, and has even been nominated for a corporate leadership development program by their boss. Max is a representation - an amalgamation, if you will - of the thousands of college students who have entered Marriott’s Voyage Program and built robust, successful careers as a result.

Marriott HQ Fellowship Program: Connecting Through Travel

The Marriott HQ Fellowship program provides undergraduate, graduate, MBA, and Law students the opportunity to connect with people through the power of travel. The program includes curated learning paths, career growth and development opportunities, informative programming with access to executives, and exposure to real business challenges faced by Marriott leaders. Participants are onboarded each summer at our headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland. Search for these opportunities on our site during the months of September-October.

EMEA Marriott University Internship Program: Experiencing Hospitality from the Ground Up

The EMEA Marriott University Internship Program provides current university students and recent graduates in Europe, Middle East, and Africa with the opportunity to experience the hospitality industry from the ground up. Marriott has curated dedicated training materials and access to the ‘Become’ program to help interns envision and plan their career paths.

Olivia, a Food & Beverage Expert and Intern at the Lagos Marriott Hotel Ikeja, found her internship invaluable. She stated, “This experience was invaluable. I had the opportunity to immerse myself in the world of hospitality, learning the ins and outs of organization, leadership and planning. This journey has not only helped me grow professionally but also taught me a lot about myself. Hotel internships allow you to truly experience the industry from the ground up, just like our founders and many of our leaders did at the beginning of their journeys."

Members of EMEA’s Marriott University Internship Program are already part of our global family. Besides a salary, our interns are eligible for room, food and beverage discounts at 1,000s of our hotels. Your internship with Marriott is just the beginning of an exciting journey with us. We’re committed to supporting your growth and development, and guiding you to opportunities so you can advance within the global Marriott family.

Learning and Development for Frontline Workers

Training and development are top of mind for many leaders heading into 2025. Whether or not employees receive regular training and development opportunities impacts how willing they are to adopt AI technology. Yet, some roles have a harder time accessing training and development than others within an organization.

When considering what training to offer frontline employees, Marriott focuses on foundational skills delivered in a fit-to-purpose format. These programs target relevant topics with actionable tips and lessons, and are designed to be short and digestible.

Key Considerations for Frontline Worker Training:

Time Constraints: Acknowledge the importance of time and the many demands on your frontline associates.
Foundational Skills: Don’t forget to offer foundational skills.
Learner Input: Get back to the basics and really talk to the learners when building these programs.
Digitization: Focus on getting smart around digitization of some of our learning. Getting things bite-size and mobile-friendly is a big part of it.

Global Leadership Development: Cultivating Executive Talent

Tim Tobin, Senior Director of Global Leadership Development at Marriott International, is responsible for designing, implementing, and evaluating Marriott’s global leadership development programs for Vice Presidents and above. He emphasizes the challenge of balancing the needs of multiple stakeholders and the importance of thinking strategically and showing value.

Key Aspects of Global Leadership Development:

The challenge that must be resolved is the extent to which a solution is operationally simple or complex.
Managers are the integrators and translators. They have got to be able to effectively balance and convey strategic and operation needs. They must translate problems to generate a variety of possible solutions. Managers must also consider sustainability.
At Marriott, as a global organization, technology is a critical tool to involve stakeholders from around the world. Given the multi-generational workforce and different comfort levels with various technologies, it is critical to select the right communication medium and technology tool depending on audience and message. At Marriott, we are very relationship-driven and we rely heavily on live communication throughout projects to build and maintain relationships.
For performance improvement-the extent to which there are well-defined competencies, a representative evaluation process, and a link to developmental activities-there is a greater likelihood of performance improvement. Technology can be used as an enabler in all aspects of performance improvement, but only to the extent you’re asking the right questions and working toward the right results.

The Future of Training and Development:

Tim Tobin envisions more learning solutions driven by business issues, with a greater emphasis on measuring results. He anticipates a move away from measures like dollars spent per employee or training budget as a percentage of revenue and more toward behavior change and ROI. He expects to see more informal learning and the utilization of mobile devices for learning.

Opportunities in Europe and Asia Pacific

In Europe, you will find these opportunities in Germany, France, and United Kingdom and in many countries in our Asia Pacific region.

Benefits and Perks

Marriott employees are eligible for a comprehensive benefits package, which may include:

Salary
Room, food, and beverage discounts at thousands of hotels.
Relocation bonus
Associate travel discount

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