His international education experience offers a useful perspective for hospitality: practical learning matters alongside communication, adaptability and respect.
In an interview with Entrepreneur Prime, Raja Ali discusses the human skills developed through international education and work placements. For a hospitality readership, his emphasis on cultural awareness and real-world experience raises valuable questions about how future teams learn and grow.
Hospitality brings people with different backgrounds into close contact. A workplace may depend on colleagues communicating across languages, adapting to unfamiliar expectations and understanding what makes another person feel welcome. Those demands give a particular relevance to Raja Ali’s reflections on international education.
Ali is Group Chief Executive of The IBD Partnership Group. In his cover interview for Entrepreneur Prime Issue 13, he describes building an organisation that supports international learning and professional development. He says the group has supported more than 60,000 learners since 2005 and grown to eight offices globally.
His interview is about education and leadership rather than a specific restaurant or culinary programme. Its usefulness for hospitality lies in the skills he believes people develop when learning is connected with experience beyond familiar surroundings.
Skills that are learnt with people
Ali expects technology to change education, but he argues that practical placements will remain valuable. He places communication, problem-solving, emotional intelligence and cultural awareness alongside technical knowledge.
‘The next generation will need more than technical knowledge,’ he tells Entrepreneur Prime.
For hospitality, that observation offers a useful way to think about training. Knowing a process is essential; responding thoughtfully to a colleague or guest requires judgement as well. Experience in an unfamiliar working environment can make the need to listen and adapt particularly clear.
Partnerships need mutual respect
The same human skills matter at organisational level. Ali describes international relationships shaped by differing cultural expectations and business practices. Partnerships become stronger, in his view, when people invest time in listening and finding common ground.
That perspective can inform how employers and educators think about placements. A useful experience depends on the relationship between the institutions and the people involved, as well as the opportunity on paper. Ali’s account does not establish outcomes for any particular hospitality employer, but it makes a clear case for treating relationships as part of the work.
Making experience accessible
Ali also addresses the barriers that can keep young people from participating. He calls for funding for disadvantaged learners, simpler applications and support that reflects different needs.
For sectors that rely on developing talent, the question is practical: who has a realistic chance to gain experience, build confidence and make professional connections? The ability to benefit from a placement should not be assumed simply because the opportunity exists.
His interview connects those questions with the resilience required to sustain an educational business through disruption. He describes adapting partnerships and markets following Brexit while maintaining the group’s wider purpose. At the centre of the account is a belief that people develop through experience, supported by organisations prepared to invest in them.
Interview highlights
- Real-world experience alongside technical learning.
- Communication, emotional intelligence and cultural awareness as valuable skills.
- Partnerships built through listening and mutual respect.
- Financial and practical support to help disadvantaged learners participate.
“The next generation will need more than technical knowledge.”
Raja Ali, speaking to Entrepreneur Prime
Read the original Raja Ali interview in Entrepreneur Prime and explore Issue 13.
Company: The IBD Partnership Group.
