This will look like the new hotel school in Wickringen

The work inside the Gridx mega project is in full swing – because even if it doesn’t look like it, the first students of the hotel school should be taught here in a few months. In September, the École d’Hôtellerie et de Tourisme du Luxembourg (EHTL) wants to inaugurate its new antenna in Wickringen.

The hotel school has 384 students this year, the capacities of the current location in Diekirch, which is actually only designed for 250 students, have long been exceeded. The new campus in Wickringen should fix this bottleneck and enable further growth. As EHTL director Michel Lanners explained at the presentation of the new premises on Monday, they offer space for 200 more students.

From next year with your own restaurant

The location in Gridx But has another advantage: students from the south and the center of the country will no longer have to go to Diekirch in the future, but have a location near them. « There are currently, proportionally, not enough students from the south and the center who find their way to Diekirch. That is a shame, after all, these are the regions in which most young people live, » said Minister of Education Claude Meisch (DP) on Monday.

The numbers agree with him. In the current school year, only 17 percent of the EHTL students come from the southern Luxembourg, only 22 percent from the center.

The capacities of the new location in Wickringen are to be gradually screwed up. The EHTL has rented two floors. One of the two floors will be opened for the Rentrée in September. Classrooms are particularly available there. In a first phase, only 70 students will come to Wickringen. Theory courses in particular will be held here.

In order to be able to gain practical experience in a real kitchen, the students will continue to go to Diekirch « for a week or two a week or two, as Michel Lanners explained. There are currently considerations to introduce a shuttle service for students so that they can commute between the two locations of the EHTL.

The future of the hotel school is not in Wickringen

In the course of next year, the campus in Wickringen should be fully operational, including professional kitchens for the practical courses. They are housed on the ground floor of the Gridx. A restaurant that is accessible to the public will also open there. Once all the work has been completed, the same courses in Wickringen are to be offered as in Diekirch.

As great as the anticipation of those responsible for the location in Wickringen, the Gridx is not a definitive solution. In the long term, the plan is still to set up the South Campus of the hotel school in Sassenheim. Four years ago, the castle there was chosen as the second mainstay for the EHTL. However, because the removal and renovation work takes significantly more time than originally planned and the capacities have long been exceeded in Diekirch, a temporary solution was needed.

They have now found those responsible in the Gridx, which, in addition to the hotel school, will also accommodate their own hotel, office space, a conference center, shops, a museum for digital art and a car exhibition. The tenant contract becomes clear that the EHTL is already planning with a longer provisional solution. It is designed for nine years, as Claude Meisch explained. The state has to pay 28 million euros in rent to the owner of the Gridx, the Giorschetti group. It was not until 2034 that the hotel school could then move to Sassenheim Castle.