New Orleans

In New Orleans, public and private partner to equip students with the skills they need to succeed, expose students to career opportunities in their city, and ensure that the New Orleans economy continues to thrive.

Achieving Tomorrow in New Orleans

To attract, hire, and retain talent from the community, Hilton partners with a local high school and Tulane University’s Earn and Learn program to ensure that New Orleans’ students are exposed to careers in their communities while preserving the city’s rich history and spirit. An example is Hilton's Passport to Success program, which equips New Orleans students with the skills necessary to be successful in a hospitality career by engaging young adults aged 18-24 in a multi-faceted experience that includes hard and soft skills training in the classroom, access to career fairs, and work-based learning opportunities in a variety of hospitality disciplines.

New Orleans Hospitality: Showcasing Opportunity

Hospitality is the third largest sector in New Orleans and its success is dependent on a healthy and robust local workforce pipeline. To ensure that their properties have the talent needed to run, Hilton New Orleans Riverside partners with Warren Easton Charter School to expose high school students to the breadth of career opportunities available in their community.

With a robust curriculum that emphasizes the hard and soft skills needed to work in hospitality, Warren Easton Charter School is the only school in New Orleans that offers a hospitality certificate to graduating students.

Connecting Technical Skills to Soft Skills to Create Career Pathways

Tulane University’s Earn and Learn program helps young adults like James connect technical skills with soft skills to establish long-lasting career pathways. Through the Earn and Learn program and Hilton partnership, students participate in a one-month, work-based learning experience where they gain critical soft skills such as how to conduct themselves in job interviews and how to interact with coworkers.

After the program, James was hired by the Hilton New Orleans Riverside and aspires to one day become a Director of Maintenance Engineering.

Building a Future for New Orleans Hospitality

Millions of people travel to New Orleans every year to experience its world-renowned culture. However, after Hurricane Katrina, the city faced an uphill battle in its economic recovery, with many locals incentivized to leave the city for more stable conditions.

New Orleans has had to develop a unique, targeted approach to grow their own talent at every stage of the pipeline in order to reinvigorate its workforce. A major tenet of this effort is to invest in their own talent and expose students to careers available in their city.

“Hilton is giving back to the community by opening more doors. It helps the community see Hilton as more than just a hotel - they're here for us.”

Kindole Trimbe, Student, Warrant Easton Charter High School

More Voices

Anthonise Banks

College & Career Readiness Instructor, Warren Easton Charter High School

Why wouldn't we home grow our own kids to make them a part of the workforce in their own city? It's bringing money back to our city, it's bringing money back to what is making the business profitable, so why wouldn't we?

David Collier

Senior Program Manager, Earn & Learn at Tulane University

There are 7,000 young adults disconnected from employment and education. Programs like Earn & Learn are important because they serve as that connector and support step to the young adults who are incredibly motivated and have some skills but really need a foot in the door and additional support to be on their way to a career pathway.

James Clark

Maintenance Engineer, Hilton New Orleans Riverside, Earn & Learn Alumni

Learning soft skills and hard skills is important because the soft skills lead up to the hard skills. As a maintenance engineer, I learned how to fix A/C units. When I walk in the guest may be upset, but by the time I leave they’re usually happy and are able to see that I really care about their stay by fixing their air conditioning with a positive attitude.

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