Joshua Manase is the General Manager for one of Rwanda’s largest hospitality companies and a Hospitality Management Instructor in Akilah’s Evening & Weekend Program.

Akilah prides itself on developing strong, skilled women leaders. But behind every great leader is a great teacher. In our “Staff Spotlight” series, we ask instructors and staff what inspires them about the work they do.

By day, Joshua Manase is the General Manager for Rimas Holdings, a large hospitality company that oversees a range of restaurants, bars, night clubs, and supermarkets in Kigali. After hours, Joshua teaches Hospitality Management in Akilah’s Evening & Weekend Program.

At Rimas, Joshua oversees managers within each chain. “It’s a good challenge, and it teaches you a lot about delegation and relying on your team,” he says. “Sometimes when I finish teaching at Akilah in the evening, I go back to my office at Rimas to make sure everything went smoothly that day.”

We talked to Joshua about the art of bringing industry expertise into the classroom.

It’s an interesting story with me and Akilah. I’ve actually been wanting to join for a long time because I wanted to be able to share my knowledge. But I don’t think I was ready until recently. I still had a lot to learn about the industry.

But I always knew I would end up in teaching. When you go into education, you get to work with young people while their minds are still fresh. You get to build them and see them grow.

In the classroom, I realized how impactful it is to talk about the work I do in the industry every day. I make sure to take the curriculum and incorporate my own experience into it. I flip it, and give them perspectives from the other side, from the industry.

When I give them case studies, I use local examples. If I talk about an international restaurant chain, they won’t relate to it. But if I talk about a local brand, they get it. I’m bringing it home, so to speak. I believe that’s the best way for our students to learn. If we just teach them theory, they won’t get it.

“When I give them case studies, I use local examples. If I talk about an international restaurant chain, they won’t relate to it. But if I talk about a local brand, they get it. I’m bringing it home, so to speak.”

When I was in school, we were given a lot of theory. But we don’t use that in the industry. Nobody cares when the first hotel in Rwanda was built. We care about how you serve our customers, how you use your skills. This is the critical part. That’s what I want to give my students.

I can tell that the students appreciate that I am coming straight from the hospitality industry. I tell them, “This is what I do every day, this is what we are looking for when we hire. We look at what can you do and what value you bring.”

In Rwanda, we tend to focus a lot on soft skills, like customer service and communication — but the hard, technical skills are also important. I don’t care if you’re well-dressed and polite if you serve me a cold filet mignon or you don’t know what wine you’re serving me. You must have a balance between the hard and soft skills.

At Akilah, our curriculum has a big emphasis on soft skills, so I try to bring in the hard skills. Our Hospitality Labs on campus are very useful for this. Our students get to try things out in a setting that is almost like real life.

The biggest surprise for me is how much I am also learning from teaching. The industry is fast-paced, and we don’t have much time to reflect on why we do things the way we do. In class, you need to do research. You need to stay current all the time and be on top of things. I love that aspect of teaching. Sometimes I’ll go back to my team and say, “We should really try this new technology that I’ve been reading about.”

“By the time our students graduate, they know the industry, they have confidence, and you can see they know what they’re talking about.”

With students, you’ll always be challenged. And I love challenges. I tell them about my own journey: I started as an intern, got promoted to receptionist, and today I’m in the executive leadership. I can see how it motivates them. It makes me feel proud to be their teacher. I’m responsible for them; their future is in my hands. If I don’t give them the best, why am I even doing this?

Teaching is something else. Before I started, I thought I would just come in to class, do my job, and go home. But it’s so much more than that. Teaching makes me a better person. The students make me want to go the extra mile. You want to help them reach a level where they can progress and succeed in the industry. It makes me so proud to see how well they’re doing.

Akilah is different from other hospitality programs. As an employer, I see that very clearly. What sets Akilah students apart are their practical skills and their sense of customer care. I love the combination of IT, leadership, and technical skills we teach at Akilah. By the time our students graduate, they know the industry, they have confidence, and you can see they know what they’re talking about.