Hosco unveils new benefits for THE-ICE members

Hosco unveils new benefits for THE-ICE members

As part of the first virtual THE-ICE International Panel of Experts (VIPoE) 2020, THE-ICE’s newest Business Alliance Partner Hosco hosted a workshop addressing Hosco, Lobster Ink and THE-ICE – new partnership benefits – alumni employability tracking and online industry training courses for schools. Hosted by Mr John Lohr, Hosco’s Director of Development, the workshop presented the details of the new Business Alliance Partnership, including the benefits that will be available to all THE-ICE member institutions.

About Hosco & Lobster Ink

Hosco is the world’s largest hospitality network, with 1.5 million activated profiles of students, alumni, and professionals, 600,000 visits per month, and 260,000 monthly users. More than 400 schools use Hosco to internationalise their programs, increase student satisfaction, and in some cases to adopt Hosco’s career and alumni solutions, and over 7,000 hospitality companies use Hosco to attract and hire the best international talent.

Hosco has recently become the officially licensed partner of Lobster Ink, the leading provider of online industry learning content for the biggest hospitality brands globally. Lobster Ink offers over 1,400 online industry training courses used by most of the major corporate hospitality brands (Marriott, Hilton, Kempinski, Mandarin Oriental, etc.) to train their internal staff. Now, via Hosco, schools can adopt this actual online industry learning content to support student online learning, supplement internship experiences, drive more admissions, or build their own micro-certifications. 

Hosco Benefits for THE-ICE Members

THE-ICE has partnered with Hosco to collect and provide accurate data related to alumni employability for its global network of member institutions. Through this partnership, THE-ICE members will be able to keep track of their students’ and alumni’s employment status, role, department, and job location, among other information. The inputs gathered will enable THE-ICE members to:

  • Monitor their placement effectiveness in detail.
  • Track their graduates’ career development.
  • Benchmark their employability practices against other member institutions.
  • Collect critical information about their students and alumni employment status to further improve their hospitality programs and employment offers.
  • Receive time-series data reports to monitor and benchmark their placement activities’ efficacy, to keep improving their employment strategies.

This partnership enables members of THE-ICE to validate their quality through detailing the opportunities and career paths their programmes lead to, and enhance their quality by taking on feedback from alumni as well as current students. This information will help THE-ICE members more effectively position themselves in the increasingly competitive higher education landscape. It was confirmed that, although members will be benchmarked against other THE-ICE institutions, there will be no ranking as the benchmarking is unique to THE-ICE network.

Alumni Data Reports

Every Hosco member has a profile, and these profiles are updated to find a job, further study, or other opportunities. These updates and engagement create a constant stream of data that Hosco can share with THE-ICE and its members. It was noted that wages/salary are not included in this data, as Hosco doesn’t ask this at any touch point on the platform. Mr John Lohr showed attendees templates of the alumni data annual reports and confirmed that these are still in development.

Individual School Reports will include:

  • Percentage of respondents employed.
  • Percentage of respondents in each sector.
  • Percentage of respondents employed nationally and internationally.
  • Raw data exports to provide granular detail, with personal member details redacted.

Aggregate report for THE-ICE will include:

  • Benchmarking of all THE-ICE schools based on key factors provided by schools and derived from the Hosco data.
    • Hosco time series report of key data points presented in white paper format.
    • Analysis of school engagement related to presenting Hosco, registering members, and encouraging alumni participation.

Lobster Ink Benefits for THE-ICE Members

THE-ICE members are entitled to a discount of 25% off Lobster Ink products purchased through Hosco. 

Prior to their partnership with Hosco, Lobster Ink was only available to employees of hotels. Now, institutions can utilise Lobster Ink’s practical, outcomes-based learning and training in the classroom. Lobster Ink is mobile compatible and utilises gamification, as well as being industry supported and industry accepted. Institutions can use Lobster Ink courses and content to support and supplement the internship experience, and can also customise the learning platform, uploading their own content to the LMS and using Lobster Ink’s data functionalities.

Benefits for Hosco Institutional Members

The benefits of the partnership between THE-ICE and Hosco are available to all members of THE-ICE, but institutions who are or wish to become Hosco members gain additional benefits related to community management, career and alumni solutions, data, co-creation and co-branding of content, and the opportunity to attend the annual Hosco Summit. For more information about membership, visit the Hosco website.


The recording of the Hosco workshop: Hosco, Lobster Ink and THE-ICE – new partnership benefits – alumni employability tracking and online industry training courses for schools can be accessed here.

For more information about THE-ICE VIPoE 2020, click here.