Les Roches International School of Hotel Management

Les Roches International School of Hotel Management sits at Bluche, on the eastern edge of the Crans-Montana plateau at around 1,300 metres, and has been one of the world's most prestigious hospitality schools since its founding in 1954. The school occupies a cluster of buildings that look part alpine hotel, part campus, with views down toward Sierre and the Rhône Valley below.

The school draws students from over 90 countries and is consistently ranked among the top hospitality programmes globally. Its presence gives the resort an unusually international, multilingual character even outside the peak ski season — staff in many of the resort's hotels and restaurants have trained here or maintain connections to the school. The campus is not generally open to casual visitors, but the school's terrace restaurant occasionally serves guests during the summer semester and the road past it makes for a pleasant walk on the quieter eastern end of the plateau.

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A story
Les Roches was founded in 1954 in Bluche, just east of Montana, by a Swiss educator who believed hotel management should be taught in a working hotel environment rather than a classroom. For its first decades, students lived in the school's own hotel, took classes in the morning, and worked in the kitchens, front desk, and dining room in the afternoon. The model still shapes the curriculum today.

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