The MEF Group of restaurants is on the lookout for as many as 100 new employees to meet the demands of the 35th America’s Cup.

Dale Butler, the director of training, leadership and communications at MEF Group, said it was particularly looking for college and university students who would be on the island during the international sailing event, and was organising training opportunities for those interested.

“This is a critical initiative because we want to be able to ensure that each guest that comes to the America’s Cup receives excellent service. We already have a lot of highly trained staff, but we realised we need more.

“This will provide our young people with a golden opportunity to receive a certificate, to earn some extra money and add to their resume. If we could get 100-plus, that would be great.”

Andreas Detzer, general manager at Fourways Inn, added: “We want as many as we can. We would like to hopefully get a large pool. Not everybody is available seven days a week, 24 hours a day.”

He added that the America’s Cup positions could roll into full-time work with the company, saying: “We hopefully will find some really good people. The hospitality industry is always looking for good people.”

Mr Detzer explained that one of the challenges facing the MEF Group with the coming event is the number of daytime catering jobs that are expected.

“We obviously entertain all the spectators, so there will be lots of opportunities with corporate hospitality in particular. We run a 24-hour catering operation and normally at night time we don’t have a problem with staffing because we have a lot of Bermudians who work during the day and can come during the night-time,” he said.

“During America’s Cup, the majority of events happen during the daytime so we will need an extra pool of people.”

He added that, should everything go according to plan, the 20-hour training course would be held while students are on spring break, giving them the opportunity to hit the ground running when they return for the summer.

Irving Raynor, a veteran in the food and beverage industry and an experienced lecturer at Bermuda College, said: “The training itself will be a basic course on how to serve, customer relationships, how to work with people, all these sorts of things. Everybody that is going to be coming may be working in different situations, so we are focusing on customer service, which is very big. America’s Cup is going to bring in a different clientele.

“If we don’t put on a good show, they won’t be back. It’s as simple as that.”

•Those who are interested in participating in the training course or learning more about it can contact Mr Butler at dale@mef.bm or Mr Raynor at imrbda@gmail.com.