Each year, the competition starts with interested Matric students applying to enter the competition. This year, each student had to complete a hospitality-based project which was judged by school teachers and IHS faculty. The most promising of these were then sent to the school and whittled down to 30 semi-finalists per province.
On Saturday 4 June 2011, from 9am until 3.30pm, the 30 semi-finalists were judged by a panel made up of IHS management staff and invited guests. The judges' focus was on the teenagers' abilities in various hospitality related tasks, which included a cook-off, table setting demonstration and a general service assessment.
From 3 July, the five finalists will stay at a Three Cities Group hotel and, over their five day Bootcamp, will be coached and assessed by their 'Drill Sergeants', who are the hotel's heads of departments and GM, to select three winners.
