One year into a transformative collaboration focused on the Art and Heart of Service, the Grantley Adams International Airport (GAIA) and the National Transformation Initiative (NTI) are celebrating the impact of a training journey that is reshaping the airport community from the inside out.
On April 17, the two partners marked the milestone with a press conference held in the GAIA Conference Room, highlighting the success of the Art and Heart of Service training programme and unveiling plans for continued personal and professional development.
GAIA CEO Hadley Bourne reflected on the reach and impact of the programme over the past year, “It has been extremely successful. I’ve sat in on several of the sessions, completed the training myself and the feedback shows that it has been well-received. Even the reports that we would have gotten in terms of how the staff have engaged with customers, we’ve seen a significant depletion in complaints.”
Delivered by the NTI, The Art and Heart of Service training has already reached 60% of the airport community—over 2,700 individuals. What makes the programme stand out is its focus on every layer of the airport’s operations, bringing together airport staff, airline and aviation partners, service providers, government agencies, concessionaires and representatives from 148 companies within the airport community for one shared purpose: to raise the standard of service and strengthen the sense of unity and personal responsibility across the airport.
The training programme which links customer service with security awareness training, covers topics such as workplace culture, transformation, communication, deportment, disability etiquette, teamwork, and ethics and integrity, with sessions designed to build connection and resilience in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment.
Dr. The Hon. Allyson Leacock, Director of the NTI and one of the programme’s lead facilitators alongside Artivists Maria Holder-Small, Adrian Green and former Chief Immigration Officer Margaret Inniss, praised GAIA’s commitment to inclusion and ongoing improvement, “We’ve done 53 training sessions. We’ve seen four additional companies join us, making it 148 companies. So the diversity of the airport community is fully represented in the training. We have had 67.3% of participants give us their feedback in our online surveys and they have collectively given the NTI training a Star Rating of 98%. We have also designed a specialised hub, customised for the Grantley-Adams International Airport community.”
She also spoke to the wider transformation that has taken place over the past year, “It is, transformative in a very real sense, because we have not in our time, and I would have to say personally as a facilitator and consultant, I’ve not seen this often where an entity pulls together every strand of operations to let people genuinely feel part of a team. And that is what we’ve experienced here every week.”
Feedback from the GAIA community has been overwhelmingly positive, with many describing the experience as personally transformative and immediately applicable. GAIA Communications Specialist Sharleen Browne added, “This commitment to a culture of excellence that I’ve had the privilege of being a part of weekly has been an incredible journey thus far.”
Another key announcement at the press conference was the launch of a new phase of training in collaboration with Rosetta Stone. This language training initiative will see staff dedicating at least 10 hours per month to language learning, alongside one weekly tutoring session with native-speaking coaches. Spanish will be the first language offered, followed by German and French.
Yesid Polania, Head of LATAM and the Caribbean at Rosetta Stone, described the partnership as a forward-thinking investment in Barbados’ global readiness, “Today is special because this isn’t just about language training. It’s about the future of Barbados. It’s about preparing the country’s workforce to meet the demands of a global economy, starting right here at GAIA, the gateway between Barbados and the world.”
As Barbados continues to position itself as a world-class destination, the GAIA–NTI partnership is setting a new standard for how training, teamwork and transformation can take flight. The appetite for growth remains strong, with participants now requesting further training in communication, customer service, emotional intelligence, leadership, management, information technology, cyber security, personal development, entrepreneurship and sign language.
