A New LifeDespite his love for politics, Stuart Jauncey feels passionate and privileged to run a hotel school in Galway. Michelle McDonaghreports
Stuart Jauncey may have left school without any qualifications, but the head of the school of hotel and catering studies at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) has certainly managed to build up a very interesting CV since.
Having decided he wanted to be a chef because "I didn't like school and it didn't like me either", Worcestershire-born Jauncey went into the industry at a young age and trained as a chef. He followed this up in 1985 with a BSc (Hons) in catering management and education studies at Oxford Polytechnic.
One of Jauncey's earliest jobs was in Blenheim Palace, the stately home belonging to the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough.
"I used to walk along the table tops wearing felt shoes to lay the table. I only weighed about eight stone at the time," he laughs. "Princess Margaret and Sarah Armstrong came one New Year's Eve while I was there with other members of the royal family."
The exposure to such a high standard of service opened the door to Jauncey's next job as a hotel services manager at the Kuwait Conference Centre in 1987 during the fifth Islamic Summit.
"For the three days of the summit, I didn't sleep. We had to transfer food between the six apartment blocks in the centre and security was so tight, they were all surrounded by checkpoints.
"I don't know how many AK47s were pointed at me over the three days."
After the conference, Jauncey was asked to stay on in Kuwait as operations manager of the Amir's palace and the conference centre, which he did for a further two and a half years.
With the political situation in Kuwait becoming more volatile, he returned to England in 1989 to study for a masters in hotel management at the University of Surrey.
Two years later, he moved to Oxford - where he met his wife, Dilly - to study for a certificate in education at Oxford Brookes University. In 1990 he became a lecturer at the department of hotel and catering management at Oxford Brookes and, in 1995, was made head of the department.
He founded the Centre for Environmental Studies in the Hospitality Industry at Oxford Brookes University in 1998 to form a focus for environmental research and consultancy, which is still running today. It was about this time that he also become involved in local politics.
"There were a few issues around speeding cars, drugs and the youth in the area and I decided that rather than complaining about it, I would get involved. The next I knew, I found I had been elected onto the parish and district councils in West Oxfordshire and become environmental spokesman for the Liberal Democrats."
Although canvassing the very conservative, well-heeled Tory area of West Oxfordshire as a Liberal Democrat could be "soul destroying" at times, overall they were "wildly exciting times" for Jauncey and "great fun".
However, his political duties along with his work as an external examiner at centres in Ireland and the UK (and studying for his PhD) meant Jauncey was only home eight weekends in the year before he and his family moved to Ireland.
When the opportunity to head the school of hotel and catering studies at GMIT arose five years ago, Jauncey jumped at the chance and he and Dilly and their three children, Thomas (8), Daisy (18 months) and Flora (four months), have settled in very well to life in Galway.
His first task was to establish the new West of Ireland Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Research which is involved in a wide range of research activity. As head of school, Jauncey is responsible for three academic departments consisting of 62 staff and 1,300 students studying on certificate, diploma, degree and postgraduate programmes in hospitality, culinary arts and tourism.
"Students can come here and learn to be a barman, a waitress or work in the tourist industry. They can progress right up to PhD level. School level qualifications are not a good predictor of how well you will do in the hotel and catering industry. What matters is that you are interested in people and committed to the job," he says.
The foul-mouthed chef Gordon Ramsay gives the industry a bad image, according to Jauncey, who points out that the reality in a modern kitchen is very different.
Although he does miss the excitement of political life at times, Jauncey is content with his decision to leave politics and the UK and is passionate about his role at GMIT.
"I had to make a decision between what I am doing now and a career in politics. I love both, but doing both simultaneously is not compatible with a happy family and home life.
"It's a real pleasure and privilege to run a hotel school and also to be elected by your community to represent them, but I had to make a choice between the two."
These days, Jauncey even has time to go fishing and he has grown to love the west of Ireland. And to those who call Galway "the graveyard of ambition", he says this is simply not true.
"Galway is a dynamic city with an exciting, progressive institute which is moving forward in the provision of education all the time," he says.