Aitken Spence opened its School of Hospitality in November 2007 at Ahungalla, Sri Lanka with the assistance of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce and Hilfswerk to bridge the skills gap in the tourism sector. The school was initially set up to recover from the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and assist locals in the Ahungalle region. However, since the ending of the Sri Lankan civil war, the school serves to assist the development in the North and the East as well as other rural areas in the country. The school has so far provided training opportunities for marginalized youth from Uva, North Central, East and Northern provinces in food and beverage services. In 2015, 27 trainees having completed a 3-month basic course in food and beverage, graduated from the Aitken Spence School of Hospitality in Ahungalla.