A Personal Angel for the Super Rich
Data scientist, cyber security specialist, developer… When we think about the professions of the future, we often think about new technology. But rarely do we hear anyone talking about the career with a brilliant future that involves the person in charge of carefully placing flowers on a yacht and ensuring that they are facing towards the north, or getting an empty apartment in the world’s tallest tower – the Burj Khalifa in Dubai – ready following a house move involving three different countries, as well as making sure the pantry and the wine cellar are well stocked. This is what the daily tasks of a Personal Angel, or personal assistant in the private sector, look like – taking care of the necessities that the lifestyles of the wealthy and their families require. And there are many of them: following the start of the pandemic, the number of multimillionaires grew to over 3000 in 2020 (13.4% more than in 2019) according to Wealth-X, a company dedicated to research about the 1%.
How does one attend to their requests? What is required in order to manage villas in several locations, that belong to a client and their family: people who are constantly travelling, very socially exposed and that value even the smallest of details? Well, there is a school that trains those who take care of all these things.
It has opened recently and was brought to life by Lourdes Carbó, founder of Alberta La Grup, a Spanish company that is specialised in luxury services and concierge in high-end residential buildings, and an expert in the industry with over 15 years of experience. “We don’t manage tasks or request, but rather values such as people’s time, information and emotions. We worked out that there are 137 skills and capabilities required to be a Personal Angel and those are the areas that we train our students in.” says Carbó.
In the school, named The Lifestyle Institute, there are two editions of the Postgraduate Course per year, one in spring and one in autumn, each one lasting for three months (240 teaching hours). Their 22 modules are far from what you would study in a typical university or business school: Mega Yacht Management, Sociology of Luxury, The Value of Time, How to Start an Art Collection, The Universe of Flowers, Philanthropy… Collaborating partners such as NetJets, the leading company in private jet rental, run some of them. The third edition of the Postgraduate course will begin in October.
The objective is to understand how the super rich think, how they eat, what kind of events they want to go to and what their lifestyle is like. 80% of the course is practical and the training is online (with live classes) – there are even students in Mexico and South Africa. The last week of the course takes place in person, either in Barcelona or Madrid, with future plans to travel to London, Singapore or other destinations.
The Postgraduate course costs 7,500 euros plus VAT and the Lifestyle Institute has grants available to all students for different specializations, depending on their needs. It also includes job opportunities as the school has reached agreements with several international recruitment agencies such as IMA, a global network for international personal assistants.
Translation: Emily Benton