Union Tourism Minister, Shri Subodh Kant Sahai has said that as part of its initiative to bridge the skilled manpower gap in the hospitality sector, the Ministry of Tourism is being geared up to increase the annual output of skilled manpower thorough its “Hunar Se Rozgar” programme from 6000 to 10,000 in the coming year. Presenting the National Awards For Excellence In Hospitality Education in New Delhi today, he said that our endeavor would be to take this initiative to remote and economically backward regions of the country so that educated youth of these regions get employment opportunities in this expanding sector. Shri Sahai said considering its success and acceptability, the ambit of the Scheme is proposed to be expanded both in terms of number of beneficiaries as well as the courses being offered. Earlier the Programme was offering short duration quality training courses covering Food & Beverage Service and Food Production only. From next year, two more courses in House keeping and, Bakery will be introduced.
The Tourism Minister said that hospitality industry needs about 2 lakh trained persons every year but the supply is just about 27000 persons, which gets further reduced by one-third due to attrition. He said the Central Government, on its part, has been actively trying to bridge the skilled manpower shortage by setting up more govt. sponsored Institutes of Hotel Management and Food Crafts Institutes and augmenting the capacity of existing ones.
Shri Sahai said our IHMs and FCIs have also taken initiative in running short-term hospitality courses of skills development and skills testing & certification of the existing service providers. This will be a significant improvement but would still not be enough.
However, the Minister was of the opinion that much of the efforts and resources for creating world class hospitality service will have to come from within the Industry. The Industry will, as such, be expected to evolve and stabilize traditions and conventions of excellence and quality in service and create facilitative institutions and systems.
Shri Sahai said our IHMs and FCIs have to raise themselves to the level of Institutes of excellence to spur and stimulate similar efforts in the Private Sector. He said “I therefore urge the Institutes to make earnest effort to raise their standards so as to be acceptable internationally, to become model institutes.”
The Tourism Minister said in order to build the capacity of the faculty working in our institutes, the Ministry has already commenced the training of teachers in premier institutes in India and abroad. He said more than 100 teachers have already availed of this programme.
Shri Sahai said cuisine forms a very important part of the civilization and culture of a country. India, with its diverse foods, enjoys a niche position in the gastronomical atlas. In order to preserve, propagate, research, document and patent the numerous hues of the Indian cuisines through an institutional mechanism, the Ministry of Tourism has already initiated steps for the setting up of a National Culinary Institute, the Minister added.
