Skilled manpower in focus at Travel India 2016 conference

Anup K Chatterji, GM-HRD, ITDC, claimed that skilled manpower is the key to boost tourism in the country. Speaking at The Travel India 2016 conference held at The Oberoi Grand, Kolkata, Chatterji said, “Servicing the sector with skilled manpower effectively is a pre-requisite for the actualization of tourism specific expectations. This is both an imperative and a challenge.” Addressing a gathering of important government dignitaries, industry captains and international business delegations from China and Bangladesh, he put emphasis on the need to meet the demand of skilled and trained manpower and to bridge the current skill gap in the hospitality sector. Speaking on the increasing demand for skilled manpower in the sector, Chatterji talked about ITDC’s effort to provide hospitality education to students as well as certifying and upgrading skills of existing service providers. “Ashok Institute of Hospitality & Tourism Management (AIHTM), a hospitality training institute and the HRD division of India Tourism Development Corporation aims to work towards making a difference to the academic culture for the students by offering a globally competitive curriculum and infrastructure.” He further added, “Looking at the future requirement, AIHTM is focusing more on job-oriented short term and long term courses, with a recently launched three year degree course in Hospitality and Hotel Administration in affiliation with the National Council for Hotel Management and Catering Technology.”