New Delhi: Proving the clichéd talk 'sky is the limit' as real, the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and the India branch (at Mumbai) of Orlando-based American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute (AH&LEI) recently tied up to start a 'School of Tourism and Hospitality Service Sectoral Management (SOTHSSM)'. Apart from Tourism, the school will develop Hospitality courses as well.The SOTHSSM has already launched its first academic programme for bachelor degree in International Hospitality Administration (BA-IHA) under an upgraded programme. Alike Tourism, Hospitality also will be taught and trained through a mix of online, face-to-face and Open & Distance Learning (ODL) mode. The courses will be inter-disciplinary, trans-disciplinary and based on sectoral research.A slew of new courses in hospitality will soon be offered from Certificate to PhD levels. Among programmes slated from January 2009 session will be an Integrated 5-year PhD programme in Hospitality, a bridge course for Diploma holders to enable them join the a PG programme, besides the already launched BA-IHA programme.The IGNOU think-tank is mulling a number of add-on programmes in the school to ensure steady outflow of trained professionals with higher capabilities at hospitality, food services and tertiary activities. For that purpose, the academic programmes have been divided into two areas - Hospitality Administration which includes food services, housekeeping and maintenance, and Tourism with special doses of ancient & modern history and archaeology.For the Hospitality segment of the school, IGNOU has tied up with 45 institutions, of which 28 are Special Programme Centres (SPCs) having infrastructure and facilities to educate, train and groom young professionals for the job-market. The programmes have started from this session onwards.According to the department coordinator, Mr. K.V. Simon, "Growth in the Hospitality activities during a last few years has been mind-boggling. This growth has been boosted by surge of employment-seekers and rise in purchasing power of the middle-class.""I believe we will need over a million of hospitality professionals in next 10 years and we will groom them to become world-class professionals too. At present, we are getting about 20,000 trained manpower per annum. That, at present is situation in the vacuum. Taking into consideration the growth of huge numbers of hotels, motels, restaurants, luxury cruise liners, resorts, homes, etc. all over the world, scope for trained professionals to grow is unlimited. Over 60 percent of them are being provided by India, globally", Simon added.Mr. Simon also explained how the industry is growing in this field. "For every senior manager in a Hospitality set-up, the ratio of staff is 1:20, which means, every Senior Manager needs 20 members in the staff for his department alone. With this, trained staff for supporting services is also required. Such services are House Keeping and Maintenance. Every complex needs professional staff to manage it. The tertiary education is an essential adjuvant to the entire sector."The big or small hotels, motels, restaurants, complexes and offices - all at present are generally serviced by staff that are not professionally trained or focused. But each of these set-ups needs such professionals to scale up their service quality. Considering the demand, in the coming decade, the Hospitality industry will be able to provide trained hand even to street-side restaurants. As development takes more and more space in India's economic life, a question will constantly dog the decision-makers in public and private sectors - 'How best do we scale it up?' For an answer, professional trained personnel will be required even for small set-ups like boarding institutes, cafeteria, food plazas, restaurants, malls etc.IGNOU, therefore, is aiming at contributing to building up human resources at various levels in Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure. The ODL education and trainings at SPCs will build up capacity in the learners.According to the 'Objectives' of the school, the university will enroll researchers for high quality studies in Hospitality Administration and Tourism, both for societal and industrial needs.Besides providing quality trained personnel to industries, the varsity will also require faculty members in core subjects, as regular, tenure-based, flexible, in ranks of directors, professors, readers, lecturers and project associates. Certain specialized areas, for example, history, geography, management, sociology, environment, information sciences, tourism, food and beverages, front-office management, house-keeping, culinary expertise, and hotel management, will get natural focus.Hospitality primarily means giving shelter and food to touring population. It has naturally been boosted by travelling. Together, these areas have become niche revenue generators for all countries of the world. In India, with millions of careers-seekers, the demand for trained personnel has become immense. The industry has also earned profound respectability due to activities of inter-disciplinary industries.
Source: http://www.indiaeducation.net/distanceeducation/universities/ignou_university/
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