BW Hotelier Indian Hospitality Awards and Summit 2017 was held in The Leela Ambience Gurugram on 23rd and 24th March 2017. The theme of the conclave was 'Ramping up for the Future'.
A post lunch panel discussion on 23rd March was based around the current state of hospitality education in India. How hotel schools can measure up to the industry expectations.
The panel saw industry experts from all the domains in the hospitality industry. Prof Dr Manohar Sajnani(Dean Faculty of Hospitality & Tourism and Director, Amity Institute of Travel and Tourism, Amity University), Diksha Pande, (Vice President Customer Experience and Human Excellence, Chai Point), Aman Aditya Sachdev (Director, Lausanne Hospitality Consulting India), Dilip Puri (Guidance Lead SouthAsia, Marriott International) were a part of the panel.
Dilip Puri stressed on the dearth of hotel management institutes in the country. "At present there are a 1000 hotel management institutes in India. This is a very small number to cater to the needs of such a big industry. Even with the institutes existing, there is need to improve the quality of education and skills they are imparting to the graduates. There is a lack of live skills which is very important to survive in the industry," Puri said.
Aman Aditya discussed the need for steering quality education in HM schools. "The direction of education in Hospitality industry is not clear. There is a lack of the right environment. Traditional teaching methods at university do not impart the knowledge competency required in the industry," he said.
Diksha Pande suggested the level of live skills is missing. "The customer expectations are really high and the kind of learning they have in hospitality schools is just not enough, they need to learn survival skills too to survive in this industry," she was quoted saying.
Sajnani explained the change in the education system. "At Amity, we have innovated and adapted the education system. The system is student centric rather than teacher centric. We have moved from teaching to learning," he added.
