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HOTELS HUNGRY FOR PROFESSIONALS

A Booming Hospitality Industry Has Created Rising Job Opportunities & Schools Are Mushrooming To Feed The Demand

Anahita Mukherji | TNN

Mumbai: Not many 24-yearolds can boast of starting a cafe. But then, Kainaz Messman was always interested in entrepreneurship. Armed with a degree from the Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Technology (IHMCT), better known as the Dadar Catering College, and a post-graduate course from the Oberoi Centre for Learning Development, Delhi, she started her career as a chef in Udaipur, but was forced to quit due to a back problem. She headed home to Mumbai, teamed up with her mother and began Theobroma, a popular Colaba confectionery shop, in 2004.
She’s not the only one capitalising on the booming hospitality sector. From running Irani cafes to working as a chef at the Taj, and from working on cruises to catering for corporates, the hospitality industry has clocked unprecedented growth in India.
45% CUT-OFFS
You don’t need to ace your math paper or score in history for a course in hospitality. Some of the best hospitality colleges accept students with 45% in Class XII. Twenty-somethings are now getting picked off college campuses by five-star hotels. Ram Kumar Kanojia, a student of the HAFT Hospitality Management Course at Sophia Polytechnic, Breach Candy, got his very first job as a chef at the Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai.
“Over the last 10 years, the demand for hospitality students has grown manifold. There’s a boom
in travel and everyone wants to be a part of the excitement and dynamism,’’ says Meher Dasondi, head of HAFTHospitality Management.
Another student of the course, Zyros Zend, got a job on a cruise liner off Miami. He returned home to make fortune cookies. “Numerous wedding proposals have been made using my fortune cookies. I have made cookies with wedding rings inside for men to propose with,’’ says Zend. He also supplies to five-stars.
According to Romil Ratra, GM of the Intercontinental, hospitality courses provide the foundation for a career in the industry. A former student of IHMCT, Ratra says catering college gave him first-hand experience of every bit of the industry. He began his career with the Taj, was the first manager of nightclub Insomnia, and went on to start his own restaurant before joining his present company.
The demand for skilled manpower has kept up with the supply. Hotels have sprung up at an unprecedented rate. Marriott alone plans to set up 25 new hotels across India in the next three years. To ensure a steady supply of manpower, colleges are mushrooming. Students are in demand before they’re done with college. Lavy D’- Costa, project co-ordinator at St Andrew’s College, which began a BSc in hospitality studies last year, says fivestars have already begun enquiring about students, “even though they’re only in their first year of a three-year degree course’’.
DIPLOMAS TURN TO DEGREES
Several well-known diploma courses have now turned into degree courses. This year, for the first time, HAFT will run a three-year Hotel Management and Catering Technology degree affiliated to the Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU) in place of the earlier diploma course. At Rizvi College, Bandra, too, the diploma course has been phased out. Rizvi now runs a BSc in Hospitality Studies affiliated to Mumbai university and a BSc in Hotel Management and Catering Technology under YCMOU.
HIGH RETURNS
While a BSc in hospitality is ten times more expensive than a vanilla BSc, industry insiders say the return on investment is high, as there is instant placement, provided the course is from a reputed institute.
The National Council for Hotel Management under the Centre’s Ministry of Tourism runs 24 hotel management institutes across India, including IHMCT, Dadar. The institutes conduct a BSc in Hotel Administration and Management as well as PG and certificate courses.
Many hotel chains, too, have their own courses. The Taj backs the Indian Institute of Hotel Management at Aurangabad, and Oberoi runs its own institute in Delhi.
Several colleges have international tie-ups. IHMCT, Dadar, has a two-year chef ’s diploma with George Brown School in Canada. The course includes an eight-month internship abroad. “It’s suited for students who love cooking,’’ says Vernon Coelho, head of productions, IHMCT. Rizvi College has a BA in hospitality affiliated to Indira Gandhi National Open University and the American Hotel and Lodging Association. HOTEL MANAGEMENT COURSES
MINISTRY OF TOURISM INSTITUTES
The National Council for Hotel Management, under the Union Ministry of Tourism, runs 24 Institutes of Hotel Management (IHM) that provide undergraduate, postgraduate as well as certificate courses in hotel management. These institutes are in Mumbai, Goa, Gandhinagar, Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Hyderabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai, New Delhi (2 institutes), Chandigarh, Gwalior, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Vaishali, Shimla, Srinagar, Gangtok, Gurdaspur, Guwahati and Shillong PVT INSTITUTES IN MUMBAI
Sophia Polytechnic, Breach Candy Hotel Administration and Food Technology
BSc in Hotel Management and Catering Operations Certificate Course in Craft Bakery and Confectionery Certificate in All-Round Restaurant and Etiquette
St Andrew’s College, Bandra
BSc in Hospitality Studies
Rizvi College, Bandra
BSc in Hospitality Studies BSc in Hotel Management and Catering Services
Anjuman-i-Islam, CST A K Hafizka Institute of Hotel Management & Catering Technology
Bachelor of Hotel and Tourism Management
Diploma in Hotel Management and Catering Technology
OTHER INSTITUTES
Welcome Group Graduate School of Hotel Administration, Manipal
Bachelor of Hotel Management
Indian Institute of Hotel Management, Aurangabad (assisted by the Taj Group
Oberoi Centre of Learning and Development, Delhi