Tourism & Hospitality Skill Council (THSC), a sector skill council for tourism and hospitality industry under the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), recently held its annual Training Partners Meet 2017 in Delhi. The event was attended by Jayant Krishna, ED and COO, NSDC; K B Kachru, chairman emeritus and principal advisor, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, South Asia; Biplob Banerjee, EVP – HR, CSR and administrator, Jubilant Foodworks. The occasion also saw a formal introduction of Dr Sonali Sinha, COO – THSC to the training fraternity. The day-long interactive seminar also saw presentations by Sandeep Kumar, AVP – HR, Sodexo and Aman Mahajan, head – HR operations, India and SriLanka. The day saw interactive sessions by THSC team on its new initiatives to forge a more transparent and stronger relationship with training partners. NSDC team comprising Bhumika Malhotra, Saloni Gupta and Shreshtha Gupta also made presentations to resolve audience query and take feedback.
The agenda for the day was set by Sinha as one aim of all sessions – industry connect and integration in all processes of the skilling ecosystem with the final goal as placements of certified candidates. She stressed that the productivity of THSC and its training partners is measured in terms of skilled candidates getting employment at the end of training, and all efforts in standards, training and assessments must be to ensure employment or self-employment of youth.
As a step towards ensuring clarity in communication, transparency in processes and forging long term business sustainability, the dignitaries released Training Partners Handbook Version 1.0. The handbook details all avenues of collaboration, various schemes, training and training of trainer guidelines and processes, assessment processes, placement initiatives and new initiatives by THSC. An Assessor’s Handbook, Version 1.0 was also released by the dignitaries present. The handbook is a development tool for assessors along with information about various schemes, processes and essentials for a THSC assessor.
The occasion also saw the launch of week-long celebrations of the World Tourism Day 2017. THSC and its training partners will promote and undertake activities across 100 locations in India to raise awareness on this year’s theme, Sustainable Tourism. A pledge signature campaign with a collective impact of five lakh participants is being attempted by THSC along with its pan-India network of training partners. All gathered at the event took the pledge to “Buy local, respect culture, preserve the environment and be responsible citizens.”
Arun Nanda, chairman, THSC, in a video message to the gathering, emphasised that the skilling ecosystem must be clued and connected to the industry, so that training is attuned to the needs of the industry.
Krishna, while addressing the gathering, said, “Tourism and hospitality industry is a growing sector and we are all sitting on a potential goldmine as this is a labour intensive sector. The sector is a custodian of our inherent culture of hospitality and gives Indians work and business opportunities worldwide.” He emphasised the need for quality in training, and importance of having qualified good trainers. He resonated Dr Sinha’s call and concern towards employment of skilled candidates and urged the training partners to embrace self-funded trainings as a way forward. He said, promoting apprenticeship scheme amongst the youth is the key to ensuring that India does become the “Skill Capital of the World.”
Kachru, commented, “As an Industry, it is our collective responsibility to ensure a brighter future for the youth because the future of the country rests on their shoulders.” He pledged his support to mission ‘Skill India’ and urged training partners to focus on quality of training and development of trainers to ensure employability.
Banerjee, referencing to skills in epic Mahabharata, said, “Pandavs won despite Kauravs having the much larger army because of superior skills. Pandavs had superior skills because they had superior trainers and a master strategist like Krishan, which THSC already has as his namesake Jayant Krishna.” Banerjee also emphasised Jubilant Foodworks commitment to support THSC.
The occasion also saw presentations by THSC team to sensitise the gathering on its focus on industry engagement and efforts through standards, training, assessment and placement initiatives in terms of the digital portal thsc.skillgrid.in to ensure 100 per centplacement of certified candidates.
