New Delhi: Understanding the need to provide skilled manpower for the hospitality sector, the Central Board of Secondary Education today signed an MoU with the National Council for Hotel Management, Ministry of Tourism to introduce two trade specific courses, under its vocational stream, in the areas of Food Production and Food & Beverage Service. The alliance between the two bodies will help reduce the gap in availability of skilled persons to occupy key operational areas in the hotel and restaurant sectors.
The Union Minister Human Resource Development Minister, Shri Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Tourism and Housing and Poverty Alleviation, Kumari Selja and MoS for HRD, Smt. D. Purandeswari were present on the occasion. The CEO, NCHMCT Shri Devesh Chaturvedi and Chairman, CBSE Shri Vineet Joshi signed the MoU.
Initially, 26 CBSE schools have been chosen to introduce the two trade courses at plus two level. Curriculum, including text books have been designed by experts from the NCHMCT and it is understood that each school would be adopted by a designated mentor Institute of Hotel Management. Such a step would assist schools to professionally adopt and deliver the curriculum. Joint certification on successful completion of the course will ensure industry reorganization for students who can then either enter the profession directly or take up the further course at undergraduate level, for which they will be provided due weightage.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Kapil Sibal said that vocational education is a means of empowerment of children through imparting skills. This will lead to inclusive education, he underlined. He also stated that the strengthening of vocational education is required in order to take advantage of the demographic dividend of the country, as a means to give a skill orientation to those passing of senior secondary school, and who are not able to go to college. Shri Sibal also said that in the area of skill development, training in the hospitality sector has a special place, as when the global economy expands, the first sector to prosper is tourism.
Shri Sibal stated that he would hold a dialogue with the universities to enable a seamless transition of these students trom the senior secondary level to the undergraduate level. He said that the HRD Ministry is in the process of developing a National Vocational Qualification Framework. He also mentioned that partnership between CBSE and the private sector was also on the anvil for different courses in the hospitality sector.
Speaking on the occasion, Kumari Selja said that the contribution of tourism to the country's GDP was 5.92% and contribution to employment (both direct and indirect) was 9.24% for the year 2007�08. She said, a robust economy has a cascading effect on tourism as well. Conversely, tourism is an important driver in the growth of economy especially in the area of employment generation. The indirect impact of tourism on economy is much larger.
