Enhancing skill development in hospitality

The second day of the eighth edition of the prestigious BW Hotelier Indian Hospitality Summit & Awards (IHA 2024) hosted the BWH Hospitality Skill Development with moderator Rajan Bahadur, CEO - Tourism & Hospitality Skill Council of India (THSC) including panellists Sangeetha Gandhi, Vice President - Oberoi Centre of Learning and Development (OCLD), Natwar Nagar, Founder, The People Network and The Job Plus along with Lokesh Sabharwal, Regional Vice President - Operations, India & South West Asia, Hyatt as well as Vivek Shukla, CEO, The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group. They delved into the topic of achieving operational excellence in diverse hospitality environments.

Nagar commented on the industry’s challenge in skill generation, “The Indian hospitality industry employed around 39 million people from 2019-20 and we expect it to rise to 54 million in the coming years. There is a huge challenge in front of us as to how we’ll get the 14 million kids across the service hospitality sector.”

He further added, “There are three areas where the challenges lie for skilling. First is the industry requirement and current training needs, there is a huge gap. The second problem is quality high-impact training programmes and the third is mismatch between the industry placements and the outcome of the young training skill workforce.”

Gandhi stated, “The industry has always been skill focussed and as long as the intent is there and it flows in all directions, a large part of the work gets done. In terms of skill development we’re focussed on identifying the attitude, whether the person is keen to learn and grow.”

“Enhancing an agile mindset, the ability to experiment is built into our purpose of care is how we work with our colleagues. We will continue to be a high touch industry and that is something we won’t lose,” added Sabharwal. 

Shukla on the topic of skilling in the hospitality sector, noted, “Post-pandemic we’ve all evolved and skilling, re-skilling and upskilling are terms that we’ve gotten familiar with and it's something that is applicable at all levels from leadership to management to supervisory to the fresh set of individuals coming in the industry.”.

The two-day BW Hotelier Indian Hospitality Summit & Awards (IHA 2024) encompasses over 20 sessions where hospitality veterans and experts across the nation gather in order to provide diverse knowledge and insights. The Summit & Awards is a testament to BW Hotelier’s commitment towards revolutionising Indian hospitality by honouring the Crème de la crème of the industry.