Issues, Concerns and Concepts for Continuing Education in the Hotel Management, India

Abstract

The thriving economy and increased business opportunities for Indian hotel industry have acted as a boon and given boost for continuing education in that sphere. It cannot be presumed that conventional academic institutions, through formal education, teach the students all they need to know for their overall development. Continuing education usually refers to the programs of study that equip a person better for his work by updating, diversifying and broadening knowledge, be it in the industrial, teaching or research fields. Therefore, the instructional goals of continuing education is to encompass programs for helping the practicing professionals to learn to face and deal the new situations with confidence and sound judgment, under diminishing supervision. Equally, optimum development for faculty members is essential, with wide variety of individual activities, aptitudes and interests by providing them an opportunity through an appropriate assessment. Accreditation stimulates faculty, students and parents while taking care of their needs by implementing continuous evaluation concurrent with programs.

Systematic investigations and the data analysis are carried out on the fast emerging international hotel chains in India in relation to the foreign direct investments which go to show the need for qualified human power in large numbers. A dual ladder concept, comprising academic and career components, is designed and developed through continuing education for taking the profession further to greater heights while meeting the societal needs. A conceptual strategy involving seven steps for making rewarding careers and culturing academic heroes is formulated. These studies establish that future needs call for continuing education systems for practicing professionals to be created at all levels of competence for overall development, control and use of human resources in the hospitality sector.

Keywords: Academic Ladder, Career Ladder, Continuing Education

1. Introduction

Society’s needs in the decades to come will call for holistic talent on a scale never before imagined in India or elsewhere in the world. In view of the rapid advancement in knowledge and the rapid growth in complexity of hospitality services, the entrepreneur of the future hotel industry needs a greater technical competence [1]. Most of the hospitality products involve goods and services [2] that make the guest’s presence felt during the production and consumption of those goods and services. Therefore, hotel Industry is inextricably linked to the tourism industry and the growth in the Indian tourism industry in turn has fuelled the growth of Indian hotel industry. Tourism-related occupations, including hotels and restaurants, employ 10.8% of workers globally, compared to only 5.6% in India [3]. The recent government decision to treat convention centers as a part of core infrastructure, providing the critical funding for the large capital investment has also fuelled the growth of hotel industry. The hospitality industry includes hotels and restaurants, as well as many other types of institutions that offer shelter and/or food to people away from home. By one estimate, development of tourism infrastructure such as roads, airports and medium priced hotels, combined with modifications in air and hotel pricing and tax policies could generate more than 20 million additional employment opportunities [4]. Consequently, hospitality careers are fast growing in India with globalization and internationalization of our economy.

In addition to this, the availability of qualified human power and untapped geographical resources has provided great prospects to the hotel and tourism industry. India’s hotel industry is increasingly being viewed as investment worthy, both within the country and outside. Several international chains are being established and enhancing their presence in India through huge Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) and corresponding growth in FDI for hotel and tourism sectors.  All these factors that have contributed to the rise in the hotel sector are codified and presented in Table1.

Table 1- Establishment of International Hotel Chains in India
along with FDI and its share in Hotel and Tourism Sector

S. No.	International Hotel Chains and Headquarters	Number of Hotel Chains and Countries covered	Number of Hotels and Year of Entry in India	Star Category	Places
1	Best Western, Arizona USA	4000 Hotels in 80 countries	12, (2002)	3, 4, and 5	Mumbai, Delhi, Ooty
2	Days Inn,  Georgia USA	1900 Hotels in 15 countries	6, (2003)	3 and 4	Chennai, Coimbatore, Udaipur, Mumbai
3	Choice  Mississauga, Canada	6000 Hotels in 35 countries	29, (1987)	3, 4 and 5	Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai
4	Four Point & Sheraton,          New York USA	149 Hotels in 24 countries	4, (2009)	5 and 5 Deluxe	Pune, Jaipur, Mumbai
5	Grand Intercontinental  Buckinghamshire  UK	200 hotels and resorts in 75 countries	6, (1991)	5 and 5 Deluxe	Srinagar, Benguluru, Goa
6	Hyatt,  Illinois USA	434 hotels in 45 countries	4, (2004)	5 and 5 Deluxe	Delhi, Goa, Kolkata
7	Le Meridien,  New York USA	120 hotels in 50 countries	9, (2001)	5 and 5 Deluxe	Benguluru, Jaipur
8	Leela & Kempensky  Germany	62 hotels in 41 countries	8, (2001)	5 and 5 Deluxe	Gurgaon, Benguluru
9	Marriot  Maryland, USA	3150 Hotels in 68 Countries	9, (1998)	4 and 5	Delhi, Hyderabad
10	Wyndhama & Ramada,      New Jersey  USA	6900 hotels in 50 countries	10, (2006)	4 and 5	Mysore, Benguluru
11	Shangri La,  Hongkong	66 Hotels in 55 countries	1, (2005)	5	Delhi
12	Swissotel,   Zurich Switzerland	28 Hotels in 25 countries	1, (2010)	5	Kolkata

a. International Hotel Chains in India

Year	Foreign Direct Investments(FDI)*	FDI in Hotel and Tourism*
2004	172657	1527
2005	192990	2799
2006	503856	8174
2007	797355	10581
2008	1397687	22729
2009	1309820	28715

It can be observed from the Table that all the eleven are leading international chains either at US, UK or Germany with a wide network all over the world. It is interesting to note that all these were established in India in post-liberalization period, particularly during the year’s 2000 to 2005. The growth in the FDI in hotel and tourism sectors confirms the presence of such chains in India. This calls for a holistic talent coupled with traditional concepts in the hospitality for better service without any defects. With a long history in service, tradition, culture and heritage, Indian hospitality has a unique place in global arena [5].

 Rightly so the entrepreneurs keep pace with these rapid developments with the help of technology and provide the leadership for the hotel profession. In order to attract large number of people at all levels of competence, skill-oriented practicing education must be greatly updated and expanded in large measures through continuing education for instant advice and use. As a consequence to basic preparation, educators must provide an improved professional education to the majority of today’s practicing professionals to face tomorrow’s challenges. This underscores the need for continuing hotel education with three focused objectives as follows.

•  The foremost objective of the continuing education is the technical goal for hospitality and to prepare for the performance of the functions of analysis and creative skills, along with the functions of management that are called for in hotel industry; it also involves mastery of the fundamental principles associated with any sector of hotel including its basic knowledge and their limitations along with appropriate applications to specific situation.
•  The second objective is the broad social goal, which includes the development of leadership, the inculcation of a deep sense of moral and ethical values consistent with a career [6] relating to skill development in hospitality education.
•  The ultimate goal of continuing education is the development of able and responsible persons, fully competent to practice on a professional front, especially those who will eventually lead the profession to greater heights of accomplishment, through creative practice, innovation and research. Continuing education is to fulfill social and ultimate goals along with technical goal [7] through appropriate design based on well-defined concepts.

1. Concepts of Continuing Hotel Education

The formal education cannot presume to teach students all they need to know for their personality development. It would not primarily emphasize the updating function through successive formal degrees and diplomas as an academic ladder. Continuing education involves, for those who used to seek bachelor’s degrees long ago, taking a professional course for work that would make them competent with the degree. Continuing education is a post-experience education pursued at various times outside the degree programs, where the individual studies for the purpose of career extension and markedly differs from the traditional academic ladder. In contrast, continuing education involves a more or less continuous performance, usually concurrent with employment signifying the term “Career Ladder”. It is well known that formal education is more concerned with the upgrading function to the higher levels of knowledge than imparting with career-oriented skills. It usually refers to the study in one’s own field at progressively higher levels. The primary purposes and functions of continuing education are as follows.

(a)  Broadening of a person’s knowledge by the addition of new and broader perspective in one’s own field.

(b)  Diversification to new fields by obtaining some formal education in another field but not necessary the higher degree level.

(c)  Pursuing an articulated program of study to raise the employees’ level of competence.

The study of tourism management, with core components of hospitality and hotel management sectors in India is imparted through different patterns of education which include the following:

          (a)  Full-time study on-campus.

(b) Part-time study on-campus accompanied by part-time employment on-campus.

(c) Part-time study on-campus with an employment off-campus.

(d) Part-time study off-campus.  

All these patterns of courses, broad content and nomenclature of degrees of education structure are presented in Table 2 

Table-2: Courses, Broad Content and Nomenclature of Degrees in Hotel Management Education in India

S. No.	Name of the Course	Entry Level	Duration	Specification of Degree	Areas Covered*	Innovations
Table-2: Courses, Broad Content and Nomenclature of Degrees in Hotel Management Education in India    1.	PG Programme	Degree (10+2+3)	2 Years	MBA / M.Sc	Tourism and Hospitality Management, Hotel Management	5 Year Integrated MBA after 10+2: six months internship at Industry Dissertation / VIVA
2	PG Diploma Management (PGCM)	Degree (10+2+3)	1 Year	PGDM,	Event Management, Advertising Media, Hospitality  Management, Tourism Management	Integration of tourism and hospitality with Compulsory internship: dual Certification  leading to MBA
3	Degree Programme, Integrated Programmes	10+2	3 Years 5 years	BBA / B.Sc./ BHM	Tourism, Tourism and Hospitality, Hotel Management	Lateral entry from Diploma with a provision to leading to Post graduate Diploma
4	Diploma, Advanced Diploma, Bachelor & Masters Degree	10+2	1 Year	Diploma / Advanced Diploma/Degree	Event Management, Food & Beverage Services Bakery & Confectionary Hospitality & Tourism	Modular Courses(Diploma/ Advanced Diploma and Degree),
5	Certificate Programme	10+2	Six months	Certification on Soft Skills and cross cultural Communications with Practice	Front Office, Food and Beverage Service, Food Production Housekeeping, Ticketing	Two modules at a time
6	Research Programme	Post Graduate with  two papers	1year M.Phil 3 -5 PhD.	M.Phil, / Ph.D	Tourism and Hospitality, Tourism Management, Hospitality  Management, Event Management	Inter, Multi and Trans-disciplinary Knowledge with Vocational training.

1. Seven Steps Towards Quality and Excellence

The following seven steps are designed to promote excellence and international competitiveness as management strategies for successful progress in continuing education.

1. Existing programs in hotel management should be made sufficiently flexible for inculcating quality and excellence. Many of the present programs are very rigid to meet the needs of tomorrow. Flexibility of an individual program is needed to accommodate for the diversity of interests and talents of particular students and provides a wide range of competencies to meet the needs of industry, government and that of the society.
2. Design for heterogeneous groups, at admission level itself, through combination of education, experience and maturity rather than a specific prerequisite academic credit, with a thrust on event management and personality development.
3. Expanded opportunities for inter-disciplinary study are the need of the hour for global society.
4. Relate to an identified immediate or foreseeable occupational need and create career corridors on dual ladder with practicing professional in an education campus to have a stimulating effect on faculty development.
5. Faculty members belonging to either some academic institution or from the field of practice should always be present to pass on particular knowledge or skill. 
6. The process of evaluation for accreditation gives the institution an opportunity to have its offerings judged in a court of professional opinion. It gives assurance to the public and the professionals that the continuing education has been obtained in an institution meeting the societal needs and acceptable standards.

1. Academic institutions which serve continuing education must look forward, as a distinct educational function, outside of the advanced degree programs.

Newly developed powerful information and communication systems during the present decade, have had an impact on continuing education [12]. Some of the notable examples are web technologies in providing both storage and retrieval by removing digital boundaries. Advantage is to be taken in all these new methods while climbing seven steps for the one to be an academic hero and to attain the wisdom in the ocean of vast vistas of knowledge by effectively judging the issues of knowledge through continuing education.

1. Conclusions

The marked growth of hotel chains in India, consequent to the liberalized policies of economy, bringing eight fold increases in foreign direct investments, has necessitated the creation of qualified human power for practicing professionals through continuing education. The concept of continuing education is to identify the need for creating career corridors for immediate and foreseeable employment which is a stimulating key for career development. In parallel, continuing education requires imparting a thorough knowledge of many non-technical aspects of modern life for the optimum development of a wider variety of individual activities, aptitudes and interests, which interacts significantly in resolution of technical problems. The present studies indicate that continuing education differs markedly from the traditional academic ladder of successive degree levels present in formal education by equipping skill-based persons with knowledge for better service.

Different patterns of continuing education offering a variety of degrees and diplomas are codified and presented for meeting the requirements of the practicing professionals towards innovation. A schematic diagram is designed and developed by incorporating all these components towards meeting the ultimate needs of the society through a dual ladder concept. A seven step strategy, including evaluation, accreditation and culturing academic heroes to climb uphill and conquest of wisdom, is schematically demonstrated. Thus frequent evaluation helps to stimulate the accreditation process, and to identify deficiencies and to point out remedies, which further leads to attain academic wisdom.

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1. References

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