Draft Report of the High Level Group on Services Sector

3.10 Human Resource Development

As in some other service sectors there is a large skill deficit in the tourism sector, which is impeding its development and impinging on its competitiveness. There are 26 Institutes of Hotel Management (IHMs), which have come up with Central financial assistance , and 12 more are in the pipeline. There are 125 private institutes affiliated to various universities/boards, which run hotel management courses. There are 6 Food Craft Institutes (FCIs) run by the Central Government and four more have been sanctioned and 20 run privately. The hotel management institutes including the private ones are producing 14000 graduates annually and the FCIs 4000 workers in the skilled categories. It is estimated that there is 35% attrition to other industry leaving only about 9000 graduates and 2500 skilled workers available annually to the hotel industry. Against this the annual requirement is estimated at 69,000 in managerial and 1.34 lakh in skill level categories. Thus there is a very large shortage of skilled personnel in the hospitality sector and the deficit is more acute in non-managerial categories.

The hotel management courses (of four years) fall under the purview of the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), but by virtue of a dispensation granted by the Hon’ble High Court the National Council of Hotel Management & Catering Technology (NCHMCT) has been performing the regulatory functions, fixing the curriculum and affiliating hotel management institutes, holding examinations and granting degrees to graduates in the tie up with the IGNOU. The NCHMCT has also undertaken the regulatory work in respect of the food craft institutions, although a large majority of private institutions remain unrecognised and are not seeking affiliation.

The Indian Institute of Travel & Tourism Management (IITM) is an institute affiliated to the All India Council for Technical Education, running courses for tour operators and holding examinations and granting diploma. The IITTM also conducts short-term courses for tour guides, holds examinations and grants diplomas for the profession.

The Ministry of Tourism is proposing to set up 9 more IHMs and 25 more FCIs, so that each State has one IHM (with some tourist oriented States having two) and one FCI. Initiatives are also proposed to make the Industrial Training Institutes, Polytechnics and Secondary Schools in the vocational streams to undertake programmes for increasing the supply of personnel in the skill categories. In the Group there was full support for all these initiatives but the Group also felt that even after all of them fructify there will still remain a huge shortage of skills in the hospitality sector.

The Group believes that expansion of education and training in hotel management, food crafts, travel and tourism education (including the training of tour guides) should be left to the private sector and the Central Government should devote its attention primarily to regulation. For this purpose both the NCHMCT and the IITM should function as apex institutions and should be vested with powers to regulate affiliated institutions, hold examinations and grant degrees and diplomas, independent of the AICTE. It may be necessary for Central Government to consider giving statutory status to the NCHMCT and IITM as regulatory organizations. The existing IHMs and FCIs should function as institutes of excellence and devote a substantial part of their resources for training of teachers.
Since IHMs can be run on a self-sustaining basis, the only help that privately run IHMs may need is allocation of land at reasonable cost or on long term lease by the State Governments. The requirement of hospitality personnel in the skilled categories is however very large and much wider initiative for undertaking vocational training programmes is required than is being envisaged at present. For taking such initiative the establishment of a development council with the full participation of the industry, as suggested in Chapter I, would appear to be the right step.