Blog 1:

I was at the Taj Reunion recently, it was such a great opportunity to meet the stalwarts of the industry. Taj being the first luxury hotel in India and IHC being the pioneer hotel company having completed 115 years of the Taj hospitality. It was wonderful meeting the leaders, bosses, mentors, seniors and colleagues who now work with almost all hotels and hospitality organisations around the world; it was more like an alumni meet. What I heard from each one was that they liked this platform Indian Women in Hospitality and they complimented me on the work that I was doing to create awareness and have a better representation of the industry among the general public at the same time attracting the right talent in the industry. They offered me their support and a lot of good wishes with it. Can you imagine how elated I must have felt; appreciation of ‘the little’ that I was doing came from the people who have been my heroes and a very important part of my professional journey.  I had no clue that everyone was following IWH, I am extremely humbled and I take it as a huge responsibility to keep up to the expectations of everyone. With this thought I would like to carry a series of blogs on hospitality education and will also share industry insights. Being a counsellor I have been doing that over the years but now I wish to share on my blogs so that the reach is higher. Also that it’ll help parents and students who are keen to join the hospitality industry make an informed decision as it’ll be one of the important ones that they take in their life.

Hospitality and Tourism industry

The Hospitality and Tourism industry offers careers that are dynamic, challenging, thrilling and vibrant in nature. The industry offers many opportunities to the people with the right skills set. A recent study by the World Travel and Tourism Council shows that the hospitality industry is the largest employer Worldwide hiring 1 in 12 workers, and this number is set to grow with the continued expansion and growth of the sector.

Counselling Blogs

Welcome to the series of blogs that I wish to carry, where I will be sharing some insights of the industry and also discuss careers. The industry is not really understood well by the masses. Most of them associate it with glamour but there’s a lot of hard work, discipline and the love to serve others that goes hand in hand. Hospitality is all about doing things that come from the heart, manage events and create memorable experiences for the guests.

Being in the industry for over two decades and counseling parents and students over the years, I have felt that it is extremely important for the students to know how the hotels operate and what career paths will be available to them. Most of the students who want to join the industry have seen a celebrity chef and think that’s what their life would be. There are so many career options apart from being a Chef. The hotel’s core departments are Front office, Housekeeping, Food and Beverage Service and Food Production and Patisserie. A hotel management graduate can work in any of these departments or choose to make a career in Sales and Marketing or Learning and Development after getting some experience in the operational departments. One can go on to become the General Manager or even MD or CEO of a Hospitality company. The ones who are inclined towards teaching can go for higher studies after their graduation and can even earn a PhD. If one dreams of becoming a successful entrepreneur, then he or she can start a business be it a restaurant or a facilities company.

Experiential Workshops / Webinars

With the idea of attracting the people with the right attitude and make their decision about studying hospitality Management or taking up careers in the industry, The Apeejay Institute of Hospitality,  Navi Mumbai is organising free Webinars (during lockdown)/( experiential workshop at its campus, on regular workdays). Students can enroll for the webinar and experience a ‘feel of the industry’ as well as get counseling from the experts; the faculty team of AIH.

The readers are welcome to send in their queries at connect@aih.edu.in Will try my best to address each one of them.

Watch this space for more insights about the industry coming up in the next blog. Would love to hear from you; they say feedback makes the communication process complete.

Up next: https://www.theiwh.com/eligibility-for-hotel-management-hospitality-studies/