Hospitality Management in the Surge of Service Age : Sudhir Andrews, Ecole Hoteliere Lavasa

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July 1, 2010

Please tell us about the origins of the Ecole Hoteliere Lavasa institute in India?

The Institute is promoted by Lavasa Corporation, a subsidiary of Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), a leading infrastructure company of the country. HCC procured 20,000 acres of land in the hills and hours drive from Pune to create a unique hill township – the fi rst after independence. The development of Lavasa is reposed with Lavasa Corporation. One of the pillars of Lavasa is Education, bringing in the best brands of the world including Oxford and MIT. Ecole Hoteliere Lavasa is the fi rst college in Lavasa with world class facilities.
Our vision is to be the premier hospitality management centre in Asia for the present and future hospitality leaders and entrepreneurs.
What, according to you, is the current status of Hospitality Management in India? What would be your advise for students considering this sector as a career option?
Hospitality management has traditionally included Hotels and Restaurant. With the surge of the service age the term hospitality as included many other service sectors like retail, event management, airlines, conventions, theme parks, hospitality education, cruise lines, banks,
etc. It is for this reason 40% students who graduate from hotel management schools join industries other than hotel and restaurant. The competencies of hotel management students have been found useful in other service oriented industries as mentioned earlier. The number
one problem of the hotel industry is people in terms of availability, quality and attrition. This is only going to get worst as we march onto 5.8 million rooms by 2020. Jobs are a plenty and students with a fl air for hospitality will get meaningful careers. It is time that students start
looking at service sector as the mainstay of their generation and develop those skills that matter in the service age.
What is the USP of your institute? ny specifi c plans for placement of students?
Ecole Hoteliere Lavasa is the only institute in India that is specifi cally designed to develop hospitality leaders and entrepreneurs. There is currently a shortage of management for hospitality. We prepare students for assistant management positions to take on higher
management positions faster, because our curriculum has strong business management content. The second USP is our methodology of teaching. Most educational institutes in India use pedagogy where the onus of teaching lies with the teacher. We follow andragogy where the onus of acquiring knowledge lies with the students. The faculty act as learning facilitators and in fact are called that. The third USP is our facilities that no one in India has. We have fi ve live restaurants within the college supported by fi ve-star kitchens; twenty multimedia
classrooms, Wi-Fi campus; four auditoriums; a cyber hotel; and an amphitheatre to seat 600 students. Students will get their live training in 18 branded hotels being built in Lavasa, each a walking distance away.
Can you tell about the kind of accreditation that students can expect from the institute?
At the moment there is no education body that has a model to recognise our unique curriculum. We are waiting for the new changes in Education under the able stewardship of Mr. Kapil Sibal, Honorable Minister of Education. Our curriculum is that of a B.Sc. in Hospitality Management. We are also offering a Certifi cate duly recognised and signed by
Ecole hoteliere de Lausanne. Students are permitted to transfer to Lausanne after two years to earn the Degree from Lausanne itself. Successful students are also eligible to enroll for their MBA in hospitality Management. Please elaborate on any new collaborations that the institute will be venturing into. We wish to bring in the MBA from Lausanne after two years. We also want to start several hospitality programmes for other service industries. We will be starting our Executive Development Programmes, led by international faculty specifi cally for the hospitality industry. What is the kind of support that the institute expects from the
Government for promotion of the hospitality sector as a key education destination? The government has already done a lot for the tourism sector to make it the second largest in terms of growth in the world. What we need now is the Education Ministry to fi nd a vehicle to
recognise colleges of excellence like ours and give them independent degree status. Our present policies will only drag us into mediocrity.

Protest against census duties by Jharkhand teachers

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June 28, 2010

Black bands are being worn by the teachers in Jharkhand while attending schools to protest the government's move to make them conduct census operations, a teachers' union official reported recently. A circular issued by the state human resources development (HRD) last week asked teachers to work in their schools for three hours and engage in census work for the other three hours. The teachers are attending schools from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and after that are engaged in the census work.

One of the Jharkhand Teachers Association mentioned that alternative arrangements should be made by Government for such work and teachers should be spared of the same.

Conference on effective use of media in education

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June 28, 2010

To be hosted by 190 countries later, Pune will be the first city to host first series of conferences on exploring avenues to harness the power of media and other information and communication techniques, a conference, supported by UNESCO, which is being organised by International Association for Human Values (IAHV) from July 1 to 3 at Sinhagad Business School, Erandawane. The primary aim of the conference include promoting effective use of media and communication (ICT) in education, learning ways to enhance positive influence of media and communication mediums and promoting positive social interaction to develop learning strategies.

Participants will include prominent educationists and educational policy makers, media persons and principals/vice principals of schools. Inclusive in the conference, media will include new age learning methods like use of EDUSAT in teaching/learning/training processes, as audio-visual and interactive medium, which makes learning process more effective and encouraging.

Centum raises funds from Mayfield India

Corporate Updates

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June 28, 2010

A Bharti Group company working in the Higher Education space, Centum Learning, has raised INR 40 crore investment from Mayfield India Fund. The Chairman, Centum Learning, Rakesh Bharti Mittal mentioned that Centum Learning is geared up to unlock the immense growth potential within India, in domains of education, trianing and development. Reportedly, Mayfield's managing director Vikram Godse would be joining Centum's board of directors.

More than 130 learning centres have been set up by Centum Learning over a course of time across 90 Indian cities. It has now launched Centum U-Institute of Management and Creative Studies which offers various undergraduate and postgraduate programmes along with world-renowned institutions in New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Mohali and Hyderabad. Additionally, the company is working actively with state governments to create skilled manpower that can be deployed globally; in order to enhance employability amongst rural and urban youth.

Indian Workforce Is The Most Aspiring In The World, says Ma Foi Randstad Workmonitor Survey

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June 28, 2010

Ma Foi Randstad, India's largest HR services company, part of Randstad, world's second largest HR services company released the second wave of Ma Foi Randstad Workmonitor. The Ma Foi Randstad Workmonitor is a quarterly review of 'mental mobility status' of employees i.e. their readiness to change jobs. As part of this process, the state of mind of workers is studied in 25 countries encompassing Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas, compared amongst countries and finally presented in the form of an index. The index shows the extent to which employees are thinking of changing their jobs in a short-term while compared to other countries in the world.

The findings of the study have been indexed to have an easier understanding of the employee mobility intent. The mobility index is derived based on employees responses to two questions about their intent to change their job

Online PG course in technical communication by TWB

Higher Education

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June 28, 2010

A technical communication and publishing services provider, The Writers Block (TWB), has introduced an online dual degree post graduate course on technical communication. Reportedly, this is the first online PG course in technical communication and business administration to be available in India. This is an online two year degree programme designed to impart knowledge in technical writing, instructional design, Web 2.0, usability and business communication.

TWB already runs a classroom post graduate course in technical communication based out of its facility in Bangalore and also offers very successful short-term certifications in technical communication.

Five year plan to support 107 more KVs

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June 28, 2010

Recently the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved a proposal for setting up of 107 new Kendriya Vidyalayas during the remaining period of the Eleventh Five Year Plan. The new KVs are to cater to about 1,03,000 students throughout the country. INR 526.99 crore is the estimated amount that is required for the construction and operation of these new Kvs, during the XI th Plan with a spillover of INR 279.48 crore towards capital cost during the XIIth Plan.

The objective with which the Central Sector Scheme of Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) was started in 1962, was to provide educational facilities of a uniform standard throughout the country to the children of transferable Central Government employees. The scheme started with 20 regimental schools in 1963-64 and has now grown to have 980 schools, which are pace-setting in nature.

MTNL and JNU partner for Concessational 3g, Wi-Fi Services

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June 28, 2010

A memorandum of Understanding has been signed between MTNL and Jawahar Lal Nehru University according to which MTNL will be a preferred Telecom Service Provider to JNU. The MOU was signed in the presence of Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology, Shri Pilot and Prof BB Bhattacharya, Vice-Chancellor, JNU. MTNL has offered to facilitate the students of the University to access the Local Area Network (LAN) of JNU using MTNL 3G network. The Minister while addressing the audience mentioned that that MTNL would provide Wi-Fi connectivity to all the hostels at its own cost to ensure that students, staff, and faculty are able to access Internet anywhere in the hostels.

To ensure good coverage and good quality of service, MTNL has set-up four additional 3G towers on campus to cover the sprawling JNU Campus. The capital expenditure for this is being incurred by MTNL as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility, he added. Announcing that shortly all MTNL users in JNU would also be able to make free calls to each other, the Minister said students will have to pay only INR 199 in place of INR 599 per month, MTNL's commercial rate for this -service and will also be able to access internet service using high speed browsing. Cautioning MTNL and JNU authorities on the misuse of the facility the Minister asked to ensure safety and security of the network.

GRE Program Announces Big Benefits and Big Savings for GRE Test Takers Worldwide

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June 28, 2010

With the introduction of the GRE revised General Test, planned for August 2011, ETS will offer a limited-time 50% discount on the test fee to all individuals who take the test between August 1 and September 30, 2011. The announcement appeared on the GRE website when ETS revealed a completely new test-taker section designed to educate potential graduate and business school students about the GRE revised General Test. 'We know students are going to find the overall testing experience better with the introduction of the GRE revised General Test,' says David G. Payne, VP and COO for Graduate and College Programs at ETS. 'The questions more closely reflect the kind of thinking they'll need to do in graduate and business school, and the new test taker-friendly navigation features allow them to use more of their traditional test-taking strategies. These are really big changes that will appeal to test takers. In addition to these enhancements, we think the 50% discount will encourage more students to take the GRE revised General Test sooner, so students themselves can tell other students about their positive experiences.'

The GRE revised General Test will deliver many new features when it is introduced in 2011. Some of the new things test takers will notice: More questions featuring real-life scenarios to better reflect the kind of thinking students will do in today's demanding graduate and business school programs

Less reliance on vocabulary out of context, more emphasis on reading, and no antonyms or analogies; Many new navigation features, including the ability to skip questions and go back to them later within a section for a better test-taking experience; New answer types, such as filling in a number or providing more than one response when asked, so students can better demonstrate what they know; An on-screen calculator for the Quantitative Reasoning section.

With GRE test volumes at an all-time high, following a record-breaking year in 2009, ETS officials say the timing is good. 'We want to use this time, when people are talking about the benefits of the GRE revised General Test, to give more students an additional incentive to pursue their graduate school dreams,' says Payne. 'We know the test-taker community has a reputation for 'cheering each other on.' So, instead of being nervous about the changes, the 50% discount will hopefully get more students to consider graduate and business school once they hear their peers talk about the test taker-friendly features. In addition to the 50% discount, test takers around the world will find that the GRE revised General Test delivers other good news as well.

Starting in August 2011, the split-test administration will be eliminated in China (including Hong Kong), Korea and Taiwan, and will be replaced with computer-based testing one to two times per month. Candidates testing in those regions will be able to take the Verbal, Quantitative and Analytical Writing sections on computer, all on the same day. Individuals around the world who take the GRE revised General Test in August or September 2011 will receive score reports starting in November 2011, to allow for the statistical work needed when launching a new test. Normal score reporting of 10

United Nations Publications go Mobile

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June 28, 2010

The United Nations announced the release of United Nations e-book applications for the iPhone and the iPad, as well as e-books for Amazon's Kindle, that will give users easy access to offline reading and reference on global issues. The release coincided with the sixty-fifth anniversary of the signing of the United Nations Charter, which marked the birth of the United Nations. The first United Nations publications available as applications (or “apps”) are United Nations flagship titles such as the Charter of the United Nations, The United Nations Today, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The United Nations Today is also now available on Kindle, Amazon's e-book device. In the next few days, the United Nations will release at the App Store a free application that highlights the progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. In the coming weeks more titles will be offered as iPhone and iPad applications. These titles will also be available on Kindle and other e-book platforms, operating systems such as Blackberry, Android and Symbian in the near future. With this initiative, United Nations Publications expands its role as a prominent source for reference on global issues. Available for a nominal fee at the App Store, United Nations e-book apps allow users to take advantage of the advanced capabilities of the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad user interface to learn more about the Organization and its work. Features of the United Nations e-book apps include: simple user interface; full-text search; intuitive navigation; and links to other United Nations titles.

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