Hotel Management Syllabus In India

Years ago, a student after passing out from his alma mater had joined a reputed five star hotel in India at the supervisory level. To his dismay, he soon found out that his knowledge was inadequate for the industry, particularly in the control area. Fortunately, he had a benevolent mentor, who helped him to learn the nuances of the hotel business once again. Later, nearly after five years, he had joined a catering college as a teacher and tried to bridge the gaps between theory and practice for the students. That students is “yours truly”.

Again, working in the industry for several years, I had joined a small catering college as a  ‘Senior Lecturer’ (not by design). I was saddened to see that what was taught fifteen years back, same things were repeated in the class rooms. Same old I.H.M ‘hand-outs’ were distributed among the students. Many teachers dictate notes in the class room (wasting precious time), while students dutifully note it down, committing spelling mistakes, more often than not.

The college gained popularity, soon became one of the premier hotel management institute in eastern India, so I did grow – becoming ‘Study In-charge’, followed by as ‘Deputy Director’, then ‘Vice-Principal’, and finally ‘Principal’. As the college was running multiple hotel management courses under various Universities and Government bodies, I had access to the different syllabuses of different Universities.

All the syllabuses were primitive by nature, based on what was followed in the industry, forty or fifty years ago. There were several ironies – firstly, AICTE prescribed 3 years Diploma syllabus is based on National Council IHM syllabus, after studying the same students from some colleges are awarded the ‘degree’, whereas, others are awarded diploma. The same syllabus is tougher than the syllabus of 4 years degree course under different Technical Universities, unfortunately, some students are getting a job with lesser pay package and position because the diploma they hold, others are getting a better job because of their degree, despite their inferior knowledge (in many cases).

Syllabus committees of Universities are filled out with bureaucrats and academicians, with no experience of working in a hotel. For the namesake, one or two extremely busy hoteliers are nominated to the committee, who rarely find time to attend such meetings due to their business. As a result, the students are still busy with learning difference between A.C and D.C current supply, ‘Whitney System’ of Hotel reservation, but majority of them are unaware of what is ‘Gordita’, or ‘Crostini’, or ‘Carpaccio’ , or ‘Bruschetta’. They are even ignorant about recent changes in the laying of cutlery on the tables.

Paradox is that despite not having specialization in Front Office, I had to teach ‘Whitney system’ many a times, as the young generation of junior teachers have not seen this obsolete method in the industry. Once, I had raised the point in an University meeting that why such obsolete ‘Whitney system’ is still in the syllabus; I was told that students must know about the history. Moreover, the syllabus somehow incorporates an inflexible attitude among the students. Occasionally, I have seen students leave a good  job, which he/she obtained through a campus interview, just because “the hotel is full of non-techs’; or ‘the chef/manager does not know anything, he does not follow many of the things we have learnt in the college’.

Barring IHMs, majority of the institutes do not have a proper reservation and PMS software in the college. On the other hand, IHMs use obsolete model of Fidelio software to train their students, whereas, OPERA from MICROS and Hotelogix are more popular hotel software packages worldwide. Students are not encouraged to become an entrepreneur. No practical exposure to Revenue Management; PMS or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is given. Pedagogy itself is in a most pathetic state. Rarely teaching is done though project work, simulation and role play.

Students are not told ‘why’. For example, my teacher taught me that no wine is served with Indian food, but he did not tell us ‘why’. Later, I found out that it was so due to tannic nature of the ‘Old World’ wines, which do not match with Indian food. ‘New World’ wines are light, fragrant and less tannic in nature, hencethey really go well with the Indian food, but then again the students are not made aware of the same fact.

Today, thousands of my students are working in the hotel and allied industries in senior positions, I am sure that they have reached the point  through their sheer dedication, ability to learn, and hard work; not because of the syllabus and my teaching. I hope a day will come when the syllabus committee will be manned by the professionals from the hospitality industry, and our colleges will be at par with the best hotel management institutes across the world.

Hospitality Here & There : Secularism in Indian Hotel Industry

Hospitality Here & There : Secularism in Indian Hotel Industry: As per Webster’s Dictionary – “Secularism is indifference to or rejection or exclusion of religion and religious considerations”. Unfo...

Secularism in Indian Hotel Industry

As per Webster’s Dictionary – “Secularism is indifference to or rejection or exclusion of religion and religious considerations”. Unfortunately, Indian politicians have given another definition of the same by their covert, overt and implied actions. They have their own vested interest for doing the same.

For average Indians, ‘secularism’ means tolerance of others’ religious affairs. In practical sense, it connotes taking part in others’ religious festivals like Holi, Deepavali, Christmas. Id, etc. etc. We all have seen politicians holding their food plates and posing for the television to show how secular they are in attending the ‘Iftar’ or ‘Holi Milan’ parties.  It is the hoteliers, who adhere to the meaning of ‘secularism’ to the truest and strictest sense.

When the entire world is celebrating its festivals, one may find a Hindu is working on Holi/Deepavali/Durga Puja; a Muslim is keeping fast during the Ramadan month, often not getting a chance to offer daily five times prayer; instead of attending the mass during Easter, a Christian is slogging in the hotel since dawn to evening.

I am not suggesting that these indifference or exclusion of religious activities are voluntary; but over the ages, the hotel employees have been taught compulsively to become indifferent towards religious festivities and focus towards customer needs. In fact, those lucky few, who get a leave on a festival, may jolly well buy a lottery ticket as the odds for winning the raffle on such lucky day will be far less.

During my thirty four years of professional career, I am yet to come across a dispute between the hotel employees, which is based on religion or caste or creed. The reward for such exclusion of religious festivities is sweet packets on Deepavali, generous tips from the inebriated customers, and few bottles of spirits on the New Year eve.

Are the politicians listening? We, hoteliers might give you people a lesson or two on secularism.        

Intelligence

When God had distributed intelligence, He had shown partiality to rich people. I dare say that I have come across a wealthy person, who does not have a say in any topic on the earth. While in the hotel industry, I have seen owners dropping into the banquet hall at the eleventh hour before starting of a party, would first ridicule the Banquet manager/Maître d’hôtel and make him/her realize that how inadequate his/her knowledge and intelligence is and then order the entire set up to be dismantled and rearranged in a different way. No amount of logical explanation will stick.

I am not sure whether they (the affluent) really believe that they are well informed about everything in the world or they are afraid that if they do not behave in this way, the employees might think them as fools and some of them might try to defy or try to take a chance. Here, I am talking about the owners of independent hotels or small chains. Those, who often travel abroad for business or pleasure, and those who have set up a hotel, after having some success in some other business, are worse of the lot.

They behave in a way, as if God has proclaimed “the rich will inherit the earth”. But they always need a person (read manager) who will hold the can if anything goes wrong. For example, they may order the manager to serve liquor on ‘dry days’; as per Indian Excise law it will be licensee (generally, the head barman or the Bar Manager or the F&B Manager) who will be arrested.

There are two types of hotel managers available in the market – vertebrate managers and invertebrate managers. Vertebrate managers are generally performers, team players and very protective about the team he/she leads. Owners merely tolerate them because of the performance but never adore or respect as they occasionally say ‘no’.

Invertebrate managers are always ‘yes’ man of the owner and takes credit for the performance of the others. They never waste a chance to meet the owner and say only those things that will please the ‘Emperor’. They are not the persons to tell the emperor that “he is naked”. They will fill the ears of the owner with all sorts of truthful or false rumours and gossips with a malicious intention. While there is more than one such manager in a hotel, the Darwinian law of ‘survival of the fittest’ will be applied and the rest will have to make way for the winner.  

It is not that the owners always believe a sycophant manager; still they are employed because of the following;

a) their words give a sensuous feeling to the inflated ego of the owner.

b) It does not matter how much insult has been thrown at them, they will never react (it is not the case

     with the vertebrate managers).  

c) the owners always require a ‘whipping’ boy.

Many a times, the hotel owners engage more than one invertebrate managers to maintain the equilibrium in the organization. On the other hand, the invertebrate managers take advice of the owner on every trivial matter of operation, be it the cleaning agent to be used in the wash up area or brand of toilet paper. Such managers, in turn, keep their own set of scapegoats ready who will hold the can in case any thing goes awry.

 It is not that this syndrome in available only in the hotel industry; I have seen the same in other places as well. Again, still there are few owners (particularly some of those, who started from a scratch) only spell out the business policy and leave the day to day operation to the hands of competent people; interfere only when it is absolutely necessary.  

The Journey Begins

It is my first attempt to bridge the generation gap. I had been born in an era, when possessing a radio or a bi-cycle was an indicator of affluence; in fact people had to pay an annual license fee for possessing a radio and bi-cycle. Grew up, opted for Hotel Management as profession. Fortunately, got a chance to enroll myself in the Hotel Management College at Kolkata, then the only college in entire eastern India.  

For a boy from a village, it was a big cultural shock. Fellow students were from different backgrounds and communities, majority of them were from urban areas and from English medium schools. For me it was a big problem, as the medium for communication was either English or Hindi, initially I was not adept in both. We were being taught things like “Whitney Reservation System”; “Silver Service”; “Indian and Western Cuisine” and many other topics. I liked Food & Beverage Service most as a subject of study, and House-Keeping, the least. Neglected subjects like Accountancy, Economics, Maintenance and Hygiene. The pedagogy followed the “Swiss School of Thought”, with stress given on operational aspects;  not the businesslike approach of the American schools. Not much input were given on the managerial aspects of the subjects. The students were told “what to do” and “how to do”; unfortunately never told “why they need to learn the same”. For example, we were taught that draught beer is served at room temperature (which is not true now), but never told why. Similarly, we were not told why the Irish people and the Americans spell their whisky as “whiskey” (answer to that I discovered six to seven years back). I took great interest in culinary art, often tried my hand at home and more often than not ruining the family lunch or dinner.

After leaving the college, I had joined a 5-star hotel as a captain, worked real hard (12 to 14 hours a day), soon promoted as Senior Captain with additional charge of the kitchen. Unfortunately, during those days professional chefs were hard to come by and we had a “Head Cook” in the hotel, who had least control over his staff. In fact, during those days, only 100 – 120 students used to pass out from four Hotel Management Colleges, established in four regions of India, and there was a big gap in supply and demand in the industry. It is here in the kitchen, I felt how inadequate my knowledge was, particularly in the control areas. I had to undo my previous learning and soak up the new knowledge.

After more than a decade (in between I had a four years stint as a lecturer in a private Hotel Management College and then started my own “Outdoor Catering” business), in 1996, I had joined again a Hotel management college as a senior lecturer. It is where I felt my technological inadequacy. Cyclostyled study materials were a thing of the past, and I had no knowledge of computers. For preparing study materials on “WordStar”, I had to seek help from office assistant (particularly one Somenath Duttagupta), who will start the computer, open the file, from time to time will come to save the file; only thing I did was typing.

Actually, I learnt how to operate a computer only in 2003, when I purchased my own PC. After committing many mistakes and ruining the machine several times,  I finally learnt MS Word. In fact, my son taught me a great deal (who was then 5^th standard student). It was 2006, I could handle e-mails and in 2010 I had opened my Face Book account. While handling a computer or latest technological gadgets, I had always felt inadequate in presence of both my siblings. Finally, few days back I had taken lessons from my software developer son how to start my own blog. I cannot say I have mastered the handling of a blog, but what I can say is I have just started the journey and hope to learn from my mistakes and errors as I have always done.

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