The Tourism and Hospitality Skill Council is on course to train 33 lakh people in trades relevant to the industry.

The Tourism and Hospitality Skill Council (THSC) is a national level organisation with a government-industry interface and partnership with stakeholders from industry, labour as well as the academia. It is an independent industry-led organisation which has created a framework for skill development in the tourism and hospitality sector.

India lags well behind developing countries in training youth. China has three crore apprentices in its industrial units while India has just two lakh. The country needs 12 crore more workers by 2022. More than 90 per cent of these workers will be needed in 10 sectors, led by retail and construction.

Tourism and hospitality also figure among the high priority sectors that require skilled manpower. THSC aims to mend the demand supply gap in skilled manpower existing in the sector.
There is a market failure in skill development in the country in various sectors. Employers are not willing to pay for training of candidates and are looking for trained candidates. Candidates are not willing to pay for training but are ready to pay for getting jobs. Banks are not willing to lend to candidates for training unless job is guaranteed. It is this conundrum that the National Skill Development Mission aims to resolve.

THSC works very closely with educational bodies run by both government and the private sector to support them with the industry-defined occupational standards and industry inputs for curriculum development. It has hundreds of affiliated training partners with over 350 training centres across India. It fulfils its purpose essentially when the lead is taken by Industry stakeholders. Formed with the motive of “by the industry for the industry,” THSC caters to all the sub sectors of the industry such as hotels, tour operators, food service restaurants, facilities management and cruise liner.

THSC has hundreds of affiliated training partners with over 350 training centres across India.

THSC has completed functional and occupational mapping and has developed a catalogue of job roles in tourism and hospitality sector. It has also partnered with University Grants Commission (UGC) to design Qualification Pack aligned training for higher education in vocational stream with bachelors in vocational studies programme.

Trainees with prior experience, skills or competencies will be assessed and given monetary rewards for undergoing assessments. This will be an important step towards recognising the skills possessed by workers working in the informal sector and their inclusion. This will also facilitate the process of skill upgrade and re-skilling of the existing workforce.

The focus of RPL (recognition of prior learning) would be on those job-roles and sectors in which it is most desired and it will be accompanied with a strong advocacy campaign to promote a paradigm shift in the labour market to make skill training to standards aspirational. Skill training is targetedat various levels, from dropout students after class 10 to people with higher qualification. Youth from the Hindi heartlands, North East and Jammu &Kashmir will get preference.

The story so far

• All applications for affiliation of Training Partners have been evaluated bythe HR Sub Committee which is an industry body comprising of HR Heads and Training Heads.
• Conducts Audits of Assessments before uploading of results in SDMS.
• Completed projects like Clean Street food and trained over 23,000 in RPL under PMKVY in partnership with FSSAI.
• 23 curriculums are ready for Training Partners to utilise.
• Conducted TOT along with American Hotels & Lodging Educational Institute to give trainersan international edge. Has certified 478 QP based trainers in last one year
• App based Training Centre validation along with Geo Tagging by third party.
• Regular Training Partner meets along with Industry Partner and align them accordingly.
• Conducted 1st Job Fair in Kolkatawith 14 organisations such as Oberois, SODEXO, OYO Rooms, Speciality Restaurant andCafé Coffee Day. 245 THSC certified candidates participated with 123 being offered job.
• 63 NSQC approved Job Roles t Mapping of QPs with International Standards (UKERI)
• Conducted assessments for 12,000 CBSE| schools in Sikkim
• RPL at RashtrapatiBhawan and with Industry Partner SODEXO.
• Active participation of Industry through various Sub Committees such as NOS Sub Committee, Finance Sub Committee, Assessment Sub Committee and HR Sub Committee.
• Aligning QPs with UGC colleges and Universitiessuch as BHU.
• Working closely with MoD for Army Veterans.
• Upcoming Projects with Indian Railways, FSSAI, TAFE Australia.