The Hindu Business Line : Hospitality institutes to combine security drills with culinary skills

Soon, their students – apart from their regular training in culinary matters, courtesy, and other soft skills – will also be instructed in coping with extreme security-related situations such as a terror attack.

While students do undergo training for emergency situations such as fire or accidents, handling armed attacks are something that institutes never gave a thought to. Now, drills for such situations would become part of the curriculum at hospitality management institutes.

“We need to consider this seriously, with our new sessions starting this January,” Mr Balachandar Vedapuri, Director of Institute for Hotel Management (IHM), Bangalore, told Business Line. He said the institute first needs to identify the right people who can impart such training.

IHM, Bangalore is among the 19 institutes of hotel management and food craft institutions recognised by National Council for Hotel Management and Catering Technology, an apex autonomous body under the Ministry of Tourism.

“We intend to have security officers or police personnel on our campus to talk to us, and offer practical training so that our students are in a better position to secure hotel guests and themselves from emergencies like these (Mumbai attacks),” he said.

However, incidents such as the terror attacks in Mumbai would not affect hospitality as a choice of profession, said hospitality experts. Though they are witnessing some resistance from students’ guardians who have started finding outdoor catering jobs “unsafe”, this is a temporary phenomenon, said Mr Vedapuri.

Agrees Mr Manav Thadani, Managing Director, HVS International-India, who also feels the Mumbai attacks will not deter candidates from applying for hospitality courses: “There is still a shortage of manpower in the hospitality industry. There is requirement of at least 84,000 trained professionals in the next 4-5 years, and this is when the country is going through a slowdown,” he said.

HVS is a global consulting and services organisation focused on the hotel, restaurant, shared ownership, and gaming and leisure industries.

According to IHM, recruiters are now insisting on background checks of applicants. It is not like what it was even a month ago, when the hoteliers would just pick students depending on the prestige of their colleges. They are cross checking the identification and the credentials of the candidate before taking him or her on board, said Mr Vedapuri.