Employability has gained a lot of attention in recent years because of rising competitiveness. At present, it is imperative for the candidates to work on an additional set of skills for sustainable growth because unlike yesteryears, focus is more on employability rather than employment. What is the significance of creating employability? To understand this, firstly, it is important to comprehend the meaning of employability.
In order to ensure employability, one needs to upskill themselves and update their skillset to keep up with the markets’ demands. With which, Indian Hotel Company Limited (IHCL) has been taking proactive steps towards bridging the gap between the unskilled youth and employability. In line with Paathya, a framework to drive its sustainability and social impact measures, is further strengthening its commitment to skill building with the aim to create employability for the deserving and marginalized. Under this framework, the company aims to provide 1 lakh youth skills for livelihood. For the same objective, IHCL has been setting up training centres all over the country to provide quality learning opportunities to the unemployed and unskilled youth of India. These centers for excellence offer opportunities to the marginalized facet of youth. For instance, IHCL recently set up training centres in Madhya Pradesh and Orissa to empower the unskilled population of the state and the country henceforth. Following the same trajectory, IHCL also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the government of Assam to build centres of excellence in Assam and empower the deserving and marginalized youth of the north-eastern region of the country.
Hospitality and Tourism have become one of the largest and fastest-growing economic sectors in the world and require a particular set of skills. The sector generates a huge amount of employment across the globe. The industry largely depends on quality-efficient employees to provide exceptional service to their guests. Hence, relevant employability skills and competencies are of particular importance. These skills include the ability to motivate a team, to network, as well as to manage client relationships. They are crucial to tourism and hospitality because it is a workforce-intensive industry that involves a high degree of customer contact. Some of the skills required in the hospitality industry are communication and interpersonal, problem-solving, self-motivation, working under pressure, organizational skills, team spirit, negotiation , learning , value for diversity, and a few others. All of these skills are must-haves because every day we face thousands of customers from varying backgrounds, religions, cultures, and mindsets. You never know how each guest will respond at a particular time so it is very important for employees to have good interpersonal and problem-solving skills.
Tourism and hospitality is a ‘people’ business, both from the internal business point of view and from the external customer perspective. There are frequent and intense face-to-face interactions or encounters between service providers and customers. It is therefore important to have the right employees with the necessary skills and competence. The ability of associates to develop proactively, adapt, and repackage their capabilities is an essential aspect of employability.
To be successful in the hospitality industry, it is essential to be able to function as a member of a team – either as a leader or as a fresher. Every team member plays a crucial part and bestows a contribution to make and achieve the team’s objectives. Many jobs in the sector involve direct customer contact, such as waiting on tables, working at the front desk, or managing an in-house spa. From a hospitality company’s point of view, it is pertinent to have employees with these skills because if they provide good service to the customer, it is more likely that we are able to build brand loyalty. This will further increase revenues of the company and also generate more employment to handle the increasing footfall efficiently.
It is vital for aspiring youth to work on their soft skills to get a better role and to be successful in the longer run. Not only students, but even the educational institutes and employers should work with the target audience and train them with the required skills as it will benefit both parties. The tourism industry is the major contributor to the country’s GDP and plays a pivotal role in the economic boost and has become critical towards job creation and Indian growth. According to the report by IBEF in FY 20 Indian tourism sector contributes 39 million jobs which are 8 percent of the total employment of India. According to the report, it is expected to account for 59 million by 2029. That is why the hospitality industry must have well-trained staff with maximum employability skills for this sector to thrive.
