Newstrack

Reliance's e-learning to ease hospitality education, training burden

Sanjeev Bhar - New Delhi

Technology is all set to take on the role of educating and training hotel professionals in small towns and cities. Reliance's e-learning is set to help institutes find good students and ease the hotel sector's training burden. According to Sarup Chowdhary, director and CEO, Reliance Webstore, "This e-learning concept will ease the core pressure of hotel chains across India, especially the newer ones that are coming to the B- and C-cities. Technology will help them reach out to all their employees."

The Indian Institute of Hotel Management (IIHM) in order to find the best crop has started conducting admission tests for its courses through the Reliance World outlets. Suborno Bose, chairman of International Group, informs that IIHM and International Advanced Institute (IAM) have entered into an agreement with the Reliance Webstore for holding online examinations through their WebWorld outlets available across the country. "This partnership enabled us to reach a larger number of students and find the best ones with the right aptitude necessary for the service industry. Selection examination and procedures play a key role in finding the best students with an aptitude for hotel management," he says.

Learning should take place in a synchronised manner and therefore, Chowdhary says, Reliance WebWorld acts as a service provider by offering 140 virtual classrooms in 105 cities across the country offering courses in general management, supply chain management, executive development programmes, marketing communications, etc which are apt for mid-management levels in the hotel industry. One year courses will also address students' queries through Q&A, project sessions, etc apart from direct visual interaction with faculty through Reliance outlets. "The challenge for professionals in the service industry is to upgrade, update their front-end staffs. Whether you call it a degree course or training, the challenge today is towards products, service and the technology associated with it," Chowdhary says. He adds that since the hotel sector is supposed to be the frontier for providing excellent customer service, Reliance will bring extensive focus here too to reach out to all hotel companies.