Education

GRT Hospitality Academy rolls out its first batch

Sangeetha Neeraja - Chennai

The GRT Hospitality Academy, established to offer quality education at a non-commercial fee, held its convocation ceremony for its first batch of students. T Natarajan, CEO of GRT Hotels Resorts, said, "This academy was borne due to the vision of M O Koshy, executive director (business development) of GRT Hotels & Resorts. This is a very happy moment for all of us."

The academy revolves around the concept of multi-skilling, where a student is exposed and fortified in areas of food service, housekeeping and front office operations. Though the academy has full time faculty members, it also has guest lecturers. Natarajan says, "Executives from the hotel group come once every week to talk about the inside stories - the real challenges."

The academy offers two courses, a two-year diploma course in hospitality operations and a one year proficiency course in hospitality operations. Both the courses are certified by City & Guilds, London, UK. The course curriculum includes six months industrial exposure training for both the courses. Each student undergoes training in the group's hotels in the departments pertaining to their course of study.

Benny Ezekiel, senior training manager at the academy, said, "The students are hand-picked to suit the requirements of the group, and each batch has a count of not more than 20." The academy's calendar year does not coincide with that of others because during examination time there would be a dip in the trainee's presence from other institutions in the hotels. The academy students pitch in when there is a complete absence of trainees from other academies.