Culinary education is no longer about setting a curriculum that can be followed for a few years before it needs to be updated. Hotel management institutes in India must include skills training as a key focus area to ensure their students are industry-ready in the best possible way.
So what exactly is skills training and how does it differ from the curriculum of most hotel management colleges in India? Skills training helps improve opportunities for employees in their field by enhancing skills and know-how in both hard and soft skills. Through skills training at the college level, even new graduates can manage the distinct requirements of their roles with minimal to no training from the company.
One of the most important ways that skills training helps companies is by ensuring better productivity. By ensuring students know the essential skills they need on the job, culinary schools in India can offer candidates who improve output from the get-go rather than requiring months of training. This, in turn, boosts the bottom line, exactly what companies are looking for. This promotes partnership opportunities between highly rated companies and culinary institutes.
Skills training is also about adaptability. It teaches students how to navigate an industry that changes year on year. Recent trends have touched on organics, sustainability, kitchen gardens, cloud kitchens and social media, breads and fermentation. Skills training may not go into the minute details of these but teaches students how to quickly adapt to requirements that may be outside of their comfort zones without feeling frustrated and defeated.
With that said, good culinary schools ensure they keep their students updated with the latest technology. Their classrooms, practical sessions and internships all reflect life in the real world. Today’s students need to know how to roll pasta by hand, but they also need to know how to operate a pasta machine, use Bluetooth-controlled devices, and perhaps even manage a whole operation within a tight space as mobile kitchens and food trucks gain popularity.
Some of the most important soft skills that culinary schools must teach – and constantly update – include behavioural and personality development, positive thinking and stress management, communication skills, teamwork and conflict resolution, management and business acumen, time management and critical thinking.
By ensuring graduates are proficient in these, hotel management colleges in India can attract better partner companies that are constantly looking at optimising their resources. Without having to invest time, money and energy into skilling new employees themselves, companies no longer worry about whether a candidate is the right fit. Additionally, they are less inclined to reject candidates they fear might leave after time spent in orientation training.
Finally, one of the most important reasons for skill training is satisfying the end user. Today’s customer expects premium services no matter what kind of culinary venture they go to. This extends beyond the food being offered to customer service. By improving students’ hard and soft skills, it benefits not just their efficiency and management but also their ability to deal with distressed, unhappy or perhaps even unreasonable customers.
Culinary schools offer all their students the same skills training and therefore take this burden off workplaces. It improves their placement track record and opens avenues to more reputed companies that offer them insight into new trends so they can update their training. This circular model bodes well for all stakeholders, including and especially students.
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