UEI Global, an education initiative of Berggruen Education, in collaboration with ?The Hotelschool, The Hague? a member of the Leading Hotel Schools of the World (LHSW) will open 50 institutes in India by 2010, that will cater to the hospitality and service industry.
The school is also looking up to build strategic tie-ups with a few select International Universities to offer credit transfers for the bachelor?s degree courses in hospitality management with work experience and has recently tied up with Bharathiar University, Coimbatore for under-technical collaborations in India. UEI has currently about five hospitality institutes in India and is now foraying into School of Services Management that will cater to retail management and malls and aviation.
Praveen Roy, MD, UEI Global says ?There is a growing demand in the service sector as retail and aviation have been poaching a number of employees from hospitality sector and therefore we need to train them with respect to each sector.? UEI will bring one year diploma programs to the students that can be upgraded to a degree level. This can also be done by taking breaks in between.
A recent Ma Foi employement survey showed that the hospitality sector expects to witness an increase in employment to the tune of 426,668 by December 2008 and has been growing at the rate of 9%. Roy adds that there are a huge number of budget hotels that are coming up in India and with the entry of brand hotels the capacity of hotel rooms in India is expected to go double by 2010.
The parent company, Berggruen Holdings , a New York headquartered firm that is setting up 40 hotels in India, will invest around $ 12 million and will be going up to around $ 30 million in due course.