Skilling women for tourism jobs: New courses to get underway
KITTS is seeking to mould skilled women professionals to handle a wide range of jobs in the fast-expanding tourism sector.
In a path-breaking initiative that would provide a shot in the arm for efforts aimed at empowering women, the Kerala Institute of Tourism and Travel Studies (KITTS), an autonomous institution under the Department of Tourism, is seeking to mould skilled women professionals to handle a wide range of jobs in the fast-expanding tourism sector.
As part of the initiative, KITTS will kickstart six courses and 13 training programmes exclusively for women. Kerala’s Tourism Minister P A Mohamed Riyas said around 600 job opportunities are expected to arise in tourism and hospitality sector exclusively for women within a year.
Scholarships will be provided for the candidates enrolling for diploma courses. With the launch of these programmes, KITTS is expected to address the growing demand for trained and skilled professionals for a wide range of jobs in tourism sector, the Minister said.
Scholarships for women
By conducting training and diploma programmes with scholarship for women, KITTS is playing a vital role in the State government’s aim of creating more jobs through sustainable development of tourism, Riyas said. These programmes are structured to create a large pool of highly skilled professionals to handle a wide range of jobs in tourism and make the visitors feel totally at home, keeping up Kerala’s tradition of hospitality, religious harmony and secular spirit. Also, efforts are on to secure the Center of Excellence status for KITTS.
The Multi Skilled Hospitality Executive Diploma Courses for women is aimed at ensuring employment for women in the hospitality and tourism sector. The programme consists of six courses and 13 training programs. More than 600 women will be enrolled.
The fee for the course, which will impart a variety of skills like front office management, housekeeping, and food and beverage services, is Rs. 30,000. There will be fee relaxation for candidates belonging to SC/ST category. Candidates from other categories will get a 50 percent scholarship. The applicants for the course, to which the admission will be on merit basis, must have passed plus-two.
KITTS will also ensure 100 percent placement for all those who successfully complete the six-month course. Creating employment and promoting entrepreneurship for local communities is part of sustainable tourism development. Through the one-month entrepreneurship development training programme conducted by KITTS, women will be provided with free guidance and skill training which would, in turn, enable them to start small enterprises.
Tourism knowledge sharing initiative
As part of KITTS’s Tourism Knowledge Sharing Initiative for encouraging serious research in tourism, the library of KITTS will be made accessible to scholars. Students and researchers from government educational institutions and university centres can use the library without any fee.
The library has more than 5000 books on tourism and digital editions of international tourism journals. Scholars from aided and private sector institutions can get reference membership in the library by paying Rs 5000. KITTS currently offers MBA in Travel and Tourism besides other tourism-related PG diploma courses, BBA and BCom.
