Local hospitality institute to get foreign expertise

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=136397

Local hospitality institute to get foreign expertise
Star Business Report

Vocational training is important to develop the country’s unskilled or semi-skilled workforce to support the private sector, speakers said at a function in Dhaka yesterday.

The ceremony was organised to mark the signing of a cooperation agreement between PUM Netherlands and the Institute of Hotel Management and Hospitality Ltd (IHMH) in Bangladesh.

The institute will receive technical assistance for three years (2010-12) from PUM Netherlands to improve its institutional capabilities to international standards to meet the growing need of professionals in the hotel and hospitality sector of Bangladesh.

Frans Schiereck, country co-ordinator of PUM Netherlands for Bangladesh and Nepal, and Rizwan Bin Farouq, chairman of IHMH, signed the agreement.

The assistance, which will be provided under PUM’s Vocational Education for Higher Categories and Labels programme, will help the institute upgrade its present curriculum to meet the world standard demands in the hotel management and hospitality sector.

PUM Netherlands offers skills and expertise to around 2,000 small and medium enterprises or training institutes annually on a voluntary basis.

Michiel Reynders, second secretary for economic affairs and private sector development at Netherlands Embassy in Dhaka, Rubina H Farouq, director of the institute, Abdul Karim, managing director of MIDAS, Francis Dilip de Silva, adviser (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) to International Labour Organisation, and Mashiur Rahman, PUM representative in Bangladesh and general manager of MIDAS, were also present.

Approved by the civil aviation and tourism ministry and affiliated with Bangladesh Technical Education Board and City & Guilds, UK, IHMH has trained over 1,800 students since 2004.