Star and diamond ratings for hotels and resorts are all about creating unforgettable guest experiences, impeccable service standards and unmatched levels of hospitality. In essence, it’s all about orchestrating a state of excellence in every department of the hotel or resort leading to an incredible experience for the revered guests. If this be so, then the professionals that back-end the operations, run and manage these star and diamond rated hotels and resorts, must be enabled to create continuous excellence in all the areas that impact guest and service experiences, resulting in improved guest loyalty and stronger financial performance. Thus, at the heart of any company’s signature guest service program are the true enablers, ‘the competencies’.
Whilst there are various constructs of competencies, for the hospitality industry it is perhaps best to use the behaviorist construct. Competency is treated as something a person is or should be able to do. It is a description of action, behavior or outcome, capable of demonstration and assessment. Thus, from a behaviorist view point competence is conceived in terms of observable behaviours associated with the completion of specific tasks. Evidence of the possession of the competency is based on direct observation of performance
Some of the competencies that are seen as distinct by some of the top-notch hospitality companies worldwide include:
- Leadership
- Business Strategy
- Brand Relationship
- Service Excellence
- Processes and Systems
- Culture
- Anticipating and Managing Customer Expectations.
Academic Delivery Structure:
Given the aforementioned competencies in mind, the academic and the academic delivery structure at the Servo Hospitality School has been moulded to encompass the under-mentioned elements:
OTHM Qualifications
- The OTHM Qualifications are developed to equip all categories of learners including fresh students, those currently employed and those wishing to enhance their professional growth and training with knowledge, skills and key competencies.
- Level-3 Diploma qualifications improves subject knowledge and study skills and prepares learner’s for the undergraduate courses at UK Universities.
- Level-4 Diploma qualifications is equivalent to the first year of a three year UK Bachelor’s Degree.
- Level-5 Diploma qualifications is equivalent to the second year of a three year UK Bachelor’s Degree.
- The duration of each of the levels is 1 year and the academic structure consists of 120 credits. Completing the Diploma will enable the learner to progress onto the next level of the Higher Education at UK Universities.
The Servo Hospitality School [SHS]
- One of the biggest professional strengths of the School is it’s organic relationship with Hotel Ramada, Dehradun and as a consequence, the larger hotel industry. The hospitality industry is an integral part of the School’s culture and the School is actively involved with shaping professionals for the hospitality industry. The synergies thus, created only helps the School to become a leader in the field of hospitality education.
- Presently, SHS seeks to effectively integrate the OTHM Qualifications with the value- added programs and initiatives of the six Centres of Excellence [CoE’s] supplemented and complemented with the externship, internship and the practice school programs of Hotel Ramada, Dehradun to create knowledge, skills and hospitality and culinary related competencies.
- We are in the process of fostering our connections with internationally renowned hospitality and culinary Arts institutes and partners to create a distinct portfolio of customized, immersive and other experiential based programs. These and other allied programs and initiatives will further buttress the process of building competencies.
Scaffolding Programs and Initiatives Offered by the Six Centres of Excellence [CoE’s] and its Role in Creating Hospitality Linked Competencies
The six Centres of Excellence [CoE’s] collectively offer about 50 scaffolding programs and initiatives which support the mainstream academic programs and help students learn the academic and lifelong learning competencies in a holistic, integrated and relational manner not only as an integral part of the academic structure but more importantly, for their future professional performance as well.
All the scaffolding programs and initiatives are multi-dimensional in character and supplement and complement each other to aid and support the learning goals and outcomes. Whereas some of them are hands-on; a few are observational in nature; a few others have a program/task-oriented curricula and the remaining have a research focus. Collectively all the programs and initiatives focus on learning goals, application of knowledge and skills and have an inbuilt system of outcomes and assessments. The learning cycle is thus, perpetual and complete.
Hotel Ramada, Dehradun- The practice school and a platform for providing Externships and Internships
Hotel Ramada, Dehradun serves as a ‘practice school’ for hospitality and culinary professionals under training. It also serves as a potent platform for providing externship & internship programs. Students’ are enabled to think on their feet; make those exciting connections between the concepts taught at Servo Hospitality School and the practices they encounter in real -time in the hospitality industry and in response thereto generate ideas of their own.
In group projects ,students work in teams ; learn to challenge and inspire each other; constantly learning who they are and where their capabilities can take them. An attachment in the form of practice school, externships and internships with Hotel Ramada, Dehradun helps bridge the academia-industry gap and provides an ideal setting to apply concepts to real-life situations.
Designing competencies
It must be borne in mind that ‘competencies’ don’t just happen or get developed automatically. It is an outcome of a creative process and, therefore, it must be engineered. Conceptually, competencies are built around:
*Knowledge Framework: Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.
*Habits of Mind or Lifelong Learning Competencies.
*Learning progression: This does not necessarily mean that all the students will learn in a linear fashion; students with high mobility will necessarily enter classrooms with gaps in their knowledge. Therefore, it is important to be able to identify when those gaps have to be filled in order for students to learn a new concept.
Servo Hospitality School’s Approach to Building Competencies
The competency building process at the Servo Hospitality School is achieved by integrating the six distinct learning engines, each powered to teach and drive a distinct set of hospitality and culinary competencies.
The learning engines include :
*Servo Hospitality School
*The Six Centres of Excellence [CoE’s]
*Caboose-The Culinary Studio
*The OTHM Qualifications
* Hotel Ramada, Dehradun as a ‘practice school’.
* Hotel Ramada, Dehradun for providing externships & internships.
Having taught the academic and lifelong learning competencies, the next set of processes are aimed at identifying missing competencies, if any, and then designing ways to help students complete them. Competency recovery is always better than credit recovery that demand that students sit through an entire semester all over again. Each of the elements within the framework act as powerful influencers to engage, motivate and support students. It creates a deep and abiding interest to continuously acquire the hospitality and culinary competencies. Therefore, these competencies are applicable across different contexts and situations in which the learner’s exist. Thus, the time spent at the Servo Hospitality School is truly transformational.
It can be said that one of the biggest advantages of studying at the Servo Hospitality School is that the graduates can immediately put their hospitality and culinary education and competencies to work once they are hired . The academic delivery system consists of well-conceived, designed, constructed and integrated modules to provide state of the art knowledge, skills and attitude. We are very excited about the significant initiatives that we have undertaken to strengthen our academic programs and our global standing as a premier institute for hospitality and culinary education and research. We look to the future with renewed excitement, purpose and commitment to strengthen our relationship with all the stakeholders and add an incredibly energizing and inspiring set of Programs.
