21 Diplomas awarded to Front Desk Management Graduates from BISHT

The Department of Human Resources (DHR) under Labor Ministry awarded certificates to 21 Diploma graduates in Front Desk Management from the Bhutan International School of Hospitality and Tourism (BISHT) yesterday.

According to the Press release from the Labor Ministry, so far a total of 248 trainees have graduated in various trades from BISHT with Ministry’s support from 2010.

“Around 80% of graduates have been employed with the help of Labor Ministry,” said the DHR official Jit Bdr Bhandari.

The placement of the graduates is decided by the respective institutes and the labor ministry provides them help if they are not able to place all the graduates.

These 21 trainees have undergone the Diploma training for a period of one year which commenced on 1 February last year.

The Ministry has supported these trainees with tuition fees and stipends.

This program is mainly targeted at groups of unemployed youth and school dropouts with minimum education qualification of Class VI.

In the previous years the Ministry supported certificate level programs like commercial cooking, food and beverages, food production, bakery and spa at BISHT.

However, for the current training program the Ministry has supported training that includes theory, practical and the On the Job Trainings (OJT).

The graduates of the ongoing training programs will be employed in the various hotels in the border towns of the Phuentsholing, Gelephu and Samdrup Jongkhar.

“To send the trainees on OJT in various hotels in border towns is a pilot program,” said Jit Bdr Bhandari.

He said that unavailability of employment in border towns is an issue, so to address the issue the trainees will be sent to these areas and also supplement Indian workers.

“The ministry will continue to send the trainees on OJT in hotels of border towns, provided the pilot program is a successful one,” he added.

Currently three programs each are being conducted for a period of five months at BISHT and the training programs include cooking, housekeeping, food and beverages.

Although the Labor ministry has not decided on the number of unemployed youths to recruit, DHR official Jit Bdr Bhandari said they would decide after every financial year’s plan.

“But in a year the labor ministry recruits minimum of 150 unemployed youths and school dropouts in the training program,” he added.

Meanwhile the Labor Market Information Guide for Class X and XII, 2012 listed around 190 slots from BISHT.

The training courses include Front Office, Housekeeping, Bakery, Hotel Operations and Hotel Management, food and beverages services and culinary skills.