Orlando, Florida, July 2015—The American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute (AHLEI) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Tourism and Hospitality Skill Council (THSC) in India to train and certify hospitality trainers as part of a country-wide push for career skill development. Tourism and hospitality is one of 29 skill sectors identified by the government of India as a priority area for skill development.

According to Dennie Matthews, chief managing officer for AHLEI India, AHLEI has been awarded the project to train and certify thousands of hospitality trainers over the next several years to fulfill the mandate of THSC. AHLEI developed a curriculum for the Certified Skills Trainer program and has already begun implementing the project through a series of three-day training workshops across the country. Matthews noted that to date, AHLEI has trained 164 candidates through 11 workshops, and has scheduled many more workshops through the end of this year.

“Integral to the ongoing initiatives to make India a hub of highly valued and productive workers, we are proud of the AHLEI and THSC collaboration, which aims at creating a cadre of specialist trainers who further exercise their expertise in skilling India and making tourism and hospitality a robust Industry,” said Praveen Roy, chief executive officer, Tourism and Hospitality Skill Council.

“It is indeed a very prestigious project for AHLEI to be involved in, in the country,” said Matthews. “It also goes to show the acceptance of the high quality training materials developed by AHLEI and that our certifications are valued much in India.”