InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) and IL&FS Skills have launched the second IHG Academy branded training center under their partnership in Kalimpong, West Bengal. The first branded training center was launched in New Delhi last year.
The Kalimpong center is set to be one of the largest talent development centers under the IHG Academy program, attracting young talent from the rural areas of Northeast India.
IHG Academy is a pioneering global collaboration between IHG and local education and community providers, which aims to provide local people with skills development and employment opportunities at more than 4,900 IHG hotels across the globe. There are now over 900 IHG Academy programs across more than 60 countries globally, and 25 IHG Academy programs across India.
The collaboration with IL&FS Skills is IHG’s first vocational program in the country. Under the partnership, IL&FS Skills provides IHG approved vocational hospitality training across the country.
Participants are first trained to IHG’s standards in a classroom setting whilst learning about the Indian hospitality sector, followed by on-the-job training to put what they learned into practice. They are then given the opportunity to apply for full-time roles at IHG hotels across the country.
To date, the IHG Academy partnership with IL&FS has skilled 44 students across nine batches, and 47 students are undergoing training in the current batch. Nearly 60 percent of graduates from the program have joined IHG hotels across the country in full time employment.
The IHG Academy program supports the national Skill India Campaign which aims to equip 500 million Indian nationals with skills by 2022.
Shantha de Silva, head of South West Asia, IHG said, “Over the next 12 months our target under our IHG Academy partnership with IL&FS is to train 100 students across the country. With this rebranded center in Kalimpong we are confident of drawing more young local people from Northeast India to undergo our high standards of hospitality training and we are delighted to be able to do our part in skilling local talent to support the growing tourism industry in India.”
IHG currently has over 900 IHG Academy programm across more than 60 countries. Over 10,000 participants worldwide have benefited from the IHG Academy program since it launched nine years ago and the company aims to provide skills training and employability in the hospitality sector to 20,000 local people by 2017.
IHG currently has 22 hotels open across four brands in India: InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, and Holiday Inn Express. A further 47 hotels are due to open in the next three to five years.
