New Institute of Hospitality Management Qualifications Welcomed by Industry Leaders

This week, the Institute of Hospitality received an overwhelmingly favourable response to its new, ground-breaking suite of awards and qualifications from hospitality, tourism and leisure industry leaders and training providers. Officially launched on Tuesday, the awards provide flexible, tailored learning that will deliver relevant, industry-focused management skills. They mark the culmination of three years of development work, in close consultation with employers and businesses from across the industry.

“The new qualifications have been welcomed warmly by industry and training providers alike, with many companies and colleges eager to deliver them,” says the Institute’s Chief Executive Philippe Rossiter FIH, a view reinforced by the speakers at the Official Launch, held in the former Greater London Council Chamber on 20th November.

Brian Wisdom MIH, Chief Executive of the industry’s Sector Skills Council People 1st, which has approved the new qualifications, told launch guests:

“ Staff retention is the biggest challenge the industry currently faces. The lack of retention is presently costing our profession nearly £1 billion a year – it is the main reason why the profession lags so far behind its global competitors, and other industry sectors, in terms of productivity.

'The reason people leave is not generally about money, but because of other people – in short, due to a lack of quality management and leadership. People tend to be promoted into management positions too early in their careers before they have gained the necessary skills and experience; and what makes this even more worrying is that, according to People 1 st research, 54 per cent of the industry's managers do not possess the minimum qualifications to be a manager".

Herein lies an opportunity that the Institute of Hospitality has addressed with its excellent new framework of business-orientated qualifications, providing a timely and essential response to this identified industry need.”

Industry leader Kate Martin, Managing Partner for the Brookwood Partnership, also welcomed the Institute’s new framework of qualifications.

“It offers our industry the opportunity to develop people so that they can gain a valuable, recognised qualification that is relevant to their jobs, career progression and Continuing Professional Development (CPD),” she said.

It gives us, as an industry, a sound basis for recruiting, training and developing staff, through completion of a flexible qualification which won't bog us down in documentation, whilst providing the continued improvement of excellent service to our customers. It will also assist in attracting newcomers to our industry, and enable those already with us to develop, update and refresh their skills. I know it will help address the weakness in management and leadership skills that we face today and be a credit to our profession.”

Geoff Booth FIH, Director of the School of Hospitality at Westminster Kingsway College , added: “The Institute's new qualifications are exactly what we are looking for as a training provider, because they raise the skills bar in the profession not just for the young school leavers, but also those already in the industry who want to get ahead in their careers. What we also really like about these qualifications is their flexibility, their mode of delivery and assessment, as well as the fact they have been designed by people who have listened to the needs of the industry. They allow us to underpin graduate and staff retention in the profession and develop people's careers along the lines of their ambitions and career pathways, giving them the skills they need to make the step up to the next level.”

The new Framework was formally approved by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) in May, and with funding available via the Learning Aims Database, delivery of the units is planned to start in early 2008.

F or full details of the Qualifications Framework, and the Awarding Body Centre Approval Process Click Here