It is one of the most difficult phases for the Hospitality industry and for Hospitality' Education. When Covid-19 started in March 2020, everything was a chaos and we took some time to assess the situation. and find a way out as till them all IHMs were imparting knowledge and skill through 100% offline classes.

The pandemic compelled us to quickly mould ourselves for online education. Our faculty members were keen to break the barrier and immediately trained themselves in Zoom/Google meet, prepared matter for online classes and successfully organised online learning including skill components by demo. In the 2020-21 academic session, we were much better organised and unfortunately had to complete the full session in online mode only. This year too will be online. The real sufferers are the students - attitude formation, skill and overall personality development as well as learning happens not only in classes but through peer group and extracurricular activities. If we are not able to open campuses now, then quality of Hospitality Management and Operational education will remain affected for years and it will be extremely difficult to take it back to pre-Covid level.

Arun Kumar Singh

In this difficult time, students should develop the ability of self-learning which is going to be with them throughout their life and is must for future growth.

Since present students are demotivated and there are hardly any job offers; obviously this means bad publicity and it will definitely affect new enrolments. This situation is prevailing in every professional program but we are confident that we will shortly be in a position to offer the best possible education to students.

The alternate career path
Alternate career options are many in the field of main or allied hospitality like Sales & Marketing including Digital Marketing, Revenue management, Humans Resources, Travel & Tourism and above all path of entrepreneurship. No doubt it takes time, patience and funds to move ahead in entrepreneurship but reasonable number of students are opting for starting their own business, some may be after college and others after a few years exposure. Opportunities are many the only requirement is determination, hard work and patience with the right attitude. In this difficult time, students should develop the ability of self-learning which is going to be with them throughout their life and is a must for future growth; they should follow their passion to ease out tension and disappointment and attain menial peace. Knowledge of one foreign and one regional language will be an asset. Knowledge of latest trends and technology will also be an important tool for success.

Role of government institutes
The initiative of government to provide hospitality education in four aspects i.e., Hospitality Management, Hotel Operation, Hunar se Rozgar and time to time Skill Orientation of already employed persons, is commendable. Let me share this that India is probably the only country in the world where hospitality education was developed by the government to this extent and it is still presiding land and capital support. Government institutes like IHM will continue to work extensively in this field. A few private institutes have also established themselves very well and are sensing the industry in hand with government institutes.