Ecole H

Set in the idyllic newly developed Lavasa Hill City, LEH offers the academic certification of the Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, Switzerland — a world-class hospitality institute

Spread over four sylvan acres at a height of 3,000 ft above sea-level, in the idyllic newly developed hill station of Lavasa, Maharashtra, sited 200 km from Mumbai and 50 km from Pune on the highway linking the state’s premier industrial hubs, Ecole Hôtelière Lavasa (LEH) describes itself as a “hospitality management college of excellence”. It offers academic certification by Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne (EHL, estb. 1893), arguably the world’s oldest and most respected hotel and hospitality management college. Under an agreement with EHL, the Lavasa-based LEH (estb. 2009) offers higher secondary school-leavers a four-year wholly residential undergraduate hospitality management degree progra-mme with the option to transfer credits to EHL after two years and complete their degree in Switzerland. Moreover, students are guaranteed 24 weeks of internship with prestigious hospitality brands across India to acquire hands-on experience.

Comments Prof. Michel Rochat, director general of EHL, Switzerland, who  inaugurated LEH’s new 67,000 sq.ft state-of-the-art campus in Lavasa with capacity to host 600 students on August 19: “EHL’s mission is to develop talent for the global hospitality industry — India included — by transferring our knowledge and expertise to LEH. We are committed to establishing new paradigms in hospitality education by training LEH faculty, designing the academic curriculum, and assuring the quality of infrastructure and education provided through regular audits.”

According to LEH’s high-calibre  faculty, the four-year degree programme of the institute is the most thorough and technology-enabled hotel and hospi-tality training course offered in India. “Based on modern paradigm concepts such as fulfilled employees and comprehensive customer satisfaction, our curriculum requires students to research, present and apply the syllabus to real situations through case studies, live practicals, and project assignments. Our focus is to put students through a rigorous self-learning experience supported by practical training. The programme is intensive and 5 percent of our parent ELH students drop out annually,” says Rony Kurien, alumnus of the Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune, with marketing, international business, retail and teaching experience of 24 years in Australia, UK, Singapore and Malaysia, and currently chief operating officer of LEH.

Quite evidently the mumbai-based Lavasa Corporation Ltd — a subsidiary of the infrastructure const-ruction behemoth Hindustan Const-ruction Co. (annual revenue: Rs.8,150 crore) which built Lavasa Hill City from ground up — has spared no expense to construct LEH as per EHL’s world-class standards and specifications. The campus offers technology intensive multimedia classrooms, study rooms, a wine tasting lab, amphitheatre, auditoriums, a cyberhotel (for students to become familiar with the latest technology), housekeeping labs and training and demo kitchens, store rooms and mock guest rooms. LEH also provides students a separate residential area comprising 60 double rooms with attached bathrooms. As a first in India and in line with EHL specifications, students have access to four distinctive cuisine restaurants on campus and luxury and budget hotels, spas, service apartments, clubs and restaurants in Lavasa Hill City, to practice what they learn in class. Moreover, LEH is also the only education institute with a wine tasting lab in India.

“Our objective is to provide cutting-edge management programmes to develop hospitality professionals and entrepreneurs trained in India for the world,” explains Kurien. Consequently the curriculum has been carefully designed to ensure students are exposed to global best practices in communications, computer applications, service protocols, human resource management, problem solving and people skills. They are also obliged to learn French, are taught business and dining protocols, acceptable grooming standards, and given cross cultural training. Moreover, the sylvan environment of Lavasa Hill City spread across 10,000 hectares offers students an array of extra-curricular options such as water sports, mountaineering and trekking, gym, yoga and the performing and fine arts.

At the end of two years, students have the option to complete their degree programme in EHL, Switzerland, or from affiliated EHL certified colleges in Brazil, China, South Korea, Lebanon, Mexico, Thailand and UAE. On completion of the programme, apart from globally recognised EHL certification, students are awarded a bachelor of tourism study (BTS) degree in hospitality administration of the Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi, and the American diploma of the American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute,  Lansing, Michigan. Currently LEH has 76 students mentored by 10 permanent faculty certified by EHL and 29 visiting faculty.

The first batch of 21 students who graduated on August 9, have been enthusiastically welcomed by India’s hotel and hospitality industry with all  applicants snapped up by reputed hotel chains including Westin, Oberoi, JW Marriott and Novotel at annual salaries of Rs.2-3 lakh.

Kurien is confident that future batches emerging from LEH’s new 67,000 sq. ft campus equipped with unprecedented training and development facilities will command larger remuneration packages. “Going forward, we are confident of LEH emerging as the top hospitality educ-ation institution in India. We intend to introduce postgraduate programmes with specialisation in culinary arts and hotel administration and we’re also planning to introduce customised programmes for international hospitality chains to be conducted by our EHL-trained faculty. Our intent is to develop LEH into an international destination for hospitality education,” says Kurien.

Steadily acquiring a global reputation for providing excellent infrastructure and services, India’s 2-5 star hotel industry is poised to take a great leap forward.

Sunayana Nair (Mumbai)