Frankfinn Institute of Air Hostess Training, Mumbai
The largest hospitality training institute in India with 40 centres in 31 cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Chandigarh, FIAT is experiencing exponential demand-led growth
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| Students aboard FIAT’s leased Airbus-300 |
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he Mumbai-based Frankfinn Institute of Air Hostess Training (FIAT), which offers a 12-month diploma in aviation hospitality and travel management has hit the ground running since its promotion, given the runaway boom in civil aviation. "We have many firsts to our credit and the type of comprehensive training we provide isn’t available in any institution in South Asia. This is evidenced by our placement record. The number of Frankfinn students selected as air hostesses and flight stewards in international and domestic airlines is more than eight times that of any other academy/ institute in India. Moreover hundreds of our graduates are employed in five-star hotels, multinationals and reputed organisations," says Rakesh Agarwal an alumnus of Boston University and promoter managing director of Frankfinn Aviation Services (Pvt) Ltd (incorporated 1993).Agarwal takes pains to stress that despite its formal name, FIAT also provides study programmes in hospitality and travel management. "We train professionals for the entire hospitality industry," he says. "Some confusion is created by the name of our division. But we named it Frankfinn Institute of Air Hostess Training because once a student completes our aviation training course, she is fully qualified for the hotels/ hospitality and travel industry as well," adds Agarwal.
According to him FIAT is the largest hospitality training institute in India with 40 centres in 31 cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Chandigarh. While 35 centres are directly run by the company, five are franchise units, and FIAT ensures that all centres deliver standardised professional education. "FIAT accepts full responsibility for operations of all its centres whether self-managed or franchised. Tuition fees are collected in our name and we check our franchisees thoroughly to ensure they deliver quality training. As we are growing rapidly and with centres constantly opening all over the country, it’s difficult to give an exact count of our aggregate enrollment which is about 4,000 students across the country taught by experienced hospitality industry professionals," says Agarwal.
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| Agarwal: eight multiple |
The FIAT diploma programme which requires students to attend classes two hours a day, five days a week, is open to students between 17-26 years of age who have completed class XII. In addition, applicants should have a pleasing personality and communication skills. Course content covers in-flight cabin crew training which includes first aid, personality enhancement, personal grooming, hair and skin care, public relations, effective communication skills, customer service orientation, hotel services management, swimming (as per international airlines’ requirement), character enhancement, moral education and industrial training in a leading hotel or hospitality organisation.
"We also give our students exposure to the CRS (computerised reservation systems) of airlines and hotels like Galileo and Fidelio. Indeed FIAT is the only institute in the field which includes internship within the course content and provides in-flight cabin crew training to students on our own leased Airbus A-300 based in New Delhi. It enables students to acquire first-hand knowledge of a contemporary civilian airplane and experience the nuances of in-flight services. Being an IATA (International Air Transport Association) member we know exactly what should be included in our curriculum and have designed it according to the civil aviation industry’s requirements," says Agarwal.
But perhaps the institute’s key strength is the placement services it offers its graduates and alumni. With a wide network of satisfied hotel and civil aviation companies and as publisher of Aviation Times, the management of FIAT has its ears to the ground regarding job openings. The company boasts a placement record of 90 percent in leading hotels, aviation and hospitality companies. Jet Airways, Gulf Air, Air India, Air Sahara and Singapore Airlines are among the high-profile civil aviation corporates which roll out the red carpet for FIAT graduates, as do well known hotel chains such as the Hyatt, the Oberoi and the Taj groups. "We are the only institute in this segment to have organised campus interviews for an international airlines company," claims Agarwal. "Recently Yemen Airways camped for four days in our Mumbai office and recruited 45 air hostesses. I doubt if any other hospitality training institute can match this record," says Agarwal.
With India’s civil aviation industry expanding rapidly, the demand for airline personnel is set to multiply exponentially. Therefore for FIAT the sky’s the limit.
Admission & fees
Admission into Frankfinn Institute of Airhostess Training is open to Plus Two graduates with a pleasing personality and good communication skills. Applications are accepted throughout the year and applicants between the ages 17-26 years can apply anytime during the year. Final selection is on the basis of a personal interview for the one-year diploma in aviation, hospitality and travel management.
Tuition fee: Rs.75,000
For further details log on to www.fiatfrankfinn.com
Gaver Chatterjee (Mumbai)
Centre international d’études pédagogiques, France
An international education cooperation institution promoted by the French ministry of education, CIEP is belatedly beginning to play an important role in projecting French education and institutions of higher learning abroad
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| CIEP facade: belatedly important role |
In continental Europe there’s a rising tide of resentment against global domination of the "Anglo-Saxon model" of higher education. But some of the blame for this also has to accrue to official policies of European countries. For instance the British Council and USEFI (United States Education Federation in India) have established offices and information centres in several Indian cities to showcase study opportunities in their parent countries. On the other hand their French counterpart — the Alliance Francaise — with offices in 21 cities is perceived as a French language teaching-learning institution. Yet France also has an international education cooperation institution promoted by the French ministry of education which is belatedly beginning to play an important role in projecting French education and institutions of higher learning in particular, abroad. Enter Centre international d’études pédagogiques (CIEP) established in 1946 to "develop international cooperation in education," i.e promote French universities as education destinations for foreign students.
Housed in a 250-year-old porcelain heritage building surrounded by fountains and gardens in Sevres, a suburb of Paris, CIEP has several institutional objectives: promotion of language learning (French as a foreign language and foreign languages in France), fostering international inter-varsity cooperation in education, and training education professionals including academics and administrators. Uniquely French, CIEP boasts a staff of 240 of whom 80 are teacher trainers. The institute’s annual budget is € 40 million (Rs.220 crore) — half of which is by way of government grant while the other half is earned through conducting training programmes and offering education consultancy services.
"Until the year 2000 our focus was on training teachers to teach French abroad. But since then we have acquired a good reputation in academia around the world for designing superior evaluation and certification systems for universities, faculty training programmes, and delivering education upgradation consultancy services. Our role is also to certify French language learning programmes and to promote foreign languages including English, in France. Moreover we offer consultancy services to international organisations such as Unesco, the European Union and the World Bank to implement their programmes in developing countries. In addition CIEP organises seminars and conferences at regular intervals for education professionals, academics, administrators and policy makers," says Albert Prévos, an alumnus of Portiere University with teaching experience in Bordeaux and Tohoku (Japan) universities who also served as the head of international relations in the French ministry of higher education and research before taking charge of CIEP in 2000.
Prévos is bullish about the evolution of CIEP from a French language teacher training organisation into a broad-based education consultancy and project implementation agency — a metamorphosis which has (though he is too modest to say so) been engineered under his watch. "Over the past several centuries French institutions of higher learning have developed time-tested pedagogies and evaluation and administration systems. By researching the best practices of our universities and grandes écoles we have been able to develop sophisticated language learning pedagogies — which includes training foreign language teachers to teach in France — and to design institutional evaluation and administrative systems for universities and institutes around the world," says Prevos. Among the recent triumphs of CIEP abroad are the design of comprehensive institutional assessment systems for several Middle East universities and evaluation of numerous Latin American universities receiving European Union aid.
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| Prévos: time-tested systems |
However Prevos regrets that CIEP has not registered a presence in India. "We’d like to enter into dialogue with higher education and research institutions in India. We believe we can offer valuable training programmes to teachers and university administrators there. In particular our institution evaluation and certification methodologies are very advanced and would help Indian universities upgrade academic standards and initiate institutional reforms," he says.
Campus facilities. Within its charming 250-year-old heritage building CIEP offers excellent infrastructure to host seminars, colloquia and conferences. It boasts modern conference, training and meeting rooms fully equipped with audio-visual aids and simultaneous translation facilities; 100 comfortable residential rooms; two dining rooms, a café and lounge area and internet facilities.
Moreover the institute has designed and developed several specialist centres. Among them: The Documents Resource Centre which offers exhaustive information about education systems in France and abroad. With a collection of over 20,000 documents, it actively monitors international education issues. It also has a bibliographic database as well as documents and publications available online.
The French language centre offers expert training to teach French as a foreign language abroad and in France, (didactics, pedagogy, linguistics and analysis of language and culture). The centre also trains teachers in the areas of evaluation, use of ICT, bilingual education etc.
This centre manages and supervises the language assistants exchange programme on behalf of the French education ministry. Each year, more than 2,500 posts are available for French nationals and residents in 23 countries. Under this programme language assistants work in schools abroad conducting French language classes and helping pupils acquire an understanding of contemporary France.
The evaluation and certification centre supervises the education and administrative management of CIEP-designed and developed diplomas DELF (certificate in French language studies) and DALF (advanced certificate of French language proficiency) and awards these diplomas to foreigners on behalf of the French ministry of education. The institute has also developed the TCF (test de connaissance du francais) and is a member of the Association of Language Testers in Europe.
The foreign language centre participates in the development of language education and pluralingualism in France. It manages various programmes for the education ministry including exchange of language assistants, teachers and linguistic training sessions. For the English language assistant programme, CIEP accepts applications from India and selected candidates are posted in French schools to help students develop confidence in speaking and understanding English and assist with other educational activities.
CIEP for educational cooperation. In its role as collector of French skills, CIEP provides technical help for educational reform, development and restructuring programmes and projects. It responds to tenders of the European Union, the World Bank, and other regional development banks. CIEP works with public and private institutions in over 150 countries.
CIEP is an international seminar centre and hosts and organises seminars and conferences related to current issues in education. It also designs and organises training modules for senior officials including decision-makers, education inspectors and institutional admin-istrators. As an education consultant, CIEP has acquired valuable experience in systems management and evaluation, curriculum reform, education quality assessment, providing technical and professional training to educators in developing countries.
CIEP is an education think-tank. With linkages with over 150 countries, CIEP organises international seminars and conferences. On behalf of clients such as the World Bank, Unesco, and the French ministry of foreign affairs, it encourages critical thinking and dialogue on education issues.
Summiya Yasmeen