People have always migrated in search of better opportunities. This better opportunity always included a decent rewarding work or education & it has become an important feature of economic and social development throughout the human history. Nepal is also facing this not new phenomenon since ages, especially to India for work & education has a long history in our country, while labor migration to other countries began in the 1990s with the adoption of liberal economic policies. Around the similar time globalization processes took off, combined with booming economies in certain parts of the world, further contributing to an increasingly global mobile labor force moving within and between various regions of the world.
Post 1990s the country has witnessed steady increase in the trend of flying abroad for study too. Maoist insurgency which started in 1996, many highly educated, high skilled, highly remunerated Nepalese migrated to other country looking for better opportunity, for the reason of insecurity & lack of opportunity in their home town & even the capital city apart from the unskilled labors from various parts of the country. The trend continued even after for the reason that the country's economic development still struggled due to the aftermath of decade long insurgency which ended in 2006. In fact, every sector the whole country is still facing the adverse situation arouse due to the insurgency. Stifled national socioeconomic development & prolonged political transitional process and continued political unrest in the country have adversely affected the economic growth. The amount of corruption prevailed in the country's bureaucratic system could be well understood by the example set by Mr. Kul Man Ghishing in removing load shedding in electricity Supply. The earthquake in the year 2015 & 6 months blockade in the southern border have significantly contributed to slow down the economic growth. Well, it can be said that our economy is reviving after the successful political transition into federal country and stopping load shedding. This is supported by the statistics of increased industrial machinery equipment in the country in the current fiscal year.
The trends reported in the Economic Survey 2013/14 published by the Ministry of Finance shows that for most of the past decade, the economic growth rate hovered around a mere 3�4 per cent, peaking in 2007/08, at 6 per cent. The growth rate in the agricultural and industrial sectors has decreased more often than increased. Additionally, the unemployment rate has increased, from 1.8 per cent in 1998 to 2.1 per cent in 2008, and the labor underutilization rate (as a percentage of labor force) is at 30 per cent. Considering that much of Nepali society is still agrarian and most of its labor force is in the agriculture sector, the dismal economic scenario has influenced many individuals to look at foreign employment as an alternative livelihood strategy.
The millennial & post millennial generation backed with strong technological, communication & social networking systems have grown seeing this darker side around their native land and bright side abroad, though they may not be able to understand the statistical presentation but definitely see & have the feel of the air around. The youths of this generation are very much eager to capitalize with the opportunity they are having in their hand. They do not have the tendency of waiting for the right time or the moment in their life. They believe that present is the right time and they should give a try at present. Failure and repeated failure to obtain a visa to go abroad for further study is not just going to stop them to keep on trying for their luck with further studies.
The ones, who are living far from cities, now have access to information through the cable television, Google, social networking sites. Now more than one third of the house hold of Nepal has at least one person abroad. The migrants passing through a successful migration cycle often become a source of inspiration and motivation for their families, relatives and communities to also seek foreign employment. The personal and labor-related networks of labor migrants often pave the way for prospective migrants.
Overseas Migration & Demand In Skilled Work Force
Overseas migration from Nepal has been rising steadily in recent years due to unavailability of decent employment opportunities. An estimated 450,000 young people enter the labor market every year & the country's economic growth has never been satisfactory to create jobs. So each year overseas migration for employment has been an attractive option for similar number of youth.
A report based on advertisement analysis prepared by Council for Technical Education & Vocational Training (CTEVT), in the year 2014, altogether 95,144 workforces were demanded from 3,295 advertisement cases. Among these demanded posts, 95% demand were obtained from five major countries like UAE, Qatar, Malaysia, Saudi-Arabia and Kuwait, where the demand obtained from UAE is 29.33%,followed by Qatar (28.02%), Malaysia (20.27%) and so on. While categorizing the demand in terms of level of skills, skilled category occupies greatest share of demand with 36.86%share followed by Semi-skilled 35.19%, Unskilled (26.37) and Professional (1.58%).
Analyzing the above statistics, we find that majority job opportunities are being received from limited countries & there is high demand for skilled workers. Another study has revealed that the proportion of unskilled workers is decreased by 18 percentage point during 2004 to 2014, whereas corresponding figures of skilled and professional workers are increased by 17 and 1 percentage point with in the same period of time.
Nepali foreign employment professionals have received increasing demand of skilled workers in recent years. This is also creating pressure to increase the supply of workers accordingly; however the capacity of training institutes in Nepal is not in the position to satisfy the received demand.
There seems mismatch between demand and supply of skilled workforce in foreign employment sectors. Scarcity of skilled workforce is still the problem in some trades however some trades are found already saturated in terms of numbers of graduates. Type and number of trainings should therefore always be the matter of revision in every couple of years.
Skill, Demand Of Workforce & Pay Scale
The study reveals that semi-skilled work force get 20% more pay & skilled work force get 50% more pay than unskilled work force. Out of the total demand received during the study period there is 36.86% of skilled work force & 35.19 % of semi-skilled workforce, whereas there is 26.37% & 1.58 % of demand of unskilled & professional work force.
SN� � �Skilled Based Classification� � � � Average Salary Offered
1� � � �Unskilled� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � Rs. 27170.591
2� � � �Semi-skilled� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � Rs. 37082.525
3� � � �Skilled� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � Rs. 40411.025
4� � � �Professional� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �Rs. 78296.097
Variation Of Salary By Job Category
The category- Engineers and Equivalent, Managing Supervisor, Senior Managers, were offered Rs. 116,733/, Rs. 79958/, Rs. 62,235/ per month respectively.. All of these top ranked salaried posts fall under professional category.
Among the skilled category, Foreman, Chef, Baking Technicians, Auto-equipment Operators (includes various categories Dozer Operator, Roller Operators, Heavy equipment Operators etc.) Housekeeping, Cooking, Electronics Equipment Repairer, General Electrician, Industrial Electricians are highly salaried posts. Those skilled technicians can expect salary between Rs. 35000 to Rs. 45000/- irrespective of countries they move to.
Skill Development & Supply Of Work Force
Presently, substantial numbers of training institutions under both governmental and private sectors provide skill development & vocational training programs related to different trades and sectors. In contrast, the graduates of these trainings are not getting satisfactory job as per the skills and their competency. Serious mismatch is found between the skill taught during training and the actual need of job market. This type of skill-work mismatch is found further serious in foreign labor market than domestic. Identifying such mismatch is the basic requirement to prepare demand based skilled human resources. Some of these institutes focus their activities towards addressing the demand of foreign employment in particular; human resources in some particular trades are still scarce. As per the foreign employment professionals the availability and scarcity of such specific human resources is revealed in the following tables.
List of Saturated Jobs
S.N.� �Job Titles
Overseas Migration & Remittance
India was the world's largest remittance recipient in last three years 2015, 16 & 17 attracting about $69, $ 62.7 & $ 65 billion in remittances. The decrease in remittance in later years is due reduction in oil prices. It is about 4% contribution of the GDP of the very large economy than of Nepal. Other large remittance recipients were China, the Philippines, Mexico, Pakistan, Nigeria Egypt, Bangladesh & Vietnam in the year 2017. Nepal received about $ 6.9 Billion as remittance in the year 2017 and is important and fairly stable source of income for thousands of families. Although, out-migration of human resources itself is not an encouraging sign for any economy, the situation cannot be altered until having the steady economic growth.
Nepali Tourism & Hospitality Scenario
Tourist arrival in the year 2015 was only 538970 due the effect of earthquake and it increased by 40% & 24.83% in the year 2016 & 2017 reaching 753002 and 940000 arrivals respectively. Similarly, the growth rate of domestic tourism is also profoundly progressing. This strong growth rate is boosting Nepali hospitality industry. Post-earthquake in 2015, there has been a significant rise in the registration & construction of hotels and lodges in the country. Similarly, domestic and foreign investment commitments in the hotel sector have also been increasing. This is an indication of better situation in the hospitality sector of the country.
The tourist arrival statistics also support the fact of increased Hotel occupancy, thereby increasing foreign exchange earnings from the tourism sector. Improvement in the electricity supply, decreasing trend of strikes in the country, combined with a sharp growth in domestic tourist movement, are the reason for the boost in hospitality industry.
The existing hotels, Lodges & coming up new hotels are now able to cater to about 25 million people per annum. By 2020, Kathmandu valley only will have 4000 rooms nights added to serve the increasing number of tourists. The Economic Activities Study Report 2016-17 released by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) shows that the Kathmandu Valley has 750 hotels and lodges, producing 27,371 room nights, the lake city of Nepal, Pokhara produced 17,029 room nights with 801 hotels & lodges. The hospitality sector has received one of the highest amounts of investment reaching about Rs300 billion & additional Rs. 65 billion has been injected into the industry in the recent few years.
Internationally renowned hotel chains are coming to Nepal partnering with local entrepreneurs & business houses. The Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, which exited from Nepal during Maoist insurgency period has returned back in April 2016 to operate & manage the Meghauli Serai Jungle Lodge located at Chitwan. Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) will operate holiday inn, a 200-room five-star property in Jhamsikhel, Lalitpur by 2020. Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, a subsidiary of Marriott International is entering Nepal with 218 rooms Sheraton Kathmandu in 2018 & is currently under construction at Kantipath. Nepal Hospitality Group (NGH) has opened a 108-room three-star property Fairfield by Marriott Kathmandu about 1.5 years ago & NGH is also constructing a 221-room five-star property at Naxal to be managed by Marriott international.� Aloft Hotels, another brand of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide will manage a 140-room hotel at the Chhayadevi Center in Thamel.
Soaltee Hotel Limited has recently opened Soaltee Westend, a four star property in Nepalgunj by investing Rs 550 million. The Summit Group & the Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts of India has agreed to collaborate to operate four hotels. The Leela Kathmandu, a five-star deluxe hotel to be built near the Narayanhity Royal Palace Museum will be the first of a series of hotels to be established across Nepal. The other places would be Lumbini & Pokhara for now. Vaidya's Organization is planning for a five-star hotel in Tinkune & a resort in Begnas Lake area, Kaski and one hotel in Lumbini.
Apart from expansion & renovation plan in existing hotels there are many star category hotels coming up not only in Kathmandu but almost everywhere in the country including major destinations like Nagarkot, Dhulikhel, Pokhara, Chitwan (Sauraha), Lumbini, Nepalgunj, Biratnagar, etc.
Requirement Of Hospitality Education & Skills Training
Tourism had been cosmopolitan in mind a long time before globalization became pertinent to most other industries. Targeting an international customer base, hotels encouraged from early on their workforce to develop a sense of cultural awareness that is now widely sought by employers, even in the most insular industries. Hospitality workers are highly adaptable and equipped with interdisciplinary skills that help them move easily to other sectors, from language skills to customer service. Hospitality has been successfully riding on this wave of ever-evolving��brain circulation� forcing workers to move from one country to another in search of a more senior position or higher remuneration.
Perhaps the best example of the sector�s hiring resilience is the way it has responded to skill gaps. Facing an acute chef shortage, restaurants and hotel chains offer to budding cooks and sommeliers short-term job opportunities, global mobility schemes and flexible working hours. Many employers lure them by offering opportunities to land top positions early in their careers or pursue their personal projects, often focusing on ethnic cuisine. � (Extracted from euractiv.com, written by Alex Katsomitros). This has increased avenues for youngsters to get paid while working as young professional while they are still learning either enrolling academic & vocational courses for stepping into learn and earn programs in the industry.
There is a perfect interconnection among skills training, income level of migrants and remittance to the country. Although remittance is the bad choice to sustain the economy among the presently available worst choices, this can also be considered as a silver lining in the black cloud. We can make people skilled if or if not stop them from migration, in both case, skills training will be profitable for the country. Skills training always augments the potentials, enhances productivity thus widens the economic horizons of not only individuals but nation in totality. This means this is high time to produce more skilled youth rather than just the work force entering the labor market and place them in the country as well as abroad. Once we start having double digit economic growth, and then only we will have inward migration of the skilled human resource working abroad back to the country & we can achieve contribution of GDP from the country's economic activity.
The society and the policy makers should understand the need of the time. Nepali by nature are hospitable and it is easier to make them learn the skills required in the hospitality industry, further it is less costly too. Anyone landing abroad for further study join this industry to support their study or to make their career in the field, there is high demand for the skilled workforce in the countries recruiting Nepalese work force, Nepal's economic development and country's progress cannot be thought of without development in hospitality & tourism sector & as detailed above the new generation would fit the industry requirement. So, we need to increase the pace of having more hospitality training programs implemented to make more youths skilled in hospitality sector.
If we look into hospitality education and vocational training program in Nepal, we find huge surge in hospitality colleges & vocational institution in recent years. We can now find hospitality vocational training centers in every street in the capital and in every major city of the country and students are flooding to these institutions. We must understand the trend is not just bubbles in water; which comes and goes. This is now going to be a phenomenon which will just keep rising for couple of more years. There is one utmost important issue which is needed to be addressed; how to regulate these numbers of training centers & maintain international quality in the vocational hospitality training delivered in Nepal.
Founded in 1989, Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training or (CTEVT), was established with an aim to provide technical education and skill development to Nepali people to meet the demands of the various sectors in the country and the international market through its Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). It seeks to maintain the standards of skill or various occupations by conducting research and necessary training.
CTEVT provides multiple vocational & technical courses to students ranging from hotel management, animal and plant science, computer studies, cooking/baking to courses like fashion designing, photography amongst many others. The CTEVT awards students with a diploma or TSLC certificates upon completion of their courses.
In June of 2015, the Governments of Nepal and Switzerland signed an agreement to establish the Nepal Vocational Qualification System (NVQS). The NVQS aims at bringing about systematic changes to the TVET. The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) is helping the Ministry of Education to establish a National Qualifications Framework (NVQF). This framework categorizes students in a series of levels of skill, aptitude and knowledge based on their qualifications. These levels, 1 to 8, are based on terms of the qualities that the learner must possess regardless of where they obtained it from. The NVQF provides flexibility in obtaining qualifications to plan different paths for personal and career growth. Level 1 to 5 focuses on entry skill, basic skill, national skill, national technician and national diploma certificates respectively. Level 6-8 focuses on B.Tech, M.Tech and PhD respectively. Each level is defined by the three descriptors-Knowledge, Skill & Aptitude that suggest the learning outcomes at that level. Let's expect the system will be implemented very soon in the country so that every skilled professional and have internationally quality mapped certification from Nepali governing body.
(Adapted from "Dynamics & Dimensions & Labor Migration from Nepal" prepared by CTEVT in the year 2014.)
The trends reported in the Economic Survey 2013/14 published by the Ministry of Finance shows that for most of the past decade, the economic growth rate hovered around a mere 3�4 per cent, peaking in 2007/08, at 6 per cent. The growth rate in the agricultural and industrial sectors has decreased more often than increased. Additionally, the unemployment rate has increased, from 1.8 per cent in 1998 to 2.1 per cent in 2008, and the labor underutilization rate (as a percentage of labor force) is at 30 per cent. Considering that much of Nepali society is still agrarian and most of its labor force is in the agriculture sector, the dismal economic scenario has influenced many individuals to look at foreign employment as an alternative livelihood strategy.
The millennial & post millennial generation backed with strong technological, communication & social networking systems have grown seeing this darker side around their native land and bright side abroad, though they may not be able to understand the statistical presentation but definitely see & have the feel of the air around. The youths of this generation are very much eager to capitalize with the opportunity they are having in their hand. They do not have the tendency of waiting for the right time or the moment in their life. They believe that present is the right time and they should give a try at present. Failure and repeated failure to obtain a visa to go abroad for further study is not just going to stop them to keep on trying for their luck with further studies.
The ones, who are living far from cities, now have access to information through the cable television, Google, social networking sites. Now more than one third of the house hold of Nepal has at least one person abroad. The migrants passing through a successful migration cycle often become a source of inspiration and motivation for their families, relatives and communities to also seek foreign employment. The personal and labor-related networks of labor migrants often pave the way for prospective migrants.
Overseas Migration & Demand In Skilled Work Force
Overseas migration from Nepal has been rising steadily in recent years due to unavailability of decent employment opportunities. An estimated 450,000 young people enter the labor market every year & the country's economic growth has never been satisfactory to create jobs. So each year overseas migration for employment has been an attractive option for similar number of youth.
A report based on advertisement analysis prepared by Council for Technical Education & Vocational Training (CTEVT), in the year 2014, altogether 95,144 workforces were demanded from 3,295 advertisement cases. Among these demanded posts, 95% demand were obtained from five major countries like UAE, Qatar, Malaysia, Saudi-Arabia and Kuwait, where the demand obtained from UAE is 29.33%,followed by Qatar (28.02%), Malaysia (20.27%) and so on. While categorizing the demand in terms of level of skills, skilled category occupies greatest share of demand with 36.86%share followed by Semi-skilled 35.19%, Unskilled (26.37) and Professional (1.58%).
Analyzing the above statistics, we find that majority job opportunities are being received from limited countries & there is high demand for skilled workers. Another study has revealed that the proportion of unskilled workers is decreased by 18 percentage point during 2004 to 2014, whereas corresponding figures of skilled and professional workers are increased by 17 and 1 percentage point with in the same period of time.
Nepali foreign employment professionals have received increasing demand of skilled workers in recent years. This is also creating pressure to increase the supply of workers accordingly; however the capacity of training institutes in Nepal is not in the position to satisfy the received demand.
There seems mismatch between demand and supply of skilled workforce in foreign employment sectors. Scarcity of skilled workforce is still the problem in some trades however some trades are found already saturated in terms of numbers of graduates. Type and number of trainings should therefore always be the matter of revision in every couple of years.
Skill, Demand Of Workforce & Pay Scale
The study reveals that semi-skilled work force get 20% more pay & skilled work force get 50% more pay than unskilled work force. Out of the total demand received during the study period there is 36.86% of skilled work force & 35.19 % of semi-skilled workforce, whereas there is 26.37% & 1.58 % of demand of unskilled & professional work force.
SN� � �Skilled Based Classification� � � � Average Salary Offered
1� � � �Unskilled� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � Rs. 27170.591
2� � � �Semi-skilled� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � Rs. 37082.525
3� � � �Skilled� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � Rs. 40411.025
4� � � �Professional� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �Rs. 78296.097
Variation Of Salary By Job Category
The category- Engineers and Equivalent, Managing Supervisor, Senior Managers, were offered Rs. 116,733/, Rs. 79958/, Rs. 62,235/ per month respectively.. All of these top ranked salaried posts fall under professional category.
Among the skilled category, Foreman, Chef, Baking Technicians, Auto-equipment Operators (includes various categories Dozer Operator, Roller Operators, Heavy equipment Operators etc.) Housekeeping, Cooking, Electronics Equipment Repairer, General Electrician, Industrial Electricians are highly salaried posts. Those skilled technicians can expect salary between Rs. 35000 to Rs. 45000/- irrespective of countries they move to.
Skill Development & Supply Of Work Force
Presently, substantial numbers of training institutions under both governmental and private sectors provide skill development & vocational training programs related to different trades and sectors. In contrast, the graduates of these trainings are not getting satisfactory job as per the skills and their competency. Serious mismatch is found between the skill taught during training and the actual need of job market. This type of skill-work mismatch is found further serious in foreign labor market than domestic. Identifying such mismatch is the basic requirement to prepare demand based skilled human resources. Some of these institutes focus their activities towards addressing the demand of foreign employment in particular; human resources in some particular trades are still scarce. As per the foreign employment professionals the availability and scarcity of such specific human resources is revealed in the following tables.
List of Saturated Jobs
S.N.� �Job Titles
- � � �Mobile Technician
- � � �Super Market Technician
- � � �Painter
- � � �Scaffolding
- � � �Finishing Carpenter
- � � �General Welder
- � � �Electrician
- � � �Junior Plumber
- � � �General Mason
- � � �General Electrician
- Accountant
- Hydraulic Engineers
- Fluid Engineering
- Diesel Mechanic
- Cook
- Waiter
- Room Maintenance
- AC Technicians
- Diesel Mechanic
- Welder Tig/Mig/ 6G
- Life Guard
- Mechanical Engineers
- Aluminum Fabricators
- Room Maintenance
- Industrial Electricians
- Overseers
- Steel Fixture
S.N.� � �Job Area� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � Demand 1� � � � �Chef (various category)� � � � � � � � � � � � �2396 2� � � � �Waiter, Waitress, Bartender, steward� � � �2667 3� � � � �Housekeeping & Laundry� � � � � � � � � � � � �904 4� � � � �Receptionist� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �76 � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �Total 6043
When we add on the workforce requirement in the hospitality sector which we believe would be the back bone of the country's economic development, we can simply assume that there is huge potential in the hospitality skill training sector.
Overseas Migration & Remittance
India was the world's largest remittance recipient in last three years 2015, 16 & 17 attracting about $69, $ 62.7 & $ 65 billion in remittances. The decrease in remittance in later years is due reduction in oil prices. It is about 4% contribution of the GDP of the very large economy than of Nepal. Other large remittance recipients were China, the Philippines, Mexico, Pakistan, Nigeria Egypt, Bangladesh & Vietnam in the year 2017. Nepal received about $ 6.9 Billion as remittance in the year 2017 and is important and fairly stable source of income for thousands of families. Although, out-migration of human resources itself is not an encouraging sign for any economy, the situation cannot be altered until having the steady economic growth.
Nepali Tourism & Hospitality Scenario
Tourist arrival in the year 2015 was only 538970 due the effect of earthquake and it increased by 40% & 24.83% in the year 2016 & 2017 reaching 753002 and 940000 arrivals respectively. Similarly, the growth rate of domestic tourism is also profoundly progressing. This strong growth rate is boosting Nepali hospitality industry. Post-earthquake in 2015, there has been a significant rise in the registration & construction of hotels and lodges in the country. Similarly, domestic and foreign investment commitments in the hotel sector have also been increasing. This is an indication of better situation in the hospitality sector of the country.
The tourist arrival statistics also support the fact of increased Hotel occupancy, thereby increasing foreign exchange earnings from the tourism sector. Improvement in the electricity supply, decreasing trend of strikes in the country, combined with a sharp growth in domestic tourist movement, are the reason for the boost in hospitality industry.
The existing hotels, Lodges & coming up new hotels are now able to cater to about 25 million people per annum. By 2020, Kathmandu valley only will have 4000 rooms nights added to serve the increasing number of tourists. The Economic Activities Study Report 2016-17 released by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) shows that the Kathmandu Valley has 750 hotels and lodges, producing 27,371 room nights, the lake city of Nepal, Pokhara produced 17,029 room nights with 801 hotels & lodges. The hospitality sector has received one of the highest amounts of investment reaching about Rs300 billion & additional Rs. 65 billion has been injected into the industry in the recent few years.
Internationally renowned hotel chains are coming to Nepal partnering with local entrepreneurs & business houses. The Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, which exited from Nepal during Maoist insurgency period has returned back in April 2016 to operate & manage the Meghauli Serai Jungle Lodge located at Chitwan. Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) will operate holiday inn, a 200-room five-star property in Jhamsikhel, Lalitpur by 2020. Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, a subsidiary of Marriott International is entering Nepal with 218 rooms Sheraton Kathmandu in 2018 & is currently under construction at Kantipath. Nepal Hospitality Group (NGH) has opened a 108-room three-star property Fairfield by Marriott Kathmandu about 1.5 years ago & NGH is also constructing a 221-room five-star property at Naxal to be managed by Marriott international.� Aloft Hotels, another brand of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide will manage a 140-room hotel at the Chhayadevi Center in Thamel.
Soaltee Hotel Limited has recently opened Soaltee Westend, a four star property in Nepalgunj by investing Rs 550 million. The Summit Group & the Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts of India has agreed to collaborate to operate four hotels. The Leela Kathmandu, a five-star deluxe hotel to be built near the Narayanhity Royal Palace Museum will be the first of a series of hotels to be established across Nepal. The other places would be Lumbini & Pokhara for now. Vaidya's Organization is planning for a five-star hotel in Tinkune & a resort in Begnas Lake area, Kaski and one hotel in Lumbini.
Apart from expansion & renovation plan in existing hotels there are many star category hotels coming up not only in Kathmandu but almost everywhere in the country including major destinations like Nagarkot, Dhulikhel, Pokhara, Chitwan (Sauraha), Lumbini, Nepalgunj, Biratnagar, etc.
Requirement Of Hospitality Education & Skills Training
Tourism had been cosmopolitan in mind a long time before globalization became pertinent to most other industries. Targeting an international customer base, hotels encouraged from early on their workforce to develop a sense of cultural awareness that is now widely sought by employers, even in the most insular industries. Hospitality workers are highly adaptable and equipped with interdisciplinary skills that help them move easily to other sectors, from language skills to customer service. Hospitality has been successfully riding on this wave of ever-evolving��brain circulation� forcing workers to move from one country to another in search of a more senior position or higher remuneration.
Perhaps the best example of the sector�s hiring resilience is the way it has responded to skill gaps. Facing an acute chef shortage, restaurants and hotel chains offer to budding cooks and sommeliers short-term job opportunities, global mobility schemes and flexible working hours. Many employers lure them by offering opportunities to land top positions early in their careers or pursue their personal projects, often focusing on ethnic cuisine. � (Extracted from euractiv.com, written by Alex Katsomitros). This has increased avenues for youngsters to get paid while working as young professional while they are still learning either enrolling academic & vocational courses for stepping into learn and earn programs in the industry.
There is a perfect interconnection among skills training, income level of migrants and remittance to the country. Although remittance is the bad choice to sustain the economy among the presently available worst choices, this can also be considered as a silver lining in the black cloud. We can make people skilled if or if not stop them from migration, in both case, skills training will be profitable for the country. Skills training always augments the potentials, enhances productivity thus widens the economic horizons of not only individuals but nation in totality. This means this is high time to produce more skilled youth rather than just the work force entering the labor market and place them in the country as well as abroad. Once we start having double digit economic growth, and then only we will have inward migration of the skilled human resource working abroad back to the country & we can achieve contribution of GDP from the country's economic activity.
The society and the policy makers should understand the need of the time. Nepali by nature are hospitable and it is easier to make them learn the skills required in the hospitality industry, further it is less costly too. Anyone landing abroad for further study join this industry to support their study or to make their career in the field, there is high demand for the skilled workforce in the countries recruiting Nepalese work force, Nepal's economic development and country's progress cannot be thought of without development in hospitality & tourism sector & as detailed above the new generation would fit the industry requirement. So, we need to increase the pace of having more hospitality training programs implemented to make more youths skilled in hospitality sector.
If we look into hospitality education and vocational training program in Nepal, we find huge surge in hospitality colleges & vocational institution in recent years. We can now find hospitality vocational training centers in every street in the capital and in every major city of the country and students are flooding to these institutions. We must understand the trend is not just bubbles in water; which comes and goes. This is now going to be a phenomenon which will just keep rising for couple of more years. There is one utmost important issue which is needed to be addressed; how to regulate these numbers of training centers & maintain international quality in the vocational hospitality training delivered in Nepal.
Founded in 1989, Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training or (CTEVT), was established with an aim to provide technical education and skill development to Nepali people to meet the demands of the various sectors in the country and the international market through its Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). It seeks to maintain the standards of skill or various occupations by conducting research and necessary training.
CTEVT provides multiple vocational & technical courses to students ranging from hotel management, animal and plant science, computer studies, cooking/baking to courses like fashion designing, photography amongst many others. The CTEVT awards students with a diploma or TSLC certificates upon completion of their courses.
In June of 2015, the Governments of Nepal and Switzerland signed an agreement to establish the Nepal Vocational Qualification System (NVQS). The NVQS aims at bringing about systematic changes to the TVET. The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) is helping the Ministry of Education to establish a National Qualifications Framework (NVQF). This framework categorizes students in a series of levels of skill, aptitude and knowledge based on their qualifications. These levels, 1 to 8, are based on terms of the qualities that the learner must possess regardless of where they obtained it from. The NVQF provides flexibility in obtaining qualifications to plan different paths for personal and career growth. Level 1 to 5 focuses on entry skill, basic skill, national skill, national technician and national diploma certificates respectively. Level 6-8 focuses on B.Tech, M.Tech and PhD respectively. Each level is defined by the three descriptors-Knowledge, Skill & Aptitude that suggest the learning outcomes at that level. Let's expect the system will be implemented very soon in the country so that every skilled professional and have internationally quality mapped certification from Nepali governing body.
(Adapted from "Dynamics & Dimensions & Labor Migration from Nepal" prepared by CTEVT in the year 2014.)
