The Post-Graduate Department of VVM’s Shree Damodar College of Commerce & Economics, Margao organized a 7-day workshop for M.Com students on ‘Front Office Skill Training’ from 28th April to 12th May 2021.The training Program was a unique initiative of Royal Orchid Hotels Ltd. Skill Development Centre, Bangalore and Regenta Hotels under their CSR initiative moderated by Presidency College of Hotel Management. It was a free workshop offered to the students for 7 days. The sessions were conducted through online mode on Zoom platform.45 students enrolled for the course.
The resource person for this training program was Mr. Kushaal Sharma, Human Resource Training manager, Hospitality Operations. The course was specially designed for students who wished to pursue their career in the area of hospitality and tourism industry. The main objective of the course was to train students on professional skills, professional knowledge and employability skill related to front office job role.
The topics that Mr. Sharma covered were:
Introduction and familiarisation with Hotel Industry – general overview
Identification of front office tasks and job management skills
Develop personality, manage team work and follow organizational hierarchy
Business communication etiquettes
Personality development and customer service skills
Computing guest registration process
Conflict management with staff and guests and approaches to handle guest complaints or queries
Computer operational skills and managing coordination between departments
Preparation and practices of Pre-Arrival and Post-arrival guest activities
The trainer also discussed in brief the duties and the responsibilities of a front office service executive and the attributes of a front office assistant. He also oriented students on the need and importance of grooming, hygiene, body language, verbal and non-verbal communication skills and the power of smile in hospitality and service industry. He further explained the participants the general telephone handling etiquette, procedure of welcoming and receiving a guest, handling reservations requests, keeping personalized records and ensuring services for identified guests, use up-selling &suggestive selling techniques to sell rooms and to promote other services of the hotel.
In addition to this, the resource person also included and solved several case studies, assigned role plays during the sessions, in order to continuously monitor and evaluate students’ progress and understanding of the different concepts taught as a part of the course.
The students gained a lot of practical knowledge, especially with regards to work flow and skills required in hotel industry and also got familiar with the role and functions of a front office executive. The students appreciated the interesting and interactive training sessions and gave positive feedback about the trainer. Ms. Pooja Shanbhag, Asst. Professor in Commerce, PG Department was the faculty coordinator for the workshop.
