Bird Academy, the educational arm of Bird Group, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Tourism (MOT), Government of India and Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management (IITTM) for imparting a soft skills training program to 3000 IITTM students as part of the Incredible India Tourist Facilitator Certification (IITFC) program, within a period of one year.
The training program has been crafted by a team of experts at Bird Academy and will focus on customer service, grooming, etiquette and communication to train young students as tour guides under the umbrella of the Incredible India campaign, which aspires to offer unparalleled service to tourists. Each training module would be delivered over an eight-hour power packed, interactive, live and online training over two days. Training will be imparted to students from across India and each batch will comprise of minimum 50 students.
The Letter of Intent for the program was signed earlier in March this year at an event held at IITTM, Gwalior, which was attended (virtually) by Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, Union Minister of Civil Aviation, Govt. of India and was graced by G. Kishan Reddy, Union Minister for Tourism, Culture and Development of the North Eastern Region of India; Ajay Bhatt, Minister of State, Tourism and Defence; Rupinder Brar, ADG, Ministry of Tourism; Vivek Narayan, Member of Parliament and Prof Dr. Alok Sharma, Director, IITTM.
Speaking on the occasion, Brar said, “ Today is a momentous day for us. The Incredible India Tourist Facilitator Certification (IITFC) program is being rolled out just as India gets ready to welcome tourists back after the pandemic. As part of this program, we aspire to train youth especially in soft skills which is very essential. We are delighted that Bird Academy partnered with the Ministry of Tourism and IITTM. On behalf of Government of India and the citizens of the country we would like to place on record, our thanks to Bird Academy for taking this forward.”
Radha Bhatia, Chairperson, Bird Group said, “We are honoured to be chosen by the Ministry of Tourism for this noble initiative. We aspire to impart training in soft skills, personality development and confidence building which will in turn help young students get better employment opportunities, besides adding immense value to India’s dynamic tourism, aviation and hospitality industry, towards the growth of which we have been sincerely committed since more than five decades.”
Prof. Monika Prakash, IITTM said, ‘IITTM, ever since it was entrusted with the responsibility of initiating the IITFC programme, has successfully conducted the programme, and nearly 2500 tourist facilitators are ready to be in the field. At this point, association with Bird academy for the deliverance of a soft skills training program will add value and help achieve IITFC objectives more promisingly. IITTM is confident that this partnership will go a long way’”.
