SLITHM focuses on soft skills development

Tuesday, 20 March 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management, the hospitality training arm of the Ministry of Tourism Development and Christian Religious Affairs has embarked on a program to develop the soft skills of its students.

This is in response to a request made by Tourism Development Minister John Amaratunga who during field visits had realised the need for such a program after having observed that though the majority of industry personnel were highly skilled in technical aspects and also very knowledgeable, many of them fell short on ‘people skills’.

As at present SLITHM has an annual output of around 6,000 students engaged in various courses ranging from short term apprentice training to the four year Management Diploma.

SLITHM Chairman Sunil Dissanayake who took upon himself the task of addressing this issue, inaugurated the first such training program by delivering a lecture on the theme ‘Soft skills for personal effectiveness’ for students of SLITHM at its auditorium in Colombo recently. A highly sought after personnel trainer in the corporate sector, Dissanayake said he had delivered many speeches on the subject but this was the first time he was doing so at SLITHM.

Dissanayake during his two hour lecture drew personal examples from his 44-year long hospitality career where he started as a trainee and quickly rose up the ladder to hold the highest positions in the industry. Currently in addition to serving as Chairman, SLITHM Dissanayake also serves as Director/Chief Executive Officer of the BMICH in Colombo which is Sri Lanka’s largest and busiest MICE venue.

Using catchy phrases and acronyms, many of which he had coined himself, he held the attention of the audience by recalling interesting personal experiences, anecdotes and sharing key learnings from his long professional career.

Describing “the soft stuff as the hard stuff and the messy stuff,” Dissanayake noted that a person’s display of emotional intelligence was what made him or her stand out from the pack while adding that soft skills contribute to the core competence in making one a well-rounded leader.

Dissanayake identified knowledge, skills, attitude and mindset as the bedrock for developing soft skills for personal effectiveness while highlighting the importance of integrity, ethics, and values in defining oneself.

He also focused on the importance of humility and empathy while stressing on the pitfalls of egoism. He called upon the students of SLITHM to self-regulate and be disciplined throughout their careers while being firm and fair. He emphasised that leading by example and being a role model was the surest route to success.

SLITHM aims to conduct similar programmes on a regular basis in order to deliver well rounded and confident individuals to Sri Lanka’s tourism industry.