NewZNew (Chandigarh) : Thomas Cook (India) Limited’s education and training vertical, Centre of Learning, felicitated 270 students of the 2014-15 batch at its fourth Convocation Ceremony held at the Indian Merchants Chamber, Mumbai, today. The ceremony was graced by the Chief Guest Mr. Marcel Parker, Owner Marcel K Parker Associates, Independent Director and Chief Mentor at Quess Corp Ltd who delivered the keynote address. Guest of Honour at the event were Mr. Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager, India & Gulf, Tourism Australia and Ms. Shibani Phadkar, Senior Vice President, Leisure Travel (Outbound), Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. Gracing the occasion were Ms. Mona Cheriyan, COO & Head- Human Resources, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. and dignitaries from the Travel & Tourism Industry.

The Centre of Learning Convocation Ceremony honoured its students who had successfully completed the Travel Professional Program – a Post Graduate Course in Travel & Tourism Management, the Certificate Course in World Tour Management and the IATA Certificate Course in Travel & Tourism Management. Scholarship certificates and special prizes were awarded to top performers of Centre of Learning’s Travel Professional Program – a Post Graduate course in Travel & Tourism Management.

Thomas Cook India’s Centre of Learning has played a pioneering role in the education and training domain, with a focus on building a highly skilled resource human resource pool for the Travel & Tourism Industry. Centre of Learning was honoured with the prestigious IATA accreditation, “South Asia Top Performing Authorized training Centre 2015” for the third time- for outstanding contribution towards helping human capital by reaching out to the next generation.

Centre of Learning’s vision sees strong synergy with The Skill India Mission by Prime Minister Narendra Modi which in turn seeks to impart vocational skills to 24 lakh workers this year and to 40.2crore people by 2022; an initiative that is expected to see profound changes in the education and training field in India.

Commenting on the occasion, Ms. Mona Cheriyan, COO & Head – Human Resources, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd, said “It is certainly a proud moment for Thomas Cook India’s Centre of Learning, as we felicitate 270 students graduating today at our convocation ceremony.

Given India’s demographics, at our Centre of Learning, we aspire to create a skill-based high quality talent pool. The degree-oriented education system is now making way for Skill-based training and development. Training programs like the one we offer at our Centre of Learning are developed in active consultation with industry experts. All the programmes have an active involvement of the tourism boards, qualified faculty and guest speakers from the industry. We believe that through this methodology, we are truly making a difference to the tourism industry.”