KCC, Mumbai partner up

Kapiolani Community College is partnering with tourism officials and educators in Mumbai to help develop a curriculum for Indian community colleges, where it is hoped many of the nation’s more than 500 million residents under the age of 25 will obtain job skills.

A three-member delegation from Mumbai visited Hawaii from June 22 to 30 to meet with key administrators from KCC and the University of Hawaii at Manoa to finalize a grant proposal that would help fund the creation of a model community college, similar to the one in the isles, within the University of Mumbai.

The Obama-Singh 21st Century Knowledge Initiative provides eight $250,000 grants per year for recipients that build partnerships between American and Indian institutions of higher education. The initiative was started by President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"They are coming here to learn what makes U.S. community colleges successful and how the U.S. model can be adapted to India," said KCC Chancellor Leon Richards. "Our colleges have been invited to provide technical expertise in helping India set up hundreds of community colleges in support of India’s vocational education and skills enhancement goals."

A key focus also would be to develop a community college system in Mumbai with degree pathways to KCC and the other nine campuses within the UH system. Naresh Chandra, pro-vice-chancellor of the University of Mumbai, said Indian officials are "very keen" to participate with KCC on the Obama-Singh project.

"We found out that KCC is one of the most highly reputed and prestigious hospitality management programs," Chandra said.

He said the delegation hopes to finalize the grant by November and along with KCC open the model community college sometime in 2014.

"Our building is ready," Chandra said.

Richards said KCC, which already has a proven track record for exporting tourism education and skills training, is working with the University of Mumbai to develop the curriculum for their two-year program and to make sure that it provides options for students to continue their higher education.

"The Indian government plans on establishing many more community colleges so we can serve as a resource for India," he said. "We have an expertise in Hawaii that is easily portable. We’ve already been working with Indonesia for about a year and a half and Morocco for about 21⁄2 years."

Frank Haas, KCC’s dean of hospitality, business and legal education, said the tourism education curriculum in Hawaii is based on local values, which are easily adapted to meet the needs of other destinations.

"We’ve developed a framework that has been shared in Asia and the Pacific Basin," Haas said. "Our partners have to tell us what works for them and the values in their place, and we incorporate that into their curriculum."

At first glance the partnership between KCC and the University of Mumbai might seem like a stretch. After all, Hawaii and Mumbai, the capital city in the Indian state of Maharashtra, are around 8,000 miles apart. However, Maharashtra has a coastal district, Ratnagiri, with beaches that draw tourists. Ratnagiri is where the University of Mumbai wants to build its first community college.

Maharashtra’s domestic and foreign tourism are on a robust growth path, said Sanyogita Morarji, chairwoman of the ad-hoc Board of Studies, Maritime Hospitality Studies and convener of the Hospitality Committee for the University of Mumbai.

By 2022, Maharashtra is expected to add another 200,000 rooms to the 102,000 or so that are already there. The influx of tourism infrastructure would at the same time create a need for about 182,251 more skilled tourism workers. While the University of Mumbai serves more than 650,000 students at its 667 affiliated colleges, Morarji said there are still access issues for students and skills gaps for employers, who complain about inadequate student preparation for job markets, especially in the growing tourism field.

"Our hospitality studies program is very new," she said. "It started in the academic year 2003-2004. Currently we have about 1,400 students in the program. That is the huge gap that needs to be bridged in terms of the availability of the skilled force and demand. Right now employers are short skilled workers."

Giving students an option of attending a shorter community college program closer to home could make it easier for them to take advantage of higher educational opportunities and get out into the workforce sooner, Morarji said.

"The students could finish their associate degrees and then go to the industry and take up jobs," she said. "Basically this will generate more employability and take care of the growing needs of the hospitality industry."

Since only about 1 percent of international students in the UH system are from India, the program also is expected to benefit Hawaii by increasing the percentage of Indians studying in the isles, while at the same time providing opportunities for local students to study in India.

The program also could increase tourism to Hawaii from India, a coveted developing market. Some 2,714 visitors from India came to the islands last year; however, Hawaii would like to see those arrivals grow. The Hawaii Tourism Authority has been monitoring India’s growth and its potential for growth along with other new markets from Asia-Pacific, said HTA President and CEO Mike McCartney.

"As the second most populous country in the world, India has a growing middle class with disposable income and increasing demand to travel abroad," McCartney said. "Diversifying our international markets is a priority for the HTA."