Interview by Bhawna Rawat

Mr. manisha khanna

Mr. Manish Khanna is currently working as the Chief Executive Officer at UEI Global Education. He holds five associate and master degrees in Finance, Accounts and Law on a merit scale from India. He is a multi-disciplined and a multi-tasked professional who has been widely known for his organizational, financial and commercial acumen. He was instrumental in launching UEI Global in India with a vision to create the finest educational academies, offering the quality education with an industry integrated program, focusing on professional training in a highly skilled manner while bridging the employment gap in the industry. He passionately believes that the Education is all about credibility and ensures that UEI Global delivers the credibility in all it acts of student’s interaction, teaching, training, workshop, placement, parent and industry’s expectations and above all deliver the social responsibility of creating the finest professionals. His astuteness and strategy have been the pillars of UEI Global success.

Prior to UEI Global, Mr. Khanna enjoyed a prosperous career of operating the home building company in Chicago, USA and was the part of the core management team. Under his dynamic leadership, the business expanded largely and from being a Midwest-based company it transpired into an entire nation based company. He is also a member of Midwest President Forum, USA. He has also worked with Turner Morrison Group with various roles at the brand Quiver and Lacoste. He also has his stint with Valvoline Cummins and Escorts.

The CEO’s philosophy of Education

Education is all about empowerment and enabling a person to identify his or her potential while deploying their ablest competency to improvise the domain knowledge whilst earning their livelihood. UEI Global was started with the motto of “Education to Employment” with a focus on skill-based education in Hospitality Industry. Our philosophy revolves around “MORE” - Modern Operational Relevant and Experiential learning.

Education needs to be contemporary, be applied, Relevant to industry requirement and be learnt & trained in an empirical mode so that the student will be employable from day 1 when he joins the industry.

The significant challenges faced by the CEO of UEI Global

The biggest challenge was always to bring the skill and vocation into the mainstream with an integrated management methodology. A decade back when we brought skill-based education in Hospitality Industry in India, the challenge was to introduce a new career opportunity to the youth who was only focusing on traditional orthodox courses after their 12th standard. It took a while but with glorified placement record UEI Global has today made a name in Hospitality Industry. When most of the institutions are struggling for providing placements, we stand strong with a record of more than 95% placements, providing not only domestic but International opportunities as well.

The scope of Hotel Management in India

Hotel Management is a glamorous profession and also offers a bright future. Today, Hotel Management in India has become a promising choice as the students in search of exciting job opportunities and career are opting for this course instead of traditional courses. The rapid growth and promotion of Tourism, Catering, and Hotel sector have resulted in huge job prospects for Indians. The boom in the Hospitality industry (propelled by foreign & domestic tourism) has created the demand for well-trained quality personnel. This has not only led to a mismatch in terms of hotel room supply and demand but also in terms of professionals required to manage hotels. Whereas the demand is much higher than the existing 1,14,000 hotel rooms across all categories, India is facing an acute shortage of a trained hotel staff.

UEI Global helping in bridging the gap between Demand and Supply of skilled manpower in the Hospitality Industry

With 9 campuses across India, UEI Global has developed a well-balanced curriculum under the academic supervision of Hotel school, The Hague, The Netherlands (one of the Top 3 Hotel Schools of the World). The 3-Year Degree is a Specialized Service Management programme rather than a simple Hotel Management Degree. The pedagogy involves relevant and contemporary learning and largely focuses on developing the attitude and skills of the students. The students of UEI Global are confident and possess the right kind of knowledge and skill required by the industry.

UEI Global has invented the future for its students by providing them with just the right blend of knowledge and skills that will increase their demand in the industry. The curriculum is industry relevant both at the domestic and international level and is based on the principle of ‘entrepreneurial learning’ of the Hospitality. The programme of study encourages use and knowledge of modern equipment in kitchens, restaurants, housekeeping and front-office departments. The ‘entrepreneurial learning’ reflects the educational philosophy that follows working in groups to analyze and solve specific problems and acquiring practical work experience through internships.

These features get them job roles such as business development managers, relationship managers, customer service managers and sales executives in multinationals in sectors like Telecom, IT, BPO, Retail, Healthcare, Banking & Finance etc. There are plenty of hotel management graduates who have risen to levels of general Managers or Vice Presidents in various industries.

Factors making the UEI Global different from other Hotel Management Institutes

Our teaching pedagogy believes in MORE- Modern Operational Relevant and Experiential approach which ensures the student gets the right mix of Theory and Practical. We also understand that the major problem which the Indian students face is to express themselves and in this competitive world, it is very important to have the right skills and attitude to crack interview & command a good career.

For the same, we have inculcated the programme of ACE- Advance Communication for Employment, wherein we focus on communication, personality development, grooming standards for complete 3 years while they pursue their graduation with us. In addition to this, we ensure that the student also learns from the industry and do their 6 months Industrial Training in the 2nd Year followed by On-Job-Training in the 3rd Year.

All this help us to differentiate us from the other institutes who only focus on teaching the books’ content.

Our teaching pedagogy has also helped us to brag about having the record of more than 95% placements since last so many years.