Thomas Cook India's Centre of Learning felicitates 270 Students at its fourth Convocation Ceremony 2014-2015

Chandigarh, August 19, 2015: 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."


About Centre of Learning: Centre of Learning is an initiative of Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. to develop talent for the organization as well as for the Industry. In the context of high growth and increasing customer expectations, talent management will be one of the important challenges to the Travel Industry. This relates to both the shortage of actual numbers and the desired capability levels from both a technical and managerial perspective. Thomas Cook - Centre of Learning has been set up with the objective of proactively facilitating the talent management in the travel industry and would strive to grow, harness and nurture the skill sets in the industry.



About Thomas Cook (India) Limited:



Thomas Cook (India) Ltd (TCIL) is the leading integrated travel and travel related financial services company in the country offering a broad spectrum of services that include Foreign Exchange, Corporate Travel, MICE, Leisure Travel, Insurance, Visa & Passport services and E-Business. The company set up its first office in India in 1881.



TCIL's footprint currently extends to over 232 locations (including 23 airport counters) in 95 cities across India, Mauritius & Sri Lanka and is supported by a strong partner network of 115 Gold Circle Partners and 112 Preferred Sales Agents in over 130 cities across India.



ICRA has upgraded the long term rating of Thomas Cook (India) Limited's non convertible debenture programme to 'ICRA AA/Stable'. CRISIL has assigned long term rating of CRISIL AA-/ stable outlook to the non convertible debenture programme and long term banking facilities and short term rating of CRISIL A1+ to TCIL's banking facilities.



Thomas Cook (India) Ltd has been voted as Favourite Outbound Tour Operator at the Outlook Traveller Awards 2015, Best Tour Operator - Outbound at the CNBC AWAAZ Travel Awards 2015, 2014 & 2013 and Best Company providing Foreign Exchange at the CNBC AWAAZ Travel Awards 2015 & 2014; felicitated with Diamond Award for Exemplary Achievements in Visa Issuance at the French Ambassador's Travel Awards Ceremony 2015; Thomas Cook India's Travel Quest was honoured with a Gold Award at PATA Gold Awards 2015; honored as India's Leading Tour Operator 2014, World Travel Awards Asia & Australasia 2014, Favourite Tour Operator at the Condé Nast Traveller Readers' Travel Awards 2014, 2013, 2012 & 2011 and recognized as a Consumer Superbrand 2013-14 & 2012-2013. Thomas Cook India's Centre of Learning has received IATA accreditation as "Top 10 South Asia IATA Authorized Training Centers"2015, 2013 & 2012. For more information, please visit www.thomascook.in



Thomas Cook (India) Limited is promoted by Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Fairbridge Capital (Mauritius) Limited and its controlled affiliates. Fairbridge is responsible for the execution of acquisition and investment opportunities in the Indian subcontinent on behalf of the Fairfax family of companies.



About Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited:



Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited is a Toronto-based financial services holding company with a global presence in insurance and reinsurance and a portfolio of assets in excess of $38 billion invested worldwide. The Company, founded in 1985 by the present Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Prem Watsa, has over the past 30 years, demonstrated a strong financial track record to achieve an annual appreciation in Book Value per Share of 24.7% annually. Fairfax has almost 20 general insurance subsidiaries and joint ventures globally, including ICICI Lombard (India).



Fairfax is engaged in long term investments from its own resources, with a focus to delivering long term capital appreciation through a flexible and value oriented approach. Fairfax Financial Holdings through Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. owns 73.96% on a fully diluted basis of the Quess Corp Limited (formerly IKYA Human Capital Solutions Limited), a provider of specialised Human Resource related Services and 55.01% of Sterling Holiday Resorts (India) Ltd, engaged in time share and resort business and holiday activities.



About Quess Corp Limited (formerly IKYA Human Capital Solutions Limited)



Quess Corp Ltd., India's leading business services provider established in 2007. Headquartered in Bengaluru, the company has over 1,00,000 employees, serves over 1500 customers across 8 countries in more than 8000 locations. It has presence across 4 segments namely, Global Technology Solutions, Industrial Asset Management, Integrated Facilities Management, and People & Services.With revenues of about USD 400 million, Quess Corp Ltd. is a step-down subsidiary of USD 37+ billion (as of 30th Sept 2014) multinational, Fairfax Financial Holdings Group; held through its Indian listed subsidiary, Thomas Cook India Limited. For further details on Quess Corp Ltd. please visit: http://www.quesscorp.com



About Sterling Holiday Resorts (India) Limited:



Sterling Holiday Resorts (India) Limited, a pioneer in vacation ownership and a leading leisure hospitality company in India, was incorporated in 1986 with the vision of delivering great holiday experiences to Indian families. Sterling Holidays' network includes 1767 rooms across 24 resorts in 21 scenic holiday destinations pan India. The company also has 15 additional sites where it plans to add new resorts in the coming years. For more information visit: www.sterlingholidays.com

Originally Source : Perfect Relations