Tribal girls fly high

Pune, May 21 (UNI) Around 100 tribal girls from across the state are ready to fly after training to become air-hostesses and completing courses in hospitality, with support from Maharashtra government.

Minister for Tribal Welfare Vijaykumar Gavit told mediapersons that the training programmes at the Air Hostess Academy (AHA) as well as a course in the hospitality sector will be sponsored by the state tribal welfare ministry. These girls, some of whom are from the most backward region of the state, are currently taking lessons of air hostess and hospitality course at the Academy.

''It is the first experience in the state where tribal students in such a large scale are being trained for hospitality industry'', Gavit informed.

''Initially, I was afraid of the response to such a course from tribal community candidates. However, as the things went ahead, we received very good response. Out of more than 550 applications only 100 were short listed for the course'', said Gavit.

Director AHA, Sapna Gupta said, ''it is imperative to reach as many people as possible with the demand for trained human resource going up specially in the hospitality industry that is expanding at a fast pace since the arrival of several new airlines and five star hotels''.

UNI