By Venkata Vemuri. London, England, 02:32 PM IST

The 3.2-billion-pound Indian restaurant industry in Britain has been suffering from a growing skilled labour deficit ever since a points-based immigration system was introduced in February with restaurateurs and hospitality experts putting their heads together to overcome the shortage of Indian chefs.

According to Kay Johnson, head of hospitality at Trafford College in Greater Manchester, Asian restaurant owners have shown little interest in its courses.

'The businesses themselves don't invest in training,' said Johnson. 'When we do put these courses on, people don't come. They've known that the immigration laws were going to change. They should have addressed this and trained people up, but they have not responded.'

The college is making efforts to develop relationships with high profile chefs as a way of building contacts in the Asian community, according to a business weekly, Crain's Manchester Business.

Nahim Aslam, owner of the Indian Ocean restaurant in Ashton-under-Lyne, said: 'Most restaurants can't afford people to come in and train staff up; they don't have the turnover,' he said, pointing out that takings per diner for an Indian restaurant were considerably lower than for French or Italian.

Aslam said that although colleges can cater for basic needs, they don't have the expertise, or the budgets, to recruit specialist lecturers.

'No college can give training on spice techniques, we have to train that in-house,' he said. In July, Aslam set up a monthly restaurant owners discussion forum to address this issue and others faced by the industry.

Ravi Bajaj, owner of the Dilli Indian restaurant in Altrincham, has worked as a guest chef at Trafford College to increase awareness of Indian cuisine. He said perceptions of Indian cuisine had to change for it to be seen as a prestigious career.

'People think Indian food is madras and vindaloo - those dishes don't exist in India. In people's minds Indian cuisine is still curry and lager, but it goes beyond that.'

Louise Johnson of the Department of Hospitality in Manchester College said they are keen to work with the forum to develop new training that addresses any skill deficits and to discuss new training ideas.

While there are no precise figures available for Indian restaurants in Britain as hundreds of them are run informally, an industry body estimates there are around 9,500 such eateries in the country.

By Venkata Vemuri (Staff Writer, © IANS)