Introduction
In today’s environment, hospitality students who finish pursuing education often face difficulties in finding suitable jobs due to the competition in the job market. Hospitality students are expected to meet the challenges imposed by the prospective employers in the context of their education being relevant to the industry. Most of the academic programs in the hospitality sector are designed to teach students the techniques and skills that will keep them in high stead while performing their hospitality jobs. The main aim of these programs is to enable students to be able to manage the fast-changing expectations of such jobs in the highly competitive hospitality sector, which entails the management of employer demands and fast-changing consumer attitudes.
Main body
According to Johnstone (1994), there is a big gap in terms of employer expectations and formal education and training in the hospitality industry. He has stressed the need for academic institutions to address the skills, which are a necessity for such students to incorporate, and which are presently being left for employers to handle. Most employers in the hospitality sector feel that several skills in the sector should have been taught in the academic institutions at undergraduate levels and that there is an immediate need for hospitality education to incorporate such changing demands of the industry. The hospitality sector works in a very challenging environment, which requires catering to a continuous and swift change of consumer patterns. Hence hospitality education programs must be flexible in adapting within their curriculum such changes in the educational content as also in enabling the students to imbibe the required skills and knowledge to meet up to the job expectations.
Research by Goodman and Sprague (1991) has shown that those students of hospitality who have a strong base understanding and knowledge of the industry will fare much better in the long term and prove to be of advantage to employers also. The present education levels do not fully meet the expectations of the hospitality industry and if the education can be modified in a calculated manner it would surely result in bringing about solutions in terms of the content and skills matching the industry needs. The ultimate goal of the education programs in the hospitality sector should be to equip students with the abilities to meet contemporary knowledge and skill as required by a quickly changing and competitive hospitality sector. It is quite evident that the need for hospitality education arose given the requirement of competent professionals in the hospitality sector, which was driven by high industry standards. According to Nelson and Dobson (2001), the success of hospitality education programs is determined by the quality of graduates from these institutions as also their retention rate within the industry. Unfortunately, most of the hospitality programs today lack the generality of business perspectives (Pavesic 1991), and there have been several curriculum issues debated regarding hospitality literature mainly due to the field of study being new in comparison to other areas of education. Consequently, there have been constant attempts in reconstructing the curriculum in this regard to meet the needs of the industry. Reigal (1991) has researched that there are three key elements to hospitality education, which are skills, values, and substantive knowledge. According to him, substantive knowledge is the most important in enabling the practice of the profession, skills provide the student with competency to use the knowledge in practice and the value component equips the student to adapt values essential for success in this industry.
Some theorists believe that hospitality education is not up to the mark and is in danger of losing its importance just as education in other fields such as banking, insurance, and transport, which have over time been absorbed as being part of the general business programs. It is in this context that Michael Haywood (1989) has said that, “Education must adapt itself and its role to retain its effectiveness. Educators must now explore the prospects for an educational design that enable students to prepare for continuing learning and participation in the transformation of their personal lives, their careers, and their society.” According to Pavesic (1993), some hospitality education programs are faulty in being extra theoretical or are like advocating too much industry focus in the curriculum with too much technical orientation. In consequence, the industry expectation of there being a standard foundation in students is not fulfilled.
An academic requirement of hospitality students is the inclusion of a course in principles of management whereby students will be required to create a real-life plan for business and to implement it along with lab studies which will require them to do research, planning, and implementation of business plans to give students a real-world experience regarding the expectations from them. The stress needs to be more on experiential learning which will give students the real-world environment and the opportunity to put their skills to test, as also to learn from their mistakes and feel good about their achievements in this regard (Crockett 2002). Breiter and Clements (1998) concluded in a study that there are three basic skills required by recruiters in the hospitality industry, which pertain to skills in leadership, employee relations, and managerial communication. In this context, it is clear that more than academic pursuits, the hospitality student needs to imbibe expertise in these three areas so that he can prove himself as effective hospitality professional. The curriculum in hospitality institutions must encourage the development of such traits by using a combination of relevant techniques. Educators must keep the expectation of the hospitality industry in mind so that students become innovators of the future in enabling the provision of the demands of the industry. Essentially excellent conceptual and human skills are the key components required to be made as an integral part of the education process.
The hospitality industry seeks talent that is skilled in enabling the productive activities entailed in the different elements of the tourism and hospitality sector and there is a strong need to change the present content of hospitality education so that new entrants can keep pace with the industry trends. Hence there has to be more emphasis on education to keep pace with the changing requirements. There is presently a big difference between what the hospitality education system offers and the expectations of the hospitality industry. Employers have indicated that most of the skills required of a hospitality professional are learned at the workplace and the formal education at best gives theoretical insight about hospitality and its percentage of the total learning process is very less, and despite this fact hospitality education institutions are still giving more emphasis on carrying this process to higher levels. Hence the pattern is now emerging that the hospitality sector is assuming higher responsibility in educating employees by offering a curriculum agenda in keeping with the demands of the industry. The vital aspects of a hospitality job cannot be fully integrated with the student by academic studies alone, hence the change in industry patterns of involving the workplace as a learning ground for students. Most of the hospitality requirements that can be mastered at the workplace are employee relations, problem resolution, leadership, employee training, internship, food and beverage management, operational controls, guest services, and managerial communications. Indeed, all these skills are much better learned on the job than as an academic area of study. Academic studies in hospitality pertain to different levels of research activities, the law relating to hospitality, tourism promotion, strategic and development planning. The academic curriculum has to be amended to accommodate the use of laptops to enhance the ability of the student to use technologies and educational deliveries of the concepts of the industry from the technological viewpoints.
Conclusion
There are limitations in corporate budgets and so is the case with educational institutions that are facing financial pressures and budget constraints in fulfilling the flow of extra demands on their curriculum. Hence there is a need for educational institutions in hospitality to review, refine and focus on the specific use of the present systems as also on each course, which is being offered in the context of educational settings and expectations. Especially in the hospitality sector, there is a strong need for the industry and educational institutions to partner in providing competent professionals to meet the rising demand for them in the competitive environment. This is all the more necessary now given cuts in budgetary expansions while the demand keeps growing for qualified and competent staff.
References
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