Grooming Hospitality for Different Pastures

Background – I remember a beautiful anecdote that said among most professions, Teachers can be accredited a little higher for the simplest reason that they help create professionals. Coming down to hospitality it also stands true. Therefore, it can be concluded that the hotel schools with their able team of learning facilitators have been churning out skillset for the hotel industry and continue to do with even more vigour and vitality by incorporating industry orientation and the NEP 2020 – embracing curriculum changes to accommodate the evolving demands of the industry.

Significance – To integrate the cutting-edge technologies into their learning inputs, the hospitality learning facilitators are fostering possible hands-on approach to polish the graduate’s critical thinking and better prepare for future challenges. This approach will eventually empower the future hospitality managers to gauge emerging trends, but off-late the trend of the current hotel graduates is exploring other venues than hotels as a chosen career option. The reasons for the shift cannot be over emphasized.

Under such circumstances, my opinion as a master learning facilitator, is presented taking a cross-section between Hospitality Education and Careers, illustrated.

1. HR GRADUATE – SUBJECT NEUTRALITY
   Matrix position: The stage when the multiverse Hospitality Degree is in sync with the Fresher career options – Operational Trainee and Management Trainee
   Illustration: This is the educational journey of the hospitality graduates raw and ready to be moulded. The inputs are majorly from unrivalled resources and entail probably all the possible departments information and practical hands-on experience. Some hotel schools call them ZERO year and some BASICS. The inputs will enable the graduates to play an effective role in resource management.
2. WORKFORCE – SKILLSET FIT PERSPECTIVE
   Matrix position: The stage when the specialization in the Hospitality Degree is in sync with the specialized, entrepreneurial career options.
   Illustration: As the hospitality graduates dwell to higher skill acquisition in terms of Post-graduation degree in their respective areas of specialization, it is imperative that personalised strategy promotes a more efficient learning process and enhances the potential of each. Skillset fit would mean a set of people who are good at knowledge but struggles to build a career. Such students may be placed later and/or not in the choice of skill to start with in their careers. They in turn build a far reaching network of the workforce to collaborate.
3. WORKFORCE – ENVIRONMENT FIT PERSPECTIVE
   Matrix position: The stage when the Hospitality Degree is in sync with longevity in fresher career options.
   Illustration: The recruitment practice of graduates is substantial with numbers. Once joining hotels, it doesn’t take long to be adept to the organizational policies and standards. Environment fit would mean a set of people who are street smart and not very good in academics yet receive the required knowledge and skills to thrive in their careers. The best is yet to come where all these selected interns/ fresher rise to different leadership roles in generating meaningful insights to enhance revenue and efficiency.
4. HR ASSET – ADAPTIVE RESILIENCE
   Matrix position: The stage when the Hospitality Degree and specialization are in sync with longevity in varied career options.
   Illustration: When I graduated with a Diploma, my father insisted to do my Degree for better prospects. By virtue of this strategy many are at top levels at a very young age today. The adaptive learning of inputs and the attitude to go for it, has turned the table. A large number of graduates are opting out of hotels, to the facets of Myriad of Industries viz.- the Retail, both Food and Non-Food, Airlines, Cruise, Armed Forces, Banks, IT, Fashion, Media, Real Estate, Hospitals, Corporate Houses etc. that seem more lucrative to them. The hotel schools are acting as a resource factory for all and that is creating positive vibes. For those who are in Hotels are doing great, but a major share that have migrated to other industries and continue to do so, are also excelling.

Intention – As a veteran, serving hospitality education, I can only urge the hotel industry as a whole to encash on the situation and take the graduates aboard. The increase in the percentage of hospitality graduates joining hotels could have a retrospective effect in instilling interest amongst school students to join the hotel management courses.

Written by Dr. Salla Vijay Kumar.

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