At the recent International Hotel School Directors (EUHOFA) Congress held in The Hague, the Netherlands, a number of industry speakers posed a question as to the “Role of Hospitality Educators”, some went on to point out that one of the features of hospitality education is that many graduates end up working in other associated industries. This same point has been commented on in a number of articles recently in the professional press. Should educators only educate and train for the hospitality sector or should they take a broader view of what constitutes hospitality education?
This in turn poses yet another question as to the very essence of hospitality education? Is the role of education and training to produce graduates who are “fit for purpose” to work in the business of delivering hospitality or is it a more fundamental understanding of what it is to be hospitable? One keynote speaker was Michael Levie of CitizenM hotels who made the point that their philosophy of recruitment was to hire “nice people”, who in turn could learn the skills of delivering hospitality. This approach suggests that it is the culture of hospitality that is the fundamental in delivering the business of hospitality.
If we accept the basic idea that the underlying philosophy and focus of all hospitality education and training should be to develop a culture and ethos of what it is to be hospitable, we could then ask “what happened”?
It is perhaps because developing culture and ethos is far less tangible than delivering skills and knowledge, that the focus of education in the past decades has been to break the curriculum down into smaller and smaller component parts and in so doing removing time and space to be able to allow students to really understand what it is to be hospitable. The curriculum of hospitality education becomes more and more the domain of the politician, the academic and the ensuing bureaucracy of control rather than a dialogue between 2 parts of the same industry, the operational arm and the educational arm. Those delivering hospitality to guests and those teaching those who will deliver that hospitality to guests.
It was clear from the Congress that there is a willingness to be able to enter into an appropriate dialogue but there is, on occasion, a lack of understanding on both sides. In a rapidly changing industry the pressures on the business are intense, guests have different and changing expectations, innovation in technology and communications are changing the way the guests interact with the business. Whilst all of this is true there is a danger that the educators could be forced to thinking that they need to educate and train the students in the mechanics of this rapidly changing environment. Some in industry would strongly argue that is exactly what should be done, whilst an alternative view would be that we should not to focus on the mechanics, but on the need for “human services” that put the guest at the centre of the business.
How can the students of tomorrow be infused into the culture and ethos of what it is to be hospitable, whilst at the same time developing the essential skills delivering hospitality? Does this need radical surgery of the curriculum, do we need to break the bonds of bureaucracy? How can we engage with all parties to ensure all of the voices are heard?
About the author
Professor Peter Jones, is the Dean of the eHotelier Academy. With a distinguished career in hospitality, education and training, Peter has been involved with national and international projects with clients involved in hospitality education. Peter is a Director the Edge Hotel School and of Hotel Future, a new education and training initiative in Greater Manchester and is a Visiting Professor at the University of Derby. He was also awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to the hospitality industry.
