Tourism jobs and the youth

Not too long ago, I was asked by my good friend, former Tourism Secretary Mina Gabor, to speak at the Global Youth Forum which she organized through her International School of Sustainable Tourism, together with the Department of Tourism (DoT), Philippine Tourism Promotions Board, Department of Interior and Local Government, and the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority.  

Held at the Subic Bay Exhibition and Convention Center, the three-day event had the theme Youth On The Move, which was in support of the United Nations World Tourism Organization’s theme: One Billion Tourists, One Billion Opportunities. The event was designed mainly to create awareness among today’s youth of the many opportunities in the Tourism Industry.

The topic assigned to me was “Getting Our Graduates Ready for Tourism Jobs.”  Here are the highlights of what I presented to the audience which was composed of approximately 700 students and faculty members from around 55 schools all over the country, and some industry practitioners. 

A research done more than a decade ago revealed the top three common concerns of tourism establishments all over the country when they hire fresh graduates for various positions: the graduates don’t have enough of the required competencies; they have difficulty expressing themselves in English; and they have poor work attitude.  

The various Tourism and Hospitality Management (THM) schools in the country are aware of these problems and have adopted measures to produce graduates that match up to the requirements of the Industry. I’d like to share what one school has done along this line, which has earned for itself the distinction of being a Center of Excellence for Hotel and Restaurant Management Education, a Center of Development for Tourism Education, and the first and only full accreditation as International Center of Excellence for Tourism and Hospitality Education.

The Lyceum of the Philippines University (LPU)-Manila Campus prides itself with having the aforementioned tags of excellence, which could explain why it is now the biggest THM school in Asia. Aware of the concerns aired by various establishments in the industry, the university crafted its curriculum after consultations with the DoT, the Technical Education and Skills Development Association (TESDA), Council of Hotels and Restaurant Educations of the Philippines (COHREP) and the Tourism Industry Board Foundation Inc. (TIBFI).

It also took into consideration the requirements of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), the ASEAN integration, the accrediting agencies, and the industry. In fact, the university has gone the extra mile – even if CHED requires students to render only 600 hours of on-the-job training (OJT), LPU demands 1,000 hours of its students. To further close the gap between industry requirements and the graduates’ competencies, the university created an Advisory Board composed of representatives from the different sectors of the industry – hotel, airline, travel agency, tour operator, cruise line, culinary, etc.  These representatives meet with university officers every year to continuously update the latter with new trends and new requirements of the industry towards making the university’s curriculum always relevant and current.

LPU also partnered with Dusit Thani College, the most prestigious THM school in Thailand, to further “internationalize” its curriculum, especially with the onset of ASEAN integration where our country’s graduates will now be competing with those of other ASEAN countries.

As for the concern on English communication, LPU students are required to pass the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC), and are also given the opportunity to enroll online in some courses of the American Hospitality Academy.

Another important tool which the university has is its Center for Career Services and Industry Relations. Aside from networking with and placing students in leading establishments in the Industry, the unit’s Best Practice is the Gold Slip interview. This is conducted one-on-one with each student looking for OJT placement. The interview determines three qualities the student must have:  English communication skills, emotional maturity (which dictates work attitude) and basic competencies required by the establishments.  

Successful interviewees are issued a Gold Slip which entitles them to the university’s official Recommendation Letter, a pre-requisite of establishments accepting students on OJT. Those who fall short on any of the three “must-have” qualities fail the interview, and may try again, and again, until such time that they measure up to all three standards.

All these procedures are in line with the university’s focus on outcomes based education which embodies the idea that once the end goal or outcome is determined, the strategies, processes, and other means are put into place to achieve such desired goal, in this case, competent graduates who will excel in the tourism and hospitality industry.  

With such techniques the university has put in place, it’s not surprising that when I visit a tourism or hospitality establishment here in Metro Manila, I often meet some of its graduates, happily making their mark in the Industry. They should count themselves lucky because the many new hotels set to open soon will increase their chances of going up the job ladder quicker. Even luckier are the upcoming graduates, as they will now have many employment opportunities to avail of.  

For feedback, I’m at bobzozobrado@gmail.com

YOUR MONDAY CHUCKLE:

David is finally engaged and is excited to show off his new bride. “Ma,” he said to his mother, “I’m going to bring home three girls and I want you to guess which one my fiancé is.” Twenty minutes later, David walks in the door with three girls following him. “It’s that one,” immediately said his mother without blinking an eye. “Holy cow,” exclaimed David, “how in the world did you know it was her?” “I just don’t like her,” she replied.