Important skills for Taiwanese hospitality and tourism graduates as perceived by hospitality educators and human resources managers

Abstract

The rapid growth of the hospitality and tourism industry in Taiwan has created an increasing demand for hospitality labor. In response to the increased demand of employees, the hospitality and tourism programs in Taiwan R.O.C. are racing to keep pace with the industry. As a result, issues regarding the quality of graduates and their value to Taiwan hospitality industry have emerged. The primary focus of this descriptive study was to identify the competencies needed by university and college students from hospitality and tourism programs. The study utilized hospitality educators and hotel human resource managers in Taiwan to analyze the required competencies and measure potential differences between the two populations. The target population included 15 hospitality program directors and 55 human resource managers of international tourist hotels in Taiwan. A total of 53 questionnaires were returned with a 75.7% response rate. The findings of this study revealed that both human resource managers and hospitality program directors perceived that people skills were more important and conceptual skills and operational skills were less important. The hospitality educators emphasized conceptual skills over human resource managers. It seems that educators and hotel human resource managers with different educational backgrounds had similar perceptions of what was regarded as important skills. Those respondents that had a higher educational background perceived that managerial skills and personal characteristics were more important overall. It is urgent to forge the gap between hospitality educators and hotel human resource staff in Taiwan. Hospitality education should always keep a relevant curriculum in order to meet the needs of this industry and the hospitality industry needs to share their experiences with educational institutions in the form of advisory boards, co-op field experience for students as well as intern programs. This study was representative of the phenomena of hospitality education and industry in Taiwan. Based on the differences of culture and the educational system, the study may not be generalized to other areas but could be replicated to areas with similar educational systems or cultural backgrounds.