Facilitating hotel employability capabilities for students in Australian undergraduate hospitality management programs

Hospitality management is a relative newcomer to higher education in Australia. As with other professions (e.g., nursing) that have made a similar transition from their vocational heritage, the transition has not been easy. In recognition of the importance of capability (Stephenson, 1992) in higher education to describe employability characteristics, this research was designed to identify the key capabilities that facilitate employment in hotels. It was conducted against a background of de-regulation in higher education and ongoing stakeholder dissatisfaction with graduate employability outcomes. The Australian Government’s enhanced focus on “job-ready” (DESE, 2020) graduate employees has increased the relevance of this study. This emerging expectation necessitates that higher education providers understand what employability means for students in specialised education programs and that they design their curricula accordingly. For hospitality students in Australia, employment in the industry tends to be achieved before graduation and often prior to enrolling in their course of study. This positions the role of hospitality management degrees differently from most other professions which require degree qualifications for entry-level positions. The Australian-based study reported here responds to the idiosyncratic culture of hospitality by focusing on the capabilities required of entry-level employees in the hotel sector of the industry and the challenges this poses for the structure of the bachelor’s degree (Australian Qualifications Framework Level 7). Uniquely, the study adopted a stakeholder theory approach to understanding the needs and influences of the salient stakeholders (Frooman, 1999) on the curriculum. This ensures that the outcomes provide a balance of stakeholder views as a basis for positive collaboration moving forward. Employing an exploratory sequential mixed methods methodology, students, graduates, and human resource managers, as salient stakeholders (Frooman, 1999), were engaged in two phases of data collection. The first phase was a qualitative study incorporating individual interviews, focus groups, and extended response questionnaires to enable the understandings of stakeholders about entry-level employability to emerge. The resultant data were analysed deductively using key theoretical capability frameworks—the 14 capabilities of the Graduate Employability Indicators (GEI; Oliver et al., 2010) framework, and the six hospitality-specific personal attribute factors of the Hospitality Culture scale (HCS; Dawson et al., 2011). The second phase of the mixed methods approach was quantitative and was informed by the results of Phase 1. Its purpose was to refine and deepen the understandings gleaned from Phase 1 through the implementation of a hospitality-specific survey instrument adapted from the HCS instrument. Together the two methodological approaches enabled an understanding of entry-level employability for the hotel industry that informed the creation of an employability framework for the first-year hospitality management curriculum. Based on the progressive refinement of the outcomes through the two phases, the research identified six capabilities that facilitate success at entry level in hotels. These capabilities are predominantly service and human skills-based, with hospitality operations as a focus (e.g., principles, hospitality knowledge and skills, and leadership). In addition to the industry-specific skills and knowledge, they also incorporate a range of what are often referred to as generic, or human skills (Shum et al., 2018), such as communication, dependability, and being detail oriented. The ability to “lead by example” as a foundation for future leadership roles was also identified; an ability that human resource managers value when recruiting candidates for employment. Several insights have emerged from this inquiry. First, in hotels, graduate employability and entry-level employability are not the same, rather, in this field of study and profession, employment should be conceived as a continuum. Hospitality management students, often in their first year of study apply for, or are recruited for, entry-level employment positions. Guided by the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF; AQF, 2013), such applicants would be expected to be displaying attributes aligned with AQF Level 5—Advanced Skills. Hospitality management graduates seeking employment would be expected to have achieved Professional level or AQF Level 7 outcomes. Understanding employment in this more nuanced manner helps inform a curriculum that is structured to enable both entry-level and graduate-level students to develop appropriate capabilities in order to enhance their prospects of gaining employment and establishing a career in the industry. Second, the study posits a curriculum framework that is coherent with key education theories and the perceptions of key stakeholders, which enables the progressive development of knowledge and skills through increasing levels of complexity and independence. The ideal hospitality curriculum should incorporate preparation for early real-work experiences, and regular engagement, thereafter, with the professional community across the program of study to enable their development of industry-specific skills and knowledge and human skills. I argue that this framework will assist students to develop the characteristics that make up what I have identified as “the hotel phenotype,” which refers to the characteristics that the professional community of practice will identify with as consistent with a member of their community. This study extends the significant literature on graduate employability and has advanced our understandings of employability in the hotel sector of the hospitality industry. Based upon the identified capabilities that facilitate entry-level employability, the research has proposed a framework for hospitality curricula which utilises AQF Level 5 to structure development of employability. The outcomes are relevant to all hospitality management degrees in Australia and potentially for all international educational institutions offering similar degree