Hospitality Students' Competencies: Are They Work Ready?

Abstract

Work-integrated learning offers opportunities to ensure graduates are work ready. Employers indicated that students often lack certain competencies (soft skills) when they enter the world of work and request faculty to ensure transferable skills are included and assessed as part of the curriculum. The objective of this research was to establish what competencies (soft skills) the hospitality management final year students from the School of Tourism and Hospitality, University of Johannesburg, South Africa thought they needed at the start of their semester of work-integrated learning compared to their thoughts at the end of that semester. The results were compared and used to recommend to faculty what competencies should be infused in the curriculum to enhance students’ opportunities to be employed, and to conduct themselves in the business world of hospitality with confidence and competence.