Secondary School Students’ perception of Tourism and Hospitality Professions in Malta
Article by Mr. David Pace published on 15 April 2012 – The Malta Independent on Sunday
Part One: Work values and popular professions
The Yes Project, an EU Leonardo Transfer of Innovation Project that was brought to the Institute of Tourism Studies by the hard work of Raymond Vassallo and his team consisting of David Pace and Martin Debattista, was finally concluded after three years of research.
The aim of the project was to construct a multi-lingual database for the description, comparison and promotion of qualifications and competences in the Hospitality Sector called the TEEMPASS (Tourism Education Employability Mobility). This can be accessed at www.teempass.eu by all hospitality and tourism workers as well as students who wish to check specific qualifications and competencies to work both in Malta and abroad.
The latest reports of the final YES Project meeting in Larnaca and specific research has been published in a book called Tourism Education, Employability and Mobility in Four Mediterranean Countries, edited by Mr Vassallo that can be downloaded as a pdf from http://ten-mt.org/articles-publications/yes-research/.
The most important part of the publication is a study entitled “Secondary School student’s perceptions in Malta”(Raymond Vassallo, 2012). This much needed scientific study collected invaluable data on how secondary school students view hospitality and tourism jobs to provide both the industry and the educational institutions a quantitative and qualitative analysis of student perceptions in these fields. This is a first for Malta and it is disappointing that it has never been attempted before to provide a much-needed snapshot of why students are/are not choosing tourism and hospitality jobs and what they expect from such professions.
The rationale behind this study was succinctly explained in the publication that in Malta: “The high qualified employees comprise only four per cent of the industry’s workforce, whereas 71 per cent are low-qualified” (NCHE, 2009).
“The most fundamental challenge facing the hospitality industry in many countries is ‘the attraction and retention of the necessary number and quality of young people’. So how can the hospitality industry attract more students to pursue a professional hospitality career? Our limited knowledge underlying students’ interest in and attitude towards hospitality and tourism professions provides the rationale for this research” (Lewis and Airey, 2001).
The research project focused on fourth and fifth secondary students in Maltese and Gozitan secondary schools, and mirrored similar research performed by Zopiatis and Kyprianou in Cyprus in 2006 (Welcome Issue 6, 2011). The following research questions were formulated:
1. What is the current perception of Maltese secondary school students towards hospitality and tourism professions?
2. What work values shape students’ career choices?
3. Which are the most popular professions in general among Maltese secondary school students?
4. Which are the most popular hospitality and tourism professions among secondary school students in Malta?
5. Which are the students’ sources of advice and information about the hospitality and tourism industry?
6. What is the profile of the student most likely to choose a hospitality career?
The target sample included five state secondary schools that were selected by convenience sampling opting for maximum geographical spread. The schools chosen were located in Pembroke, Gzira, Birkirkara, Rabat, Mtarfa, Blata l-Bajda and Victoria (Gozo) and visited during November 2011; a total of 214 questionnaires were generated.
Results and reactions
On entering a class, the researcher always started by explaining the questionnaire and asking the students what “hospitality professions are?” to introduce the first question of “What is the current perception of Maltese secondary school students towards hospitality and tourism professions?” Most answered, “jobs in hospitals” with only one boy answering “it is about catering”. This revealed that they were not at all familiar with the term “hospitality” because after an explanation most students realised that it refers to professions that have to do with tourism, hotels and restaurants.
In fact, it was discovered that 24 per cent of the students have work experience in the hospitality or tourism industry; while almost half (46.2 per cent) have a parent working in the industry, so Maltese students are quite familiar with the tourism industry.
Regarding the positive aspects of hospitality and tourism professions the students like, the most common response was to “meet people from different countries” (45 per cent). The students also mentioned, “Learning other people’s traditions and cultures” (13 per cent), “Helping People”(10 per cent), “Speaking a different language (nine per cent) and “Being proud of their country” and “Travel and work in different countries” (six per cent).
It is interesting to note that almost half the students are willing to work and meet people from different countries and see this as an opportunity to learn different traditions, cultures and languages. This adds to the importance of marketing Malta as a cultural and historical destination, considering that students also mentioned national pride as one of the positive aspects of tourism professions.
With regard to what the students disliked about hospitality and tourism professions, the most common answer was “Unfavourable working schedule”, and this is not just a perception considering that many students have worked in tourism or have parents employed in such professions. Also, 18 per cent cited language difficulties as a barrier to working in tourism, while 19 per cent were worried that “tourists can be rude”. These two aspects imply that students have an exaggerated fear or a lack of knowledge of certain facets of the tourism industry.
A very worrying statistic is that only three per cent mentioned that “You need to study a lot” to get into tourism. In an industry that it still dominated by low-qualified workers exemplified by cooks, waiters, dishwashers, kitchen helpers and chambermaids, and an institute that has changed its focus from professional Higher Diploma graduates to basic Foundation students, this statistic makes a lot of sense.
Regarding the student’s perceptions of hospitality and tourism professions derived from a five-point system from the most positive (5) to the most negative (1), the most interesting results were the high score of 4.03 of those who regarded such work as interesting and offering excellent employment opportunities (3.88). The students also regarded such work as socially acceptable (3.98) and offering a positive working environment (3.76). This contradicts the 30 per cent dislike of hospitality and tourism professions scored on the aspects students disliked. The reason might lie in the language barrier, as the research assistant was English speaking, or specific professions students may have had in mind when answering different questions.
Another question attempted to determine work values that shape students’ career choices. The most important reasons included friendly and understanding co-workers and security. Interestingly, money came second, while prestige, creativity and management came last. It seems that many students would not like to be in a situation where they have to supervise other employees and this may also explain the low intake of management students in the ITS course. It is quite strange how creativity scored so low with the students, considering that most of the students joining ITS chose culinary courses that entail a high degree of creativity.
This is also reflected in the fact that 41.6 per cent (89) of all the students preferred a career in the hotel and culinary professions, while 26.2 per cent (56) preferred the tourism professions, ranking it number six on a scale of 10 professions. The results actually correspond with the ITS student intake this year of which 75 per cent joined low-quality culinary and hospitality trade courses leading to cooks and waiters, 24 per cent joined diploma courses (of which only six per cent involve tourism professions – The Tour Guiding Diploma and the Sports Tourism and Active Leisure Diploma Courses) and only one per cent joined management courses.
Students’ preferences
Students were asked to choose from 18 different hospitality and tourism professions they were interested in. The top 10 are shown in the table below:
As can be seen, the nightclub manager and chef share the top position, while the next two are management positions that do not agree with results obtained when students were asked about work values and listed management as the last chosen career choice. This is also proved by the less than one per cent of ITS students choosing management courses. The reason for this anomaly is probably a lack of understanding on the students’ part of what managerial positions really entail. Nightclub manager is probably seen as a cool job and in fact, many students passed the following comments about it: “they meet a lot of girls”, “I love the night-life” or “I like listening to music”. Most of these comments were repeated between six and 17 times and also show that many Form V students already enjoy the nightlife even though they are under-age!
The only profession that is hardly ever chosen is housekeeping, as only seven per cent showed an interest in this profession. This is also mirrored in ITS choices as the Diploma in Accommodation Operations that was heavy on housekeeping has been discontinued due to very few students choosing it.
It seems that the student’s choices are based on socialising opportunities (Nightclub Manager, Hotel Manager, Restaurant Manager, Barman and Receptionist), the attractiveness of the work environment (Nightclub Manager, Restaurant Manager and Barman), the job content (Chef and the management professions) and matching the students’ own abilities (chef, pastry chef and receptionist).
It’s interesting to note that a high salary is not deemed to be that important, as only 14 students mentioned it, mostly in conjunction with the profession of hotel manager. This also contradicts earlier results that indicate monetary results as the second most important work value.
Finally, most students do not seem to be that interested in supervising other employees except for the managerial profession, which tends to show that students are attracted mostly to the coolness of the jobs. This lends strength to the findings of C that students do not understand or have a realistic view of the professions of their choice; a conclusion that should send a message to both the educational and ITS authorities to embark on a clearer and more sustained information campaign on tourism and hospitality professions.
The EU YES Project questionnaire concerning the perceptions of secondary students to tourism and hospitality professions included questions that examined the way student perceptions are formed as shown below. The category labelled “other” includes the Internet, own work or life experience and government-organised information visits. It is important to note that the Internet option may have also been included with TV and other media.
It is not surprising that TV and other media, probably including the Internet, provide the greatest source of information concerning hospitality and tourism careers. Local TV cookery programmes are quite common and surely have an effect on imparting information although this also provides an unrealistic picture of how a real kitchen in a restaurant or hotel works.
Families have the second greatest effect on children, more so when many people work in the industry and these will surely influence students, especially parents that have hospitality or tourism jobs.
It is expected that career counsellors have quite an influence on students, but friends may also persuade students to choose certain career paths, especially if they know that they will be together once again in some higher educational institution.
Which student is likely to choose a hospitality career?
The questionnaire revealed that 96 students wanted to pursue hospitality or tourism oriented careers. Of these 70 per cent had an average academic performance, 27 per cent scored above average and three per cent scored below average.
At first glance, this would suggest that hospitality and tourism professions attract mostly average students although the chi-square test reveals that the relationship is not so straightforward and that school performance and career intention are not so related. There is actually a greater relationship between students who chose a hospitality or tourism career, and pleasant work surroundings and management opportunities.
The study also indicates that girls (49 per cent) are more interested in hospitality or tourism careers than boys (44 per cent); age wise, the older students, the 15-year-olds (58 per cent) are more interested than the younger students (33 per cent). This may be due to the maturity of older students who start thinking seriously about what they want to do after they finish secondary school, while the younger students will still be searching for a career. Another finding is that, interest in hospitality and tourism wanes as students hit their 16th birthday probably because they start to compare careers and opt to join MCAST or Higher Secondary courses.
It is not surprising that Maltese secondary school students are familiar with hospitality and tourism jobs as almost half the students have a parent working in the industry and 24 per cent already having work experience as waiters, bartenders, cooks, dishwashers and pool boys. This familiarity influences their decisions, to the extent that 65 per cent of students with parents working in the industry will consider a hospitality career. Conversely, less than a third of students without parents working in the industry are interested in starting a hospitality career.
Out of 168 students who chose to continue hospitality or tourism careers, 49 per cent preferred to continue their studies at university, 34 per cent at ITS, and 29 per cent would like to study abroad. This changes when the question of education is related to the actual choice of career of the students. For example, a student who wished to become a chef cannot follow a culinary course at university, so the corrected choice reveals that 66 per cent of students would opt to study at ITS or abroad against the 52 per cent who choose university.
Recommendations
The research findings show that awareness of hospitality and tourism careers among secondary school students is not lacking. Unfortunately, the student’s perceptions are shaped by the limited set of professions with which they are familiar. Increasing awareness on the variety of professions in the sector is a must to attract more qualified personnel.
Secondary schools have a variety of activities to inform students better about career prospects in the hospitality and tourism sector and the National Curriculum Framework has suggested that hospitality trades be included in the secondary school curriculum. Considering the financial, cultural and social impact tourism has on our society, this should have been done many years ago.
According to Mr Arciola, responsible for the Malta Tourism Authority’s Tourism Career Awareness Project, “The general perception towards a career in tourism needs to be improved to make the programmes more successful. Sometimes we believe that not all schools are promoting tourism careers with the same intensity as they promote the more traditional professions such as accounting. Some schools and parents may fail to demonstrate to students that even the man traditional professions play an important part in the tourism sector” (Arciola, A. (2011)).
Research findings show that only 29 per cent of Maltese students receive information on hospitality professions from industry professionals, and the students’ understanding and familiarity with many tourism and hospitality professions is low.
This can be corrected by presentations by managers and visits to hotels and kitchens to show a realistic view of the industry. Although ITS accepts a number of school visits each year that include a tour of the premises, kitchen and restaurant operations at the school, these do not mirror the work practices in major hotel kitchens and restaurants.
One of the major results of the study reveals that students think negatively about the workload in hospitality and tourism professions. They think people work harder, longer and more irregular hours than in other sectors. Many seem to be preoccupied that neither tourists nor the management take these “work problems” into consideration and still can be rude and over-demanding in what they expect of workers. This idea can also be counteracted by specific visits to hotels and restaurants; also the logistics of visiting such places when they are operational have to be discussed beforehand.
Seasonality of the industry and the language barrier already preoccupy students. Regarding seasonality, this is an issue that the government has not managed to solve, so there is very little that can be done to ease students’ minds regarding it. The language question needs further studies in relation to the fact that the level of spoken and written English of Maltese students has plummeted over the last 10 yeas.
Perceptions are mostly formed by what students and their families experience when they visit a hotel or restaurant, but a good percentage also have first-hand experience as they have worked in the industry. There are also labour issues involved insofar that the number of foreign workers employed by hotels and restaurants, mostly from Eastern European and Russian Federation countries, is increasing and that many are paid less and work longer hours just because they are grateful to be away from their countries and have a job.
Hospitality and tourism profession training should take such negative perceptions in consideration and attempt to train students to cope with them. Increasing information is also crucial as Zopiatis and Kyprianou (1996) note: “It is imperative that the industry’s daily activities are open to the public.”
Zopiatis and Kyprianou argue that increasing popularity of culinary professions is due to the rise of culinary TV shows. This is mirrored by findings that show that Maltese students find the chef and culinary professions popular. Once again, this opens another area of research that should examine the link between such programmes and their influence on younger children.
TV shows should not be limited to culinary features although these are probably the most attractive. A reality show involving a restaurant or a hotel manager and their staff, detailing daily challenges and successes in a humorous or exciting way is one idea. A specific award for the best receptionist, tour guide or manager is another idea. TV producers are sure to find a wealth of themes in hospitality and tourism to present new programmes that promote edutainment.
Conclusion
Generally, the survey shows that hospitality professions enjoy a neutral to positive image among students. The major preoccupation of the students is a heavy workload and long working hours associated with such professions.
On the other hand, tourism and hospitality professions are regarded as exciting jobs that present a lot of socialising opportunities and chances to learn foreign languages. What really irritates students is rudeness and non-English speaking students, a perception that has surely been exaggerated.
The most popular professions are chef, nightclub, hotel and restaurant managers and bartender. These choices are mostly influenced by a glitzy depiction in the media, particularly the cliché of the popular and suave nightclub manager surrounded by attractive women and admired by all. This is seen as a fun job with lots of opportunities for social interaction when managerial jobs are among the most demanding. The chef choice is also influenced by the media, mostly magazine TV programmes that always include a cooking section that focuses on a few dishes, when the reality is totally different.
Another influence is surely the selection of courses offered by the Institute of Tourism Studies that focus mostly on culinary, catering and housekeeping jobs, and so will direct most of the students towards these careers.
The study found out that in general, secondary school students have not given too much thought to their future career choice. This is apparent in both the statistical results and the conflicting comments of some of the students who tend to look at certain tourism and hospitality professions unrealistically and regard them as fun jobs.
This also shows that students do not know what managerial jobs actually entail, even though they are popular choices. This is a worrying trend because the Maltese economy relies heavily on the tourism industry and the government must increase its role in attracting more qualified personnel and making sure that students know exactly what they are getting into.
Hopefully, this will not be the first and last study of its kind. The hospitality and tourism industries are replete with areas that need to be studied both quantitatively and qualitatively, and the MTA, ITS and the University of Malta should be pro-active in pushing such studies so that the tourism and hospitality industry can gauge exactly the trends within our society regarding such important economic activities.
