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.

(To be continued)