The school "asks" businesses to let teachers come as apprentices to gain experience teaching students.

Conference scene. Photo: Phuoc Anh

Accepting graduates, businesses must retrain them

The conference was “hot” right from the start with a series of frank opinions from businesses and training facilities. Regarding the issue of the quality of tourism human resources, Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong - Executive Director of Muong Thanh Dien Lam Ecological Zone said: “Currently, receptionists, restaurant and kitchen staff have very few people trained in the right major. We want to recruit but cannot recruit. Most of the students have to be retrained when they start working in businesses.”

This female director also emphasized that training facilities should not rush to follow targets and economic benefits and neglect training quality.

“Before and during training, it is necessary to consider the students’ qualities to have a suitable career orientation. For example, the current height requirement for female receptionists is 1m60 or more, but many students who come to recruit are very short. Why, right from the training stage, the school does not advise students to switch to housekeeping, restaurant, and kitchen jobs, instead of spending years studying and then graduating without meeting the minimum recruitment requirements of the business?” - Ms. Huong questioned.

Many hotel receptionists in Nghe An are not properly trained. Photo for illustration.

Agreeing with this opinion, Mr. Vo Hong Sang - General Director of Thai Son International Travel Joint Stock Company shared that through the recruitment records for the tourism major at the enterprise in the past time, it shows that most of the students have zero tour operation capacity and very limited practical professional skills.

Similarly, a representative of Vinpearl Cua Hoi also reflected the current situation of tourism students in Nghe An being weak in foreign languages. “The profession can be retrained, but foreign languages ​​are very difficult because they require a foundation and a system. Currently, the staff at Vinpearl Cua Hoi are former students of training institutions in Nghe An, but they are not fluent in foreign languages ​​and cannot communicate with foreign guests,” said this representative.

"Please" businesses let teachers come to learn a trade

Acknowledging that this situation is real and that the quality of training has improved over time but still cannot keep up with the needs and requirements of businesses, Master Hoang Van Hieu - Deputy Head of the Faculty of Culture and Tourism, College of Culture and Arts shared: "The current difficulty is that even the teaching staff lacks practical experience, and their teaching knowledge is heavily theoretical. They teach students to do things, but have teachers ever done any practical work?"

Master Hoang Van Hieu frankly expressed his wish and was welcomed by many businesses present at the conference: "We want to ask for support from businesses, to let school teachers come to work to gain practical experience. We must re-understand the current training foundation that only with good skills can we train a profession."

Food preparation practice hour at Nghe An College of Tourism and Commerce. Photo courtesy

Sharing the same opinion with Master Hieu, Dr. Hac Xuan Canh - Deputy Director of the Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vinh University, said that in the coming time, training institutions and businesses need to strengthen their connection. They should even aim for schools to train according to orders from businesses, which will be close to recruitment needs and ensure "output" for students after graduation.

At the conference, the leaders of the Department of Tourism also shared a lot of information about the current situation and human resource needs, as well as data on tourism growth in the province. Listening to and analyzing opinions at the conference, the leaders of the Department suggested that training institutions pay attention to innovating teaching programs, improving the quality of teaching staff, inviting experienced experts working at tourism businesses in or outside the province to participate in teaching to help students stay closer to reality...

On the part of businesses, it is necessary to promote business activities towards intra-provincial tourism; increase competitiveness by improving service quality. The leaders of the Department of Tourism affirmed that in the coming time, they will continue to promote and advertise tourism; organize to welcome domestic and international famtrip and presstrip groups; strengthen state management of travel activities, tour guides and tourist accommodation.

Director of the Department of Tourism awarded certificates of merit to the winners at the 2018 National Hotel Room Service Competition. Photo: Phuoc Anh

On this occasion, the Department of Tourism also awarded certificates of merit to the winners of the 2018 National Hotel Room Service Competition./.

As of August 2018, the province's tourism workforce was approximately 15,000 people, but only about 60% of them were trained in tourism.

According to the Department of Tourism, although there has been much progress, the rate of workers with specialized training in tourism is still low; there is a lack of small and medium-sized hotel management teams, travel managers, professional tour guides, interpreters and workers with good foreign languages, good professional skills, high skills... Meanwhile, according to the planning target, by 2020, the demand for direct tourism workers will be 16,000 - 17,000 people, requiring 12,000 - 15,000 trained hotel workers.