Demands of training: Australian tourism and hospitality

The tourism and hospitality industry is an important industry to Australia. In 1995-96 the industry employed more than 694 000 Australians, nearly 8.4 per cent of the Australian workforce. It provides employment and opportunities for development throughout Australia's metropolitan and regional centres. This report examines key issues regarding the training of those Australians employed in the tourism and hospitality industry.

An efficient demand-driven training system relies on the accurate analysis of industry and enterprise needs, and the subsequent communication of these needs to training providers and the community. The system has many benefits, including the enhanced employability of persons completing training, the facilitation of enterprise recruitment processes resulting from the increased availability of appropriately trained staff, and the development of more responsive and creative training providers. These benefits are, in turn, passed on to the tourism and hospitality industry.

The key findings from the study were:

• Policy-makers and stakeholders generally believe that increased training will lead to increased profitability for the tourism and hospitality industry. However, there are still sections of the industry which are not directly committed to maintaining or upgrading the skill levels of workers.

• Tourism and hospitality enterprises do not greatly value formal training acquired by individuals prior to their employment in the industry. The number of persons employed in the industry with formal educational qualifications is relatively low by comparison to other industries. Tourism and hospitality enterprises value training for its direct application to the operation of the enterprise.

• Enterprises go to considerable effort to ensure that the persons they employ have the necessary personal attributes to contribute to the success of the enterprise. Employers are more interested in recruiting people who are willing to work the hours required in the industry than those with current skills. Consequently, most training provided by the enterprises is on the job and informal, to provide enterprise and location-specific skills.

• There has been a shift in the extent and type of training conducted by enterprises within the tourism and hospitality industry. While the total training effort has increased, there remains a significant waste of resources and effort, principally in the development of skills that the industry claims that it does not require.

The study concludes that the characteristics of the enterprise?the range of occupations, scale of the enterprise, and its location?all contribute to the variation in skill requirements and suitable training methods. Pre-vocational training and the attainment of qualifications are only important for some sections of the tourism and hospitality industry; personal skills and personal attributes are more important than technical skills for people wanting to enter the tourism and hospitality workforce. Flexible training arrangements available in a demand-driven training market are required if the tourism and hospitality industry and enterprises within it are to continue to develop.