The Sunday News
Rumbidzai Mbewe Business Correspondent
PLAYERS in the tourism and hospitality sectors have appealed to training institutions around the country to improve the quality of students they send for attachment.
The institutions have been blamed for sending poor quality students who do not exhibit any knowledge of the industry.
In an interview with Sunday Business, Stanley and Livingstone Safari general manager, Mr Vincent Makamure, said the quality of some students they were getting was below industry expectations and that the students were not well nurtured.
“I am not really sure why these students are failing to perform at work. One begins to wonder if it could be the teaching they are getting from their institutions or they just do not want to apply the theory they are taught at schools into the practical tasks,” Mr Makamure said.
Mr Makamure said graduates from the training institutions did not show that they were coming from school as they not only lacked confidence in themselves but were also not willing to learn from people who have been there before them.
“Being confident and comfortable is key when you are in the tourism and hospitality sector because it assures your customers that they are in the right hands. This is the quality that most of the students seem to not have. They seem not to grasp what other experienced people in the industry are doing,” he said.
Mr Jonathan Hudson, the general manager of Victoria Falls Safari Lodge, expressed the same sentiments and said the quality of students they were getting was a concern as some students did not know the ethics of their work.
He said presentation mattered in the hospitality and tourism sector as it gives out the first impressions of a person and the environment that he or she lives in.
“These students should understand ethics before coming to work in hotels. Some come to work dressed inappropriately which then becomes a challenge to us,” he said.
Mr Hudson said students needed to understand work ethics when they were still at school so that it becomes easier for them when they get into the industry. He said students needed to be taught basics such as cleanliness of hair and even nails.
“Some of the students lack basics such as how their hair should be and since some handle food, it is important that they have clean short nails. No one wants to be attended to by someone who looks clumsy,” he said.
However, Elephant Hills resort general manager, Mr Trythings Mutyandasvika, said the blame could not be entirely put on the students coming for attachment but said there was a need to look at how some of the people who have been there before them were behaving.
“Some of the senior staff in our hotels are the reason why these students are performing in a bad way. These children are not finding the right people to show them the correct route to go when they join the hospitality and tourism sector,” he said.
Mr Mutyandasvika said there was a need to engage proper people and talk about the way these students were performing rather than giving them a hard time. He said it was also important that these students find good mentors who are going to groom them to be better people at the work place.
“Being hard on them will not change the way they are performing but correcting them and showing them the right thing to do is most important. Some of the people these children work with are old enough to be their parents, brothers or sisters and so we have to play that advisory role when we are around them,” he said.
The director of the School of Hospitality and Tourism in Bulawayo, Mr Innocent Nezungai, said their institution deployed 160 students and all of them were back and they did not receive any complaints.
He said that their students were living up to expectations.
“I am not denying that there might be some students who are not doing well but all I am saying is that our institution has not received any complaints as of yet. This feedback, therefore, communicates to us that our students are doing well,” he said.
Mr Nezungai said their students were trained practically before they go out for industrial attachment. He said their students take part in some of the events that their institution hosts which gives them the practical side and prepares them for attachments.
“Some institutions might not have sufficient capacity to give their students the feel of the industry they are going into. Ours is a different situation because we have a full structure for our students and they are groomed well enough before attachment,” he said.
