Welcome to the 8th edition of Service Worx e-newsletter.

Managing the Generational Change: Young People in Hospitality and Tourism

The Tourism and Hospitality Workforce Development Strategy, adopted by all sectors of the Industry, has identified the management of the Generational Change as a key issue that needs to be addressed. The industry not only needs to manage the impact of an aging population leaving the workforce, but respond to the work preferences of a younger generation. At the strategic level there is the need to ensure that the knowledge and leadership of the Baby Boomers is effectively transferred to the emerging Generation X managers, and the commencing Generation Y employees.

The emerging ‘Generation Y’ employee (those born from 1978–1994) is widely cited as a workforce challenge that employers will need to meet. It is this age group that provides a significant part of the traditional tourism workforce and this generation has significantly different expectations of the workplace than previous generations. Industry initiatives such as Discover Hospitality and Discover Tourism are making a concerted effort to improve its current image and brand to present itself as a career choice to this group. The campaign has considered the vocational motivations to Gen Y (among other target groups) and will, in its approach, appeal to this area of potential labour supply.

The challenge for the industry is to inspire the many secondary students that are employed in hospitality positions as weekend and part-time jobs to consider tourism and hospitality as a career option. Because of the casual job opportunities for secondary students, hospitality is the second most popular area of vocational education after retail. Despite this popularity, focus groups held with year 11 and 12 students studying the lower level Tourism (Operations) Certificate II and Hospitality (Operations) Certificate I and II found that the majority of students did not consider the industry as a long-term career choice.

It is apparent that while there were opportunities to work in hospitality, students are not being exposed to experiences that would encourage them to consider further tourism and hospitality studies. It was also found that:

Both years 11 and 12 tourism and hospitality students had a good practical understanding of the industry they were studying;
A major reason given for undertaking the hospitality and tourism certificate was that it would assist them to get a job when traveling overseas;
Approximately 30% of students identified that they may consider or would go on to do additional hospitality and tourism study

The industry acknowledges that while school-based vocational education exposes students to opportunities in the tourism industry, the industry needs to engage more with students and offer experiences that may lead to further study and employment.

Secondary school teachers and parents are keys in influencing students’ study and work choices. Any strategies aimed at secondary student must also ensure that appropriate information about opportunities the industry affords is available to them.