The employability of students within the hospitality industry is a debatable topic, the younger generation can offer a variety of new skills to a business, however due to their youth students lack experience in many areas of industry meaning they will need to be trained at the cost of their employer.
Many new recruits into the hotel industry are at an operative level, meaning there are high levels of manual, unskilled workers within the industry. Students will be classed as these unskilled workers as they will probably have had no experience working in the industry. However they offer other skills to a potential employer, students are more likely to accept lower levels of pay and work longer hours, also due to the recent recession employers are more likely to employ students as they are cheaper to employ and can be trained whilst working, whereas it would be more expensive to hire fully trained staff with experience. Also the amount of young people attending university is increasing every year and due to the recent recession parents will be less able to support their children while they are at university and the lack of student grants means that more and more students will be looking for part time work in order to support themselves, this means there is a large cheap workforce available to employers.
Many employers see students as good potential employees as they are quick learners and willing to follow instructions, they are also seen as good communicators and intelligent. (People and the hotel and catering industry 1984). However customers may have a negative view on the employment of a large amount of students in such a professional industry. Customers will always have a high expectation of service in a hotel environment and they may be dissatisfied when being served by students who have had little training, as they are expecting a good quality service. Managers have to understand that although students appear to be an unlimited cheap labour force they will lack experience and will need training in order for their business to maintain a high standard of service and a good reputation amongst its customers.
References
Andrew Lockwood and Peter jones (1984) People and the the hotel and catering industry
Many new recruits into the hotel industry are at an operative level, meaning there are high levels of manual, unskilled workers within the industry. Students will be classed as these unskilled workers as they will probably have had no experience working in the industry. However they offer other skills to a potential employer, students are more likely to accept lower levels of pay and work longer hours, also due to the recent recession employers are more likely to employ students as they are cheaper to employ and can be trained whilst working, whereas it would be more expensive to hire fully trained staff with experience. Also the amount of young people attending university is increasing every year and due to the recent recession parents will be less able to support their children while they are at university and the lack of student grants means that more and more students will be looking for part time work in order to support themselves, this means there is a large cheap workforce available to employers.
Many employers see students as good potential employees as they are quick learners and willing to follow instructions, they are also seen as good communicators and intelligent. (People and the hotel and catering industry 1984). However customers may have a negative view on the employment of a large amount of students in such a professional industry. Customers will always have a high expectation of service in a hotel environment and they may be dissatisfied when being served by students who have had little training, as they are expecting a good quality service. Managers have to understand that although students appear to be an unlimited cheap labour force they will lack experience and will need training in order for their business to maintain a high standard of service and a good reputation amongst its customers.
References
Andrew Lockwood and Peter jones (1984) People and the the hotel and catering industry
