INTRODUCTION
Upon graduating from high school, we come to a moment wherein we undergo another chapter of our student life, college, wherein we decide and choose the path we want to take to in order to achieve our goals. We choose among different courses, but it is our willingness and desire that helps us in deciding on which one we will take part. As for us, we chose Bachelor of Science in Hotel and Restaurant Management (BSHRM) for different reasons. Some might say they want to become the manager of their own food and beverage business or they might want to become a part of a cruise ship to explore the world.
Hotel and restaurant management are bundled together and known as the hospitality industry. Hospitality was derived from the French word “hospice”, which means to take care of those travelling and provide for the weary. That is why the program contains subjects that will address the needs of different sectors in the hospitality industry, such as culinary, front office, tourism, and in resort and hotel operations. Its primary concentration is on the development of practical and management skills which are achieved through the combination of theoretical classes, practicum
exercises and experiential learning. There are no specific skills required for BSHRM because everything can be learned. However, you need to possess certain attitudes and qualities for you to succeed in this course. First, you have to be comfortable giving service to others. This means that you enjoy and take pride in your work. Secondly, you must be approachable and friendly while maintaining professionalism. Most importantly, you have to be an effective communicator, both in written and oral English.
You will meet and provide service to different people of different nationalities, to eliminate the language barrier, you have to speak English well enough to be understood. Hotel and restaurant managers improve the profitability of their businesses by ensuring quality control and a pleasant experience for their customers. They work with employees to provide a smoothly functioning system within the hotel or restaurant. Managers must have supervisory, administrative and marketing skills, and must have a thorough understanding of finance management to operate the business effectively.
And in order to obtain those qualities, one must undergo long hours of study and several days to harness his skills. One way of improving one’s skills is participating in course-related activities. Course-related activities are programs, seminars and trainings offered by the school to their students to further enhance their skills, broaden their knowledge about their course and prepare them for their future careers. Example of course-related activities for BSHRM students are hotel familiarity and its functions, culinary experience, travel tours, etc.
participating in course-related activities gives the students their impressions about their career, the environment where they will work and the processes and tasks done in their job. This also let them prepare more and find out the field wherein they excel most and also to look for the things they think they need to put more attention to improve it. And by doing so, this would lead to a big advantage among others when the time comes that they will be looking for their own jobs for they already have a background of the career they’ve chosen. The foregoing discussions provide the rationale of this study.
The researchers believe that participation in course-related activities during their academic years will assure their chance of being employed in the future. Hence, they deem it necessary to undertake this study to determine the effects of course-related activities on the future employment of BSHRM students. Thus, the title, “EFFECTIVENESS OF COURSE-RELATED ACTIVITIES TO FUTURE EMPLOYMENT IN THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY AS PERCEIVED BY THE BSHRM STUDENTS”, was undertaken. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM This study aims to analyze the effects of course-related activities in the future employment in the hospitality industry of BSHRM students.
Specially, it seeks to answer the following questions: 1. How may the respondents be described in terms of: 1. 1 age, 1. 2 gender, 1. 3 civil status, 1. 4 parent’s educational attainment 1. 5 parent’s occupation 1. 6 average family incomes 1. 7 respondent’s general weighted average 1. 8 NC2 passed 2. What are the different course-related activities conducted in Colegio de Sta. Teresa de Avila? 3. What are the benefits derived from participating in course-related activities? 4. What are the problems encountered by students in accordance to course- related activities? 5.
What recommendations were given by the respondents regarding course- related activities? ASSUMPTIONS This study is guided by the following assumptions: 1. That all information gathered during the research is true and reliable. 2. That the respondents utilized in this research is enough representatives of the categories under study. 3. That compliance and participation in course-related activities will develop the competency skills of BSHRM students. 4. That the participation in course-related activities will facilitate the students to develop themselves in order to find lucrative job in the future.
5. That the results of the study will help improve the school’s implementation of it’s course-related activities that will facilitate the development of student’s knowledge and skills in Hospitality Industry. SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS The findings and the results of the study will only be limited to those students who have participated in the course-related activities of Bachelor of Science in Hotel and Restaurant Management (BSHRM), from first year to fourth year, that are enrolled in Colegio de Sta. Teresa De Avila (CSTA) for the academic year 2013-2014.
The school is located at 6 Kingfisher Corner, Skylark Street, Zabarte Subdivision, Novaliches, Quezon City. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The fact that course-related activities influences motivation and performance of students and affects their rate of being employed in the future, the results of this study could not be underestimated and deemed beneficial to the following: Hospitality Industry leaders/managers, that they may design programs and trainings for students and would-be leaders in the hospitality industry to further enhance their performance in their field of expertise. Colegio de Sta.
Teresa de Avila Administrators, for them to be aware of the things they need to improve on their course-related activities in the field of Hotel and Restaurant Management. Hotel and Restaurant Management Faculty, for them to share reliable information regarding Hotel and Restaurant Management and further improve the student’s knowledge to develop not only their competency skills but also their attitude and vision towards Hospitality Industry. Parents, that they may realize the importance and the benefits derived from their children’s participation in course-related activities for their future career.
Students, the direct beneficiates of course-related activities, for the findings may help them realize the importance, knowledge they will acquire, and skills they will develop in participating in course-related activities. Future researchers, that they may find this research reliable as a reference for related topics and information to further elaborate their ideas towards their own topics. DEFINITION OF TERMS For purpose of clarity, the following terms has been operationally defined. Competence refers to one’s proficiency, capability and efficiency.
Course-related activities refers to programs, seminars and trainings offered by the school to their students to further enhance their skills, broaden their knowledge about their course and prepare them for their future careers. Hospitality is the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors or strangers with liberality and good will. Hospitality Industry leaders or managers are persons who lead or manage hospitality industry institutions like schools directed towards a goal. Hotel and Restaurant Management refers to professional supervision techniques used in the hospitality industry.
Leadership is a way of assisting a group to move towards certain goal. Motivation is the inside and outside forces that tend an individual to give his best. CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES This chapter contains various literatures and studies, both local and foreign, which are relevant to the present study. These related materials will be gathered from books, magazines, pamphlets, newspapers, articles from the internet, unpublished theses, dissertation and other reading materials that may be of relevance to the study being taken.
This chapter also includes the theoretical framework/conceptual framework and the relevance of the reviewed literature and studies to the present study. LOCAL LITERATURE The Hotel and Restaurant Management course deals with the study of hotel and restaurant principles. The students shall be introduced in tourism, preparation, bartending, table skirting, bed making, house management, quantity of food and beverage management, quantity of food production, international cuisine, meal management and catering, baking, restaurant and hotel management, and techniques in managing the hotel operation.
To be competitive enough in the global arena, one must be prepare for a world characterized by the fast-paced changes in technology and in the increasing demand for better-educated, well-trained, highly skilled, and good values and attitude workers. One of the many challenges for the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) is to mount aggressive and continuous advocacy, research and development activities by providing technology-based education and training preparing for the skills by the global market of the 21st century, “We have to produce educe college graduates.
We realize that we need to produce and prepare a new group of thinkers with the educated Filipino graduates, as its basic elements. Stressing further, teachers must need to take a new role. They should be a multi-skilled professional who is highly competent in different fields. In any teaching activity, objective is necessary. These instructional objectives should be appropriate with the instructor resources and should match with the required tasks. . It is imperative to be evaluated and properly validated to enhance greater and
more learning, for the development of the learner’s potential and ability, especially for the graduates to be employed easily. On the other hand, the schools course-related activities towards the course also affects to productivity of their students and graduates. Through these activities, the student’s ability to perform is affected in many ways, such as the familiarization to their career, orientation to the tasks and procedures done in their job and the enhancement of their skills in order to be a productive individual in the Hospitality Industry.
Timpug (2012), president of the Council of Hotel and Restaurant Management Students (CHRMS), stated that their council shall establish better mutual understanding, good fellowship and unity among its member for implementation of activities necessary for the total development and the cultivation of their intellectual, social and spiritual interest to maintain the dignity and the professional ethics of the Hotel and Restaurant Management students.
Livingstone (2009), a reporter for ABS-CBN mentioned that individuals who wish to pursue a career in hotel and restaurant industry can get their training at various schools in the Philippines. Some of the career opportunities in the industry include restaurant operations manager, executive housekeeper, front office manager, caterer and business owner. According to CHED Memorandum Order No. 30, Series 2006 Article 3 Section 6.
1 B (2006), hotel and restaurant attendants applies basic techniques in performing prescribed range of specific functions in the areas of Food and Beverage, Front Office, and Housekeeping Operations as required in accommodation, food and beverages enterprises; undertakes planning and initiation of alternative approaches to skills and knowledge applications across a broad range of technical and procedural requirements. The Associate Hotel and Restaurant Management program (AHRM, 2007) provides knowledge and skills in guest-satisfying procedures, housekeeping techniques and sanitation procedures.
It aims to produce graduates who are competent and efficient in understanding the guest needs, making reservations, hotel maintenance and control procedures as well as in complaint handling. Santos (2007), mentioned in a forum on his blog that jobseekers who managed to undergo seminars and activities related to Hospitality Industry had a higher rate of being hired in hotels, restaurants and other related jobs because they already have a background of the job and it would mean less expense to the company hiring because they won’t need to spend money for trainings.
According to Alfornon (2009), experience really is a big factor that helps boost and motivate a certain individual towards his career. The Skills Certificate Equivalency Program (SCEP) is a collaborative partnership between TESDA and the Civil Service Commission, which aims to grant civil service eligibility to government skilled workers. It involves the issuance of TESDA Competency Certificates (NC or COC) to those who shall successfully demonstrate competence in specific qualifications.
A National Certificate (NC) is issued when a candidate has demonstrated competence in all units of competency that comprised a Qualification. Certificate of Competency (COC) is issued to individuals who have satisfactorily demonstrated competence on a particular cluster of units if competency. Such certificates shall be provided equivalent eligibility by the CSC. Examples of programs which offers certificates to HRM students by TESDA are: Front Office NC II (FOS-NCII) provides knowledge, skills and attitude in office service based on the standards set by the enterprise.
The program includes the basic, common and specialized core competencies. The FOS-NCII program trains students in providing club reception services, manual or computerized receiving and processing of reservations, as well as online reservation. Housekeeping NC II provides trainees with competencies in preparing guest rooms, clean premises and equipment, laundry linen and guest clothes and other housekeeping in hotels/motels, clubs, hospitals, resorts, dormitories, and luxury liners.
Commercial Cooking NC II provides trainees with competencies that are required for culinary arts and sciences sets ups such as cleaning kitchen areas, cook hot and cold meals for guests in hotels, motels, restaurants, clubs, canteens, resorts, and luxury liners. Food and Beverage Services NC II provides trainees with competencies required in providing food and beverage services and waiter services to guests. NC II programs being administered here in CSTA are as follows: 1. Front Office Services 2. Housekeeping Procedures 3. Food and Beverage Services 4.
Bartending Procedures 5. Tour Guiding 6. Commercial Cooking FOREIGN LITERATURE According to Powers and Barrows, a successful manager must exhibit many skill and command much specialized knowledge, all directed at achieving a variety of management objectives. There are 3 general kinds of hospitality objectives with which management must be concerned: 1. A manager wants to make the guest feel welcome. This requires both a friendly manner on your part toward the guest and an atmosphere of liberality and good will among the people who work with you in serving the guest.
That always translates to an organization in which workers get along well with another. 2. Manager’s want to make things work for the guests. Food has to be savory, hot or cold according to design, and on time. Beds must be made and rooms are cleaned. A hospitality system requires a lot of work, and the manager must see that it is done. 3. A manager wants to make sure that operation will continue to provide service while also making profit. Drucker (1999) stated that “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things”. Stirtz (2003) quoted that, “Choose to deliver amazing service to your customer.
You’ll stand out because they don’t get it anywhere else”. Falmiro (1994) asserted during the national congress a technical and vocational education that workers only became confident and empowered if they are trained. “Workers must have the right knowledge and skills to enable them to become the best in their chosen fields”. It is assumed to have some basic skills which may be obtained mostly from formal education in schools as well as from experience. Based on Peddle (2000), employers questioned the success of higher education programs in developing employability skills of graduates.
Employability skills are skills that are basic and generic in nature, but are very valuable in every person entering the workforce. Some people may refer to employability skills as “Core Skills”, “Key Skills”, ”Transferrable Skills”, “General Skills”, and “Soft Skills” (Hofstrand, 1996; Robinson, 2006) CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK According to Peddle (2000) employers questioned the success of higher education programs in developing employability skills of graduates. Stirtz (2001) quoted that, “Choose to deliver amazing service to your customers. You’ll stand out because they don’t get it from anywhere else”.
RELEVANCE OF THE RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES The related literature and studies that are included in this research contains information related to the topic and this will give the readers more knowledge from various foreign and local persons in the Hotel and Restaurant Management. The authors of the information gathered were of big help to our thesis for it helped us further understand and explain the reason why we should continue working on with our research. The researchers formulated ideas in which we think would serve as a guide for future readers and researchers. CONCEPTUAL PARADIGM INPUT * Respondents Profile
* School’s existing course-related Activities (NC II, seminars, tours, etc. ) PROCESS * Survey * Interview * Formulation of questionnaires regarding the study OUTPUT * A more comprehensive understanding about the benefits of participating in the school’s course-related activities. CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This chapter visualizes the techniques and methods that will be utilized by the researchers in completing this study. This chapter contains: research design, respondents, instruments, and techniques to be use in the study like questionnaire, interviews, and observation which will be discussed in the latter part of this chapter.
RESEARCH DESIGN The researchers will use the descriptive method of this study. The descriptive method is used to describe characteristics of a population being studied. It does not answer the questions about how/when/why the characteristics occurred. Rather it answers the “what” question. RESPONDENTS OF THE STUDY The respondents of the study will be HRM students in CSTA, enrolled in the academic year 2013, regardless of year level. SAMPLING TECHNIQUE In order to gather the necessary information needed for the research, the researchers will use random sampling by using the fish bowl technique in selected BSHRM students of Colegio de Sta.
Teresa de Avila, from 1st year to 4th year. The researcher will randomly choose names of students using the fish bowl technique that will be evaluated and answer the desired questionnaire to be able to cope up the results RESEARCH INSTRUMENT To gather the necessary data needed for the study, the following instruments were used. 1. Questionnaire The questionnaire will be used to answer the questions given in the problems stated. Part 1 will determine the profile of the respondent which includes, age, gender, civil status, parent’s educational attainment, parent’s occupation, average family income, general weighted average, and NC II passed.
2. Survey Survey is the secondary source of data and will be used to answer the questions detailed on the statement of the problem page. This way, we will be able to get a more factual data. 3. Observation Observation will be used to have a direct and indirect approach to where the study will take place. CONSTRUCTION OF THE INSTRUMENTS Careful deliberations and meetings will be made to come up with a very good survey and questionnaire which will serve as a tool for the researchers to be able to answer the stated problems.
The researchers will conduct surveys through questionnaire, reading of related books, search the web and seek the help of adviser to check the questions to be able to determine opportunities before creating the final draft. VALIDATION OF INSTRUMENTS The final draft of the questionnaire will then be validated to the students of Hotel and Restaurant Management who are not included in the actual study. The purpose of validation is to find out if there are terminologies and questions that need revisions for better understanding of the target to produce great results.
The responses will be carefully examined before the final instrument will be completed. ADMINISTRATION AND RETRIEVAL The researchers will write a letter to the school’s dean of HRM department, asking for permission to distribute the questionnaire to the target respondents. After having granted permission, the researcher floated the questionnaire and was able to retrieve the filled in copies 100 percent. STATISTICAL TREATMENT To interpret information that was gathered from the survey, the researchers will use the following formula: Frequency distribution and percentage P = (20%/210 x 100) Wherein:
F = frequency N = population P = percentage This utilized the number indicating the relative position of an individual score per 100, scores ranged in a graded series. 1. Weighted Mean Weighted mean used to get the average or central value. It will be computed based on the formula below: X=? fx Where: X = weighted mean ? fx = sum of all the products ? f = sum of all respondents 2. Ranking This utilized the rank of the responses according to the degree of their response as 1,2,3,4,5. 1 Excellent (E) 2 Very Satisfactory (VS) 3 Satisfactory (S) 4 Needs Improvement (NI) 5 Unsatisfactory (US)
