Expert canvasses creation of hotel finishing schools

Vice President/Executive Secretary, Nigerian Hotel and Catering Institute (NHCI), Victor Kayode has called for the establishment of hotel finishing schools where experts in the hospitality industry could be finally groomed for improved service delivery.

Speaking at the 7th AKWAABA Africa travel and tourism market conference held in recently Lagos, Kayode said the creation of such a school would enable good and outstanding professionals in the hospitality industry.

He said the hotel finishing school would be designed to accommodate graduates of hospitality management who would undergo practical studies of the profession to become experts.

According to him, graduates of hospitality management in Nigeria are not doing well at the workplace, lacking the required skills to compete favourably with their colleagues in developed countries.

He explained, “Just like the lawyers after 5 years in the university go to law school where they become experts and the medical doctors undergo one-year horsemanship, the hospitality industry also needed a hotel finishing school.”

Kayode stressed that the hospitality industry needed the hotel finishing school to tackle the problem of unprofessionalism, quackery in the industry and encourage embracing global best practices.

“Hoteliers must come together to establish a hotel finishing school were graduates of hospitality management could be further trained to become experts.

However, the school will focus on intensive practical training for the graduates to understand the technicalities of the hospitality industry.

“It is unfortunate that currently, 80 per cent of the workforce in the hospitality industry do not have the conceptual understanding of the industry, finding it difficult to excel.

“The hospitality industry is not a comfort zone because practitioners are consistently meant to satisfy people, it is a call to service, this and a whole lot the practitioners in the industry do not know.

“It is an industry that requires patience and perseverance for an individual to succeed,” he said.

Kayode noted that overzealousness on the path of the leader, leader and staff distance, lack of time management and more were factors that lead to failure in the hospitality industry.

In the same vein, the first deputy president, Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN), Alhaji Aliu Badaki said that for the hospitality industry to be properly sanitised, hospitality workers must undergo training on all aspects of the hospitality value chain.

Badaki said a hotel manager must be known well enough to be able to work as a housekeeper, a caterer, a customer relations officer and all.