How Learning To Serve Tourists Is Shifting Careers | Miami Herald
By Chabeli Herrera
The tourism industry, South Florida’s top employer, was for decades perceived as a low-income job factory, producing hoards of housekeepers, servers and front desk attendants but few senior-track positions.
But in the last 10 years, tourism leaders have led a concerted push to catapult the industry into a producer of middle- and high-income jobs. In South Florida, where the industry has boomed since the recession in 2008, steep competition among new hotels, restaurants and other offerings have also led employers to seek trained, qualified employees for all levels of hospitality positions.
Together, the two factors have created a paradigm shift in how hospitality is taught, the diversity of educational options and the fervor with which students have re-invested in the industry.
The enhanced programs promise to develop students with a wide range of skills, who will be able to compete in South Florida’s cut-throat tourism environment.
Today’s students expect to graduate with a career, not a ticket to a low-paying job.
And they have more options than ever. For instance:
- Florida International University’s Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management reintroduced its travel and tourism management major two years ago after a 15-year hiatus, in addition to five other hospitality majors.
- Miami-Dade County Public School’s Academy of Hospitality and Tourism has grown from offering courses at three high schools to 15 schools across the county.
- Johnson & Wales University’s North Miami campus is now the school’s second largest, behind its campus in Providence, Rhode Island. It offers South Florida’s only baking & pastry arts & food service management major, and career fairs are sold out, with more employers coming every year to hire students predominantly for hospitality positions.
- Broward College’s associate’s degree in hospitality and tourism management has grown from 30 students in 2010 to about 200 this year, offering broader scheduling options and courses for students who work in the industry and also take classes.
- Miami Dade College also offers the Hospitality Institute, a free Overtown-based tourism training program that prepares students seeking entry-level positions.
