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- "Rota dos Sabores" – simulation-based learning in Tourism, Hospitality and Catering education and trainingPublication . Melo, António; Melo, Carla; Vasconcelos, SandraCurrent society and the labour market value and demand that people have the ability to work in teams and be creative, innovative and adaptable to new situations. Having become increasingly important in education, these skills are particularly relevant within the tourism, hospitality and catering fields, which traditionally rely heavily on practical teaching and learning approaches, focusing on real-world issues and skills that reflect the professional scenarios and challenges of future graduates. Drawing from these premises, this paper will describe ‘Rota dos Sabores’, a student-organized gastronomic event taking place in the last semester of the degree in Catering and Restaurant Management. Aiming to enhance students’ creativity, teamwork, collaborative skills, and their ability to adapt to new situations, this event combines both soft and technical skills (e.g., event organisation and management), at the same time it helps students broaden their international gastronomic culture, being leveraged by structured practical training and work simulation approaches. Based on desk research, observation and content analysis (resulting from questionnaires applied to the students and event participants), this paper aims to frame the activities carried out, crosscutting different perspectives as to establish the importance of collaboration and teamwork in shaping the future careers of hospitality graduates. In addition to describing the different event stages and its implementation, the authors will reflect on students’ overall performance and feedback as crucial components of teaching and learning experiences. As a result, this paper is expected to contribute to the development of new training and inform future simulation-based activities in this area.
- CEDH - a lifelong learning program to improve hotel managers pathsPublication . Melo, António; Vasconcelos, Sandra; Melo, CarlaDue to the growth of the industry, hospitality professionals, and most particularly hotel managers, are increasingly being challenged to develop new skills and adapt to operational challenges, new trends of services, facing the ever-changing labour market, requiring them to be more flexible, creative, resilient and focused on recovery (the latter having become paramount in the post-COVID era). Following the end of regulated access to the profession of Hotel Manager, in 2013, the Portuguese Hotel Managers Association (ADHP), created a short specialization course in Hotel Management (CEDH), to contribute to the valorisation of the function of Hotel Director and promote lifelong learning (LLL). By combining academic expertise (through the involvement of experts and higher education professors) and practical know-how (through the participation of highly skilled and experienced professionals), CEDH aims to improve lifelong learning within the scope of Portuguese hospitality. Framed by a literature review, the data was collected through a survey with closed and open questions, aiming to identify: i) overall strengths and weaknesses; ii) suggestions for improvement; and iii) perceived impact in participants career path. In addition to describing the rationale behind the program and its implementation, this paper will address the affordances and potential of lifelong learning in hospitality education, based on participants’ initial expectations and final perceptions. It is expected to further advance recent research in LLL practices in hospitality education, as well as provide a plan of action to be reflected on the program’s next editions, as well as on other similar initiatives and projects.
- Learning by doing: fostering tourism students’ soft skills through interdisciplinarity and collaborationPublication . Vasconcelos, Sandra; Melo, Carla; Melo, António; Liberato, DáliaHaving a strong affinity and interdependence with a wide range of sectors and industries, tourism is, by nature, an interdisciplinary field. However, despite this realization, there are still different barriers to the development of interdisciplinary research and active collaborative projects within Tourism Higher Education. In addition to these barriers, there is also a disarticulation between tourism curricula and what practitioners perceive as being key skills within the industry. Hence, as the context in which the tourist activity takes place becomes more competitive, resulting in a pressing need for skilled and multifaceted professionals, educational institutions and tourism educators are increasingly being challenged to overcome these barriers and come up with creative projects that can help bridge the gap between academia and the labour market. Aiming to describe an interdisciplinary project focusing on soft skills within different tourism subsectors, this paper will draw on a literature review, project outputs and two questionnaires, as to describe its implementation and overall results. Mostly based on students’ perceptions and determining whether they are aligned with the industry’s current demands and expectations, in addition to a general description, it will crosscut different perspectives, analysing the importance attributed to soft skills by students and prospective employers. Deriving from this analysis and the project’s scope, the authors will also put forward a reflection regarding the impact of the project on not only student’s perceptions regarding soft skills, but also on the affordances of the project to develop transversal competences, making a case for other innovative initiatives. As a result, the final section of the paper will include references to lessons learnt and future research directions.
- Soft skills in action: developing tourism students skills through interdisciplinarityPublication . Vasconcelos, Sandra; Melo, António; Melo, Carla; Liberato, Dália; Lopes, Maria CarlosTourism research has highlighted the strategic need to identify and assess relevant skills for the sector to ensure organizations’ competitiveness. Describing an interdisciplinary project carried out at the School of Hospitality and Tourism (Polytechnic Institute of Porto), this paper aims to contribute to the ongoing debate on the importance of soft skills in the tourism industry and the role played by higher education institutions and tourism education in promoting their development. Working toward bridging the gap between academia and the labor market, this project covered five different courses and challenged students to write research papers, drawing from interviews with stakeholders from different tourism subsectors. Making use of a collaborative approach, based on complementarity and field work, the project succeeded, exceeding initial expectations and enhancing participants’ teaching and learning experiences. In addition to being aligned with current trends in tourism education, it also provides valuable insights on the affordances and attainability of interdisciplinarity, ultimately informing further joint initiatives within this scope.
- Shaping the new normal: Portuguese hotel and event managers’ reactions to COVID-19Publication . Melo, Carla; Melo, António; Vasconcelos, Sandra; Meneses, DanielaThe COVID-19 pandemic has created a worldwide crisis, which has had an impact on all economic sectors, having transformed social and consumption patterns. This crisis has been particularly difficult for the tourism industry, with uncertainty and the emergence of new consumer profiles and demands prompting swift reactions from policymakers and stakeholders. Focussing on two sub-sectors of the Portuguese tourism industry – hospitality and events – this paper aims to identify the most relevant concerns and Crisis Management Strategies adopted in each of these sectors in the early stages of the pandemic, putting forward a multi-layered analysis, juxtaposing the different challenges faced by managers and how they were approached. Based on previous studies and on 14 semi-structured interviews with hotel and event managers, the authors adopted an exploratory qualitative approach as to record and categorize the interviewees’ perceptions, having established the transversal importance of resilience, flexibility, and technology for each sector’s recovery. Moreover, taking into account the singularity of each setting, the authors were also able to identify more specific sectorial categories, which have had an effect on both the decision-making and future outlooks for both the hospitality and events industries. Overall, despite being hopeful, hotel and event managers anticipate different recovery challenges, with the first highlighting the importance of soft skills, and the latter emphasizing the need to regain the public’s confidence, at the same time they will have to rethink their offer as to better address current needs and concerns.