| Summary: | 博士 === 國立屏東教育大學 === 教育行政研究所 === 102 === The employability of higher vocational education curriculum should emphasize not only in the vocational training, but in the liberal education, to cultivate future professionals with reflection practice. This study explores the possibility of this integration by reviewing related literature ofliberal education and vocational education first, especially the one related to vocational education in the liberal education. An in-depth interview of stakeholders (teachers, students and employers) conducted to the interns of higher vocational education majored in tourism and hospitality and employers from the workplace in Taiwan. Also an investigation conducted mainly from interns of higher technical and vocational education majored in tourism and hospitality and employers separately in tourism and hospitality in Taiwan. Foremost, to identify the empirical evidence which shows that a mismatch in the form of skills gaps as defined above the employability skills. The findings are composed of two parts: Part one, results of the in-depth interview of stakeholders,which presents the perspectives of tourism and hospitality stakeholders towards employability, skills and abilities interms of the tourism and hospitality industry’s needs; and Part two, results of the questionnaire survey, whichpresents the needs and expectations of the tourism and hospitality industry and interns in terms of employability skills sets.This study has provided some information about the employability skills needed by employers, when recruiting their employees, related to tourism and hospitality interns. It must be noted that equal attention was given to hard or technical skills, as well as to soft skills. These findings establish the existence of a gap between the existingtourism and hospitality curriculum at university level, and the needs of the tourism and hospitality industry. The findings ofthis study also provide evidence to suggest that tourism and hospitality higher education provision should notbe isolated from real practice and that those involved in curriculum design and should workclosely with industry representatives to ensure a strong connection between theory andpractice, thus improving the likelihood that graduates of tourism and hospitality higher education courses willgraduate with knowledge and skills sets which are closely aligned with the needs andexpectations of the tourism industry.
|
|---|
