Hospitality in high school

What's New, Sep/Oct 1999 by Staples, Jill

HOSPITALITY PROGRAMS are only found in post-high school continuing education programs, right? Wrong. Actually, high schools around the country are now presenting this exciting career to their students. Introducing Family and Consumer Sciences students to a career in hospitality while they are young lets students know all of the exciting opportunities available in this field.

At the Virginia Beach School District in Virginia, ten high schools currently participate in a unique program that takes hospitality beyond just classroom learning. Junior and senior high school students throughout the district can take the course for one year, which meets 5 days a week for an hour and twenty minutes at the local Clarion Hotel/Pembroke hotel. To qualify, students must have their own transportation and professional dress. They must also interview for the class, where the instructor determines whether or not the student qualifies. The instructor looks for good people skills, responsibility and a professional manner in qualified students.

If the students complete the interview successfully, they are admitted to the class. The program combines classroom teaching, which is held in a meeting room set up at the hotel, and onthe-job experience. The program is supplemented with Educational Institute's School-To-Career Lodging Management Program (LMP).

Students spend about half of their time in the "classroom," where they learn everything there is to know about the hospitality industry: preparing and serving food, answering phones, hotel safety and health laws, customer service, making beds, and so on.

Once they have that experience under their belts, students spend time working with various hotel staff, from housekeeping to kitchen staff to working the front desk. Students are also required to participate in cooperative education, where they take hotel jobs and work a minimum of ten hours per week.

After the first year, where students learn all of the basics of hotel management, they have the opportunity to take a second year where they can become certified as a hospitality supervisor (CHS) from the American Hotel/Motel Association. During this nineweek course, students learn how to become an effective supervisor, learning interviewing techniques, disciplining and motivational methods. If they pass the test at the end of the course, they are certified for any entry-level supervisory position in the hospitality field.

The Virginia Beach program is in its 8th year, and follow-up surveys found that 77% of the students who successfully completed the course stay in the hospitality industry for at least three years. They found that hospitality is an especially exciting career for young people. This career offers much contact with cultures from guests around the world and is a varied and fast-paced career.

What do you need to get started? If your students are flexible, responsible, motivated and can solve problems, this may be their ideal career.

Jill Staples is the Hotel/Marketing instructor for the Virginia Beach School District in Virginia Beach, Virginia.