Training
Blending hospitality & technology
Today's maitre'd blends hospitality with technology. IMAGE SUPPLIED BY ServiceIQ.
The use of technology to support the growth of skills and knowledge in hospitality is booming overseas. In New Zealand, hospitality training organisations are also embracing technology, particularly as a way to capture students’ attention and cater to different learning styles. Jenny Keown finds out how much of a role e-learning can play in this people-centered industry – where practical experience is crucial to career development – and explores the career path opportunities available. ServiceIQ , created after the Hospitality Standards Institute merged with two other service industry training organizations, is aiming to launch a pilot online training programme mid-year, in partnership with industry associations. Chief executive Dean Minchington says this programme would have content that could be applied across the service sector, including hospitality, tourism, retail and wholesale. “We’re pleased to be able to say that we are going online.” The use of technology to support skills development was growing worldwide and the real benefits of online learning material were the reasons for its rapid growth, says Minchington. "We’re all in the age of onlinement. It’s important that service staff learn where it suits them best, and there are many ways they can learn, after hours or on the job." As part of ServiceIQ’s online offer, a service worker could complete a course as part of a national qualification, as it would give them the opportunity of achieving one or more unit standards and they might want to go further and complete a full qualification, he says. 24 . HOSPITALITY/THIRST . JUNE 2013
“The programme would cover topics such as liquor license control, food safety, workplace health and safety, maximising sales, personal presentation and numeracy and literacy. Workplaces could use the programme as an induction package to help their staff be more practical and skilled in their workplace,” says Minchington. In the UK, Spain and Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg), nearly 40 percent of companies train more than 50 percent of their employees via e-learning, according to a CrossKnowledge and Ipsos paper presented in January 2012 as part of a London Learning Technologies conference. The challenge of training large numbers of employees and the need to align competencies in real time over increasingly competitive global markets were some of the factors motivating large companies to develop an interest in e-learning ahead of the rest, according to the paper. For those people who are further along in their hospitality careers, such as busy managers who’d like to gain qualifications, AUT offers postgraduate online courses.