Recently, I was reading a very interesting article in a German magazine about how more and more employees have taken advantage of the lockdown and/or layoffs to pursue further education (online). It seems that courses in hospitality management, in particular, are more in demand than ever.
And as I read further, one thing struck me: we hospitality professionals are a resilient bunch!
Take one of the people interviewed, a Sales Manager at Lufthansa. Although she had been through her fair share of restructurings and austerity layoffs, she had never experienced anything like this before. On short-time work since March 2020 (working only one day a week), she didn’t waste too much time dwelling on what she couldn’t control or simply waiting out the crisis, she decided to take things into her own hands. To position herself better for the future, she started a further education course online to become a hospitality specialist. And she is not alone. Lots of people in the hospitality industry, faced suddenly with time on their hands (with short-time work the order of the day), are investing in further education, which as seen a drastic increase in intakes.
Hospitality professionals are unshakable optimists who are looking ahead, according to one person interviewed. “If not now, when?” seems to be the common view. And with (online) further education courses anything between 3 and 6 months, graduates are ready to rejoin the hospitality industry exactly when the crisis is over and companies begin to hire again. Graduates also benefit from the current, management knowledge they gain on particularly important, current topics be it controlling and accounting, HR or corporate management – key qualifications for both prospective managers and future self-employed people.
The Covid pandemic has also had an effect on educational institutions with many in-person courses going online from one day to the next. Although surprised at first, participants seem to have quickly gotten used to the “new normal” it seems, just glad that they can continue their studies. For educational institutions, the challenge was not just to offer the course materials online but also ensure participation and motivation. The new online methods have proven themselves with many institutions planning to allow participants to join from home, if required, or offer hybrid instruction methods in the future.
Distance learning providers, on the other hand, didn’t require big changes, except for those who still had traditional in-person exams as a course requirement.
Online training courses were not without their own requirements for participants, the most important being keeping the final goal in mind and being ‘on fire’ right through the course. Indeed, learning from home requires discipline and persistence, qualities it seems that we hospitality professionals have in abundance. One participant who completed an (online) course believed that studying online broadened his horizons greatly, giving him a new perspective on the hospitality industry. Despite not knowing what the future holds, he is not afraid, proud that he made good use of a once in a lifetime pandemic.
With such an attitude, what can stop you from taking advantage of whatever the future has to offer?!
Thorsten Edu 