A Gap Analysis of the Essential Competencies Expected and Perceived from Hospitality Graduates in the Industry: The Case of Egypt

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine, identify the essential competencies expected and perceived from hospitality graduates in the industry. A gap means analysis technique used to analyze hospitality managers' expectations and perceptions about Employment of Graduates in the hospitality industry. Industry management conceded that hospitality education modules need to reflect recent and future industry challenges and improvements to guarantee graduates are outfitted with suitable and industry-relevant competencies. Required data are collected with a self-administered questionnaire adapted from competency model of Chung-Herrera, Enz, and Lankau (2003). The questionnaire was distributed randomly among 280 managers of chain hotels in Egypt after permission from the directors of Human Recourses. Gathered data were examined using descriptive statistics and factor analysis method. The results of this study reveal that hospitality managers' expectation is less than their perception from Employment of fresh Graduates in the hospitality industry. Furthermore, factor analysis generates five groups of competencies required by hospitality industry namely; (Transferable Competencies, Professional Competencies, Generic Competencies, Analytical skills, and Conceptual skill). The results are very important for both of hospitality education and industry as it can help to determine and prioritize the needed competencies in the field of hospitality industry. It is therefore urgent that hospitality, educational institutions need to meet the requirements of the industry in their demand for competencies needed from the graduated.

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“…Unfortunately, it was noticed that over 30% of the total hospitality workforce does not possess the basic capabilities and skills needed for the industry (Hossny 2018). Scholars have shown that hotel operators are suffering from a lack of graduates' soft skills (Dhaliwal and Misra 2020) because many hospitality institutions don't implant the required skills in the curriculum, which results in an unskilled and unemployable workforce (Dhaliwal and Misra 2020).…”

“…Concerning the hospitality industry, hotel management graduates experience a shortage of the necessary skills, which makes them less relevant to the industry, and thus less attractive for hotel recruitment (Hossny 2018), which affects the graduates' employability and leads to an increase in unemployment and underemployment among higher education graduates (Brewer 2013, Ejiwale 2014, Ramisetty and Desai 2017, Crespin et al 2019.…”

“…According to Raybould and Wilkins (2005), hotel operators complained of the extremely low supply of skilled employees who have hospitality academic qualifications, particularly in the hotel management department. The reason is that graduates' skills are not aligned with industry requirements, resulting in a gap between hospitality higher education and the requirements of the hospitality industry because what the hospitality educators teach to students does not represent the actual needs of the industry (Adeyinka-Ojo 2018, Bathla et al 2019, Hossny 2018, Kanter 2013, Singh and Singh 2008.…”

“…For that, hospitality operators are becoming more suspicious of hospitality graduates' skills as a result of the inadequate skill preparation that the hospitality higher institutes offer for students (Abbasi et al 2018, Bathla et al 2018, El Mansour and Dean 2016, which leads to graduates' failure to get suitable job opportunities (World Bank 2015). Therefore, an increasing gap between what graduates are taught in higher education and what the hotel industry needs exists, which led to a problem facing graduates in their transition from their educational institutes to the industry (Hossny 2018). Consequently, to be able to produce qualified and employable graduates from an industry perspective, hospitality higher education must study and analyze the current and future requirements of the hospitality industry and develop hotel management curricula to reflect these requirements.…”

“…Consequently, to be able to produce qualified and employable graduates from an industry perspective, hospitality higher education must study and analyze the current and future requirements of the hospitality industry and develop hotel management curricula to reflect these requirements. This will help to ensure that graduates are outfitted with suitable, sufficient, and industry-relevant competencies (Hossny 2018) that can effectively lead to enhanced graduate employability.…”