Is writing important for graduate success? A preliminary investigation into the communication skills required of Hospitality and Tourism graduates

Abstract

Interviews were conducted with twenty-seven industry recruiters at a Hospitality and Tourism job fair. Each recruiter was asked whether or not writing was an important skill for recently hired Hospitality and Tourism graduates. The 20-minute interviews allowed participants an opportunity to clarify and provide context to their responses. Relatively few of the recruiters (14.8%) unequivocally characterized writing as an important skill for recently hired hospitality and tourism graduates in any positions. Those who did suggested good writing skills are linked to professionalism and career commitment. However, other recruiters pointed out the relatively infrequent need for frontline employees to write and the industry’s use of writing templates. Other major themes that emerged from a phenomenological analysis of the data are as follows: (i) writing is less important than oral and interpersonal skills for frontline positions (ii) few employers screen for writing skills during the recruitment and selection stage; and (iii) the need grows for writing skills as one’s career progresses. The results of this preliminary study will be used for further research into the communication competencies required in the hospitality and tourism industry. Key words: writing skills, Hospitality and Tourism employer needs, undergraduate business curriculum, communication competencie

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 5 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.