Curriculum
Overview
Tourism, hospitality and events encompass a diversity of goods and services. Together they form part of the services sector and are key components of the Australian and global economies. That said, their contribution is difficult to isolate for they are not industry sectors in their own right.
A proxy of tourism's value is found in the ABS tourism satellite accounts. This reveals that in 2009-10 tourism generated approximately $33 billion and accounted for 2.6% of Australia’s Gross Domestic Product (Tourism Research Australia, 2010). Approximately 500,500 people were employed in the various subsectors that comprise the industry, which is almost 4.5% of total employment in Australia (Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), 2010).
Tourism, hospitality and events, as part of the service sector, requires a workforce with a variety of skills and knowledge. Both vocational and higher education providers contribute to addressing these workforce requirements.
To survive and succeed, the tourism industry needs an adequate supply of appropriate labour. It can only operate efficiently with a dual labour force: a pool of lower skill employees, both permanent and casual; and a pool of higher skilled, career-oriented employees
(The Jackson Report, 2009: 24).
The changing higher education policy context, increased global competition, pressures on the academic workforce and the dynamic nature of student markets are some of the challenges currently facing Australian tourism, hospitality and event education providers. Industry has also identified skills shortages as a significant issue that affects the capacity of the tourism industry. Within this context, tourism, hospitality and event education programs have an important role in educating graduates so they have the knowledge, skills, creative problem solving and adaptive capacities to operate in increasingly complex and challenging global world. However, little attention has been paid to the tourism, hospitality and events curricula in higher education or how it can meet these future demands.
What do we mean by 'curriculum'?
The term ‘curriculum’ means different things to educators, university managers, students and industry. For academic educators, often influenced by their disciplinary foundations and preferred ways of teaching, curriculum is often understood to be that knowledge which they consider important for a student to know. For students, on the other hand, assessment often defines the curriculum: it is what one needs to know to pass the unit of study. For employers of the graduates of higher education, curriculum for these stakeholders is often defined in instrumental ways depending on the skills and attributes that are needed by a graduate to perform a job well. In this context, it becomes clear that the curriculum in any field is socially constructed, will have multiple meanings, and will always be a matter of debate and refinement. For the purposes of this project, ‘curriculum’ is defined as: ... the whole program of educational experiences that is packed as a degree program. Its constituent parts are a number of modules or course, which in turn may be specified as a series of syllabi or course contents. A core curriculum represents a compulsory element.
Related to this, the ‘curriculum space’ is the full suite of educational experiences that might be taught, including all the possible contents, teaching approaches and learning experiences. The distinction between the curriculum and the curriculum space therefore highlights the difference between what is taught and what might be taught, and highlights the importance of choice in curriculum design. Students take different pathways through the curriculum space, and this pathway is derived from both the choices made by institutions and individuals.
Want to know more? Then download Issues Paper #1 Key Issues in Australian Tourism, Hospitality and Events Curriculum Design and Development available from the downloads page.
