Encouraging education in Romania’s hospitality industry

Recent trends in Romania's labour market

Ștefan Baciu, 04.01.2023, 14:00

Romania is facing a workforce crisis
just like many other European countries, these days. Perhaps to a greater extent than in
other walks of life, employees’ shortage in tourism takes its toll on Romanian economy.
We do have high-schools and vocational schools specializing in tourism, yet a
sizeable part of the graduates opts for other career paths or simply avoids employment
in Romania. You want to know the reasons why? The de-motivating salaries and
the seasonal status of the job.

A member of the Romanian Hotel Industry
Federation’s Steering Committee, Marius Bazavan will now be giving us an
outline of the current situation on the Romanian labor market.

Marius Bazavan:

I can see personnel
fluctuation taking a downward trend. Fluctuation is increasingly on the wane.
People have started to settle in, at the workplace. Personnel shortage is on everybody’s
lips these days. We cannot hide that, but, as we speak, personnel shortage does
exist, in terms of numbers, but also quality-wise, if we take into account the people who
are skilled to work in the hospitality industry.

For a better quality of services, but also in a bid to
attract youngsters to seek employment in the hospitality industry, a guide has
been recently compiled, by the Edu4Tourism Association,
with the support of the Romanian Hotel Industry Federation. We’re
speaking about The Hospitality Industry Practice
Guide, an educational instrument targeting teachers and pupils,
at once setting the task to accomplish several clear-cut objectives: the percentage increase in the case of pupils who, having graduated
from a specialized high-school, can opt for choosing a career path in the hospitality
industry offering support to the parents, in a bid to make them understand the
activities and the jobs their children can embrace in a tourist unit, and the
support of the economic agents in need to of skilled personnel, so that they
can offer high-standard services.

Călin Ile is the President Romanian Hotel
Industry Federation. He will now be telling us what exactly the guide means,
for tourism industry operators.

Calin Ile:

It is a bridge between us, who
activate as hospitality industry operators, the people involved in education,
in high schools, in tourism schools part of the Romanian education system, between
pupils and parents. We intend o created this dialogue bridge between us, so we
may find the best solutions that can help those youngsters integrate in our industry,
and in a bid to render our industry more pleasant so that we can give them the
answers they need, for them to form the best opinion, all that enabling them to
make a well-informed choice, whether they want or not to work with us. We
wholeheartedly wait for their options. I believe that, before procedures and
operating systems, it all boils down to a human relation, it is all about each
and every one of us getting involved in supporting these youngsters in their
effort to find a way in life. And we think a nice and fair way for themselves
is also a career path in tourism.

As for the incentive that can be offered to youngsters,
it can be provided by the current tourism employees, provided education units
set up, for the training stages, partnerships with the economic agents
operating in the field. With details on that, here is Catalin Ile once again.

Also, there will be an
impetus for tourism employees to act as mentors and get involved as training
tutors. And, last but not the least, I think it will also be a curiosity for youngsters,
for pupils, to pick their training option, to do their training stages in our
units. So it really is an incentive we provide for the three categories I’ve mentioned
before, in a bid to properly consider doing their training in tourism and subsequently,
even have employment in tourism.

The Hospitality Industry Practice Guide
has an electronic format; it is downloadable from any electronic device and
includes essential information for the pupils who may wish to be good tourism
workers. Or at least that is what project coordinator, Rocsana Borda, says.

Rocsana Borda:

It
includes a teaching syllabus, jointly created with those of the Edu4Tourism.
Also, it includes everything related to the annexes of the training, the pupils’
evaluation, the steps to be taken. What you need to tick when, for the first
time ever, you need to do the cleaning of a hotel room, well…cleaning is just
un example. All these materials are a click away. Actually, the guide is
downloadable. Anyone can download it, completely free of charge, so that they
can get the information they need. I should also like to add that it provides a
description of the jobs that are part of the hospitality industry. We should also
consider a hotel also means an IT department, accounting, it also means
marketing, it’s not only about the receptionist’s desk and the kitchen. It’s all of that in one single place.

However, over and above anything else, the guide is an
example of how economic operators get involved in tertiary education. Without such
involvement, the workforce cannot be trained at a high-performance level. (EN)