Professional development for operators

Several organisations have professional development calendars for their tourism operators. The topics presented are based on a combination of feedback from operators themselves, as well as from surveying of the local industry’s performance. These sessions do not always require a professional trainer. Sometimes a tourism operator who exemplifies a particular quality and who is willing to share their knowledge and experience with others will ‘connect’ far more effectively with business people than a talking suit !

Industry networking functions can also incorporate training topics and may involve visiting particular properties to hear a fellow operator talk and demonstrate their approach to business. The arrival in town of a new business is often used to ‘raise the bar’ for the rest of the industry. Tom O’Toole’s return to Beechworth in 1984 to take over a run-down bakery is now legendary in the industry. The transformation of Dunkeld’s Royal Mail Hotel not only boosted standards in the town, but also throughout the Southern Grampians district. Lake House in Daylesford not only demonstrate very high standards, but its owners mentor other tourism operators.

Click here (258 kb) to read more about Tom O’Toole and the Beechworth Bakery

The ‘mapping’ of training providers and courses available is a valuable exercise for a tourism organization to undertake. This includes appropriate programs offered by local TAFE colleges, state government small business corporations, and private training providers. Having identified the resources, it is then necessary to identify any gaps and specific training needs and how these can be met. In most areas, training needs cover seven main subjects:

Tourism knowledge
Hospitality industry knowledge
Customer service skills
Interpersonal skills
Communications and networking
Small business management
Small business marketing

Most training organizations welcome opportunities to introduce new programs and can usually fill the gaps or meet the needs of the industry, provided sufficient demand exists. East Gippsland TAFE delivers its courses using trained industry operators, working with their peer groups, in very local settings, rather than requiring them to travel for hours to a central location. The Victorian Employers Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VECCI) runs an extensive program of short courses through its many regional offices

Click here to read about East Gippsland TAFE's (78 kb) approach to industry training

Even for the delivery of short courses, it may be worth using nationally accredited programs. This means that, upon successful completion of the chosen units, the business operator will gain a ‘Statement of Attainment’. This is a national recognition of competence and may contribute towards a formal course they choose to do in the future, anywhere in Australia.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and Recognition of Current Competency (RCC) is a formal assessment that recognises that people may have acquired valuable skills and knowledge through previous work, volunteer work or even personal interests. This may gain them entry to a formal course for which the normal pre-requisites could be difficult to meet, or it could count towards completion of a relevant course, thereby reducing training time and cost. Talk to your local TAFE institution about their RPL/ RCC processes.

One of the simplest and most valuable roles a tourism organization can play to lift the performance standards of a destination is to auspice ‘Starting up in Tourism’ courses. These established programs, operated by Tourism Alliance Victoria, provide people who aspire to work in the industry with a realistic appraisal of the lifestyle they can expect and the skills they will need to gain to be successful in it. It is sometimes said that the program’s mark of success is the number of people it has stopped from going any further with the idea !