Spa Business issue 2 2012 - Leisure Opportunities

One of the pioneers in this field is
Cornell University’s School of Hotel
Administration in the US, which introduced
a spa-specific module to its
hospitality management offerings as
far back as 1985 (sb10/1 p52). Today,
students studying for bachelor’s or
master’s degrees at Cornell can choose
from three semester-long spa modules
taught by industry stalwart Professor
Mary Tabacchi, and can also opt to do
their mandatory summer-break internships
in the spa industry. But it’s no longer
the only university with the spa industry
on its radar – other examples abound,
from Florida Gulf Coast University and Arizona
State University in the US, which offer
degrees with a spa concentration and certificate
extension respectively, to Les Roches
International School of Hotel Management
in Switzerland, which touches on spa more
generally in their wider curriculums.
So what exactly can these young graduates
bring to the spa management table?
“Our biggest advantage is the strong business
grounding that our students have to
have before we turn them over to employers,”
says Tabacchi. Patel, who has recruited
from Cornell, EHL and Les Roches, agrees.
“These are highly educated, smart young men
and women with a thorough understanding
of hotel management, so we don’t need
to teach them the basics of our business,”
he says. “As the spa industry grows, we’re
going to need more managers, and what better
time to groom them than when they’re
fresh from education?”
Despite this, many in the spa industry feel
there is a disconnect between what these
courses offer and the real world of employment,
with new graduates ill prepared for the
day-to-day challenges of running a spa, too
inexperienced for corporate roles and subsequently
unsure of where they fit in. “We have
a difficult time recruiting hospitality graduates
who haven’t previously worked in the
spa industry,” says Bjurstam. “Unlike those
specialising in rooms or F&B, they have
not usually had any practical experience of
working in a spa. Even if they choose to do
internships as part of their course, they’re
typically only for two weeks, and often they
don’t want to do them in a spa. They’re aiming
for higher: corporate management or
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Cornell, US, introduced a spa degree
module over 25 years ago. Its graduates
have strong business skills and are
encouraged to get operational experience
consultancy. But we’ll only take interns if
they’ve worked in spa operations before
their studies – otherwise there’s really
nothing they can do for us.”
Tabacchi agrees her students sometimes
have unrealistic expectations. “I
urge anybody interested in corporate or
consulting work to get some operational
experience first,” she says. “You never really
get it until you’ve been in the trenches.”
However, even graduates with spa manager
roles in their sights often find it difficult to
get their foot in the door due to their lack
of practical experience. “Too often the feedback
from employers is that some people
think that just because they’ve got a [management]
degree they should be able to walk
into spa management jobs,” says Suki Kalirai,
director of UK-based training provider the
Carlton Institute and chair of British trade
body the Spa Business Association. “But if
they don’t understand day-to-day operations,
that’s not always feasible.”
Not everyone, however, thinks the fault lies
with the universities. “I love what the universities
are doing, and I’ve hired lots of people
from Cornell,” says Elaine Fenard, manag-
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