Hotelier June 2022

EDUCATION
Higher
Learning
KML webcast examines the
future of hospitality education
BY AMY BOSTOCK
On April 22nd, KML assembled
a group of highly esteemed
educators to discuss the state
of hospitality education and
examine how tomorrow’s schools will
need to change, how these changes will
impact students and how schools can
truly contribute to solving the labour
challenges plaguing this industry.
The webcast, Higher Learning: A
Webcast Discussion on the State of
Hospitality Education — moderated by
KML’s editor/publisher Rosanna Caira,
and sponsored by Tourism HR Canada —
included Lorraine Trotter, dean, Centre
of Hospitality & Culinary Arts, George
Brown College, Toronto; Statia Elliott,
director, School of Hospitality, Food
and Tourism Management, Gordon S.
Lang School of Business and Economics,
University of Guelph, Ontario; Marie-
Claire Louillet, professor, l’institut de
Tourisme et d’Hôtellerie du Quebec,
Montreal; and Carl Everitt, chair, Hospitality
Management Program, Camosun
College, Victoria, B.C.
“As we know, over the past few years,
the education sector has been hugely
impacted by the lingering COVID-19
pandemic and like every sector in this
industry, it’s had to pivot to find its
footing. Today we will be exploring
issues facing the education sector to find
out what the future looks like for hospitality
education in Canada,” said Caira.
The discussion began with a look
at how universities and colleges differ
today from pre-pandemic, as well as how
online learning has changed the delivery
model for education moving forward.
“We’ve all adopted online delivery
models and tools far, far faster than any
of us would have predicted two years
ago,” said Trotter, adding that is both a
blessing and a curse, “because we’ve had
to move up the learning curve pretty
quickly. But on the other hand, we’re so
much more flexible and creative in the
way we use those online tools.”
She added that online education
has “blown apart” the traditional view
of where the students are. “So, the
regional focus that we might have
taken in the past is no more. While
traditionally we would have looked at
just the Toronto Region, now we have
continuing-education students from
India and Austria; we’ve got baking
students in Japan and the Middle East.”
For a program known for handson
applied learning, Everitt said the
pandemic caused a shift in thinking.
“The infrastructure for online learning
has changed and improved drastically.
We were never known as an
online-learning institution, but one of
the positive outcomes [of the shift to
online learning] is accessibility for the
students. I’m finding they’re now taking
their courses in a hybrid mode, where
they’ll come in and perhaps take some
of their academic classes, but they don’t
need to be in that facility the entire
time, which offers a great deal of
flexibility for them.”
Louillet said at l’institut de Tourisme
et d’Hôtellerie du Quebec, classes went
online immediately at the beginning
of the pandemic and remained online
for a long time. And while in-person
classes are running again, the school
still offers about 20 to 30 per cent of its
classes online as well.
“This shift has changed the way we
teach,” she said. “During the first round
of the pandemic, students needed more
empathy and support, so we’ve grown
into a more personalized coaching role,
as opposed to traditional teaching role.
We dedicated more time in class time
for discussion, presentations, interactive
teamwork and coaching. [COVID] has
profoundly, and permanently, changed
the way we work”
“In March 2020, the future arrived
ahead of schedule,” said Elliott, adding
it “pushed us to innovate and invest in
technology and in training of faculty —
and that investment continues. So,
looking ahead, I see hybrid being
something that we continue to offer.”
She said she sees online learning as
possibly replacing a large lecture hall
of hundreds of students, which will
provide more opportunity to engage
with students and offer them access to
asynchronous material that perhaps
they didn’t have in such a flexible way
before. “And then we reserve those
face-to-face times for smaller groups
where there’s greater engagement in
experiential activities, such as cases,
industry projects and simulations and
hands-on labs. So, we end up with
this fusion of campus and augmented
campus experiences that are going to
continue to push us to be even more
innovative and engage students.” ◆
Click here to watch the entire
Higher Learning webcast
hoteliermagazine.com JUNE 2022 | 9