Is a hospitality degree still worth it?

Is a hospitality management degree worth it?

The advantages of a hospitality degree

Embarking on a career path can be a pivotal decision that shapes your future, and in a world brimming with possibilities, choosing the right course is crucial. One big decision for many people is what to do after finishing high school: should you enter the workforce, or is it better to continue your education? In hospitality, many people opt to start their career from the bottom and progressively climb the ladder though their jobs. They think that starting work early and getting paid while learning is a leg up in the industry. However, a degree in hospitality is more than just an alternative to work experience. From speeding up your career trajectory to ultimately becoming a better hospitality leader, here are five big reasons to choose a bachelor’s degree in hospitality management over working your way up the corporate ladder.

1. You save time.

Earning a degree in hospitality saves you time in two major ways. Firstly, you learn much faster and retain a greater range of information in school than at work, especially when you study at a vocational school such as Swiss Hotel Management School (SHMS). The combination of academic study with practical classes are proven to reinforce your learning process. About hotel management courses themselves, industry-experienced faculty design lessons which optimize hospitality learning. While some people thrive when learning on their own, the facilities and resources available in hospitality universities and schools are designed for students to have the best learning environment, ultimately propelling you on a greatly accelerated and higher-quality career path. This advantage ultimately saves you learning and training time.

Secondly, having a bachelor’s degree in hospitality management such as the one offered by Swiss Hotel Management School allows you to start your employment beyond an entry-level position, with a higher starting salary. Your investment in a degree puts you ahead of your competitors, even those who have worked for several years. For example, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that an entry-level clerk at a hotel earns $12.08 an hour. To become a hotel manager without a degree in hospitality can take several years of experience plus demonstrated leadership before you are even considered for an assistant manager role, and you would have to learn the necessary skills without proper or comprehensive guidance. Meanwhile, a hospitality bachelor of arts degree includes work experience during paid internships while earning credits toward your degree at the same time! Once you finish your studies, you can find positions that offer more than double the salary that an entry-level position offers on average, according to the BLS.

2. You understand the full picture.

Have a more well-rounded understanding of the entire business with a bachelor’s degree in hospitality management than you would have with a hospitality job. For example, a server at a restaurant will likely only learn about service at that specific restaurant site. Instead, the bachelor program at SHMS trains you in different international styles such as the American, French, and many more.

Some people are fortunate to find employment with companies that have extensive training programs, but these opportunities can be quite limited depending on who you are or where you happen to live. Instead of relying on luck and what entry-level position you snag to direct your know-how, a bachelor’s degree will cover all of the bases. SHMS courses include anything from cutlery to human resources, from managing a small concept restaurant to managing a five-star hotel. You learn so much more in courses of hospitality training, making you the best candidate for a variety of management jobs.

3. You find your niche during school.

Once you cover the hospitality basics to understand the full picture, you also get the opportunity to discover your niche and develop your personal career skills at school. With everything that you learn, you are exposed to all the intricate aspects within the hospitality industry, where you can discover what interests you the most. The career courses of hospitality professionals include events management, marketing, and hotel design among many more.

Any self-respecting bachelor degree in hospitality management offers specializations in the world of hospitality. At SHMS, the Bachelor of Arts in International Hospitality Management provides three specializations: event management, hospitality management, and design management. As you complete your education, you become an expert in your chosen field under the guidance of our faculty who have worked in the industry before turning to academia.

Beyond knowledge and exposure, discovering your hospitality niche during school is much safer than while you are on the job. Daring to experiment or innovate can be risky when your job is on the line. At school, you make mistakes in a safe environment, where at first, your clients are fellow students and faculty. At SHMS, bachelor students in the later years of study also land projects from real clients such as with the biannual World of Hospitality project. Although the project is a real-world professional assignment, you work with classmates, and school faculty advise on the planning and execution without the fear of losing your job as you experiment and learn. Ultimately, you have support and guidance at school to improve on your ideas and concepts before applying them to projects with your own paying clients and customers.

4. You're prepared to be a leader.

A leader is someone who knows the way, shows the way, and walks the way with their team. A boss is someone who seeks control and focuses on what work his or her employees did or did not do without leading the way. Have you experienced this before? The reality is that a degree in hospitality can set you up to be a hospitality leader. At SHMS, we focus on training hospitality professionals who are leaders first before they become managers.

Firstly, hospitality education is best known for teaching not just hard, technical skills, but also soft skills such as communication, teamwork, and empathy. Almost everyone has either worked for a bad manager or knows of one, and often it is not out of malice on the manager’s part, but rather a manager’s shortcomings in knowledge and interpersonal experience. Some people are innately more gifted than others when it comes to soft skills, but everyone can learn from soft skills training. When talking about hotel management courses at SHMS, we prioritize applying these soft skills in practical training in addition to technical know-how. That way you are more prepared to be a leader who understands your team and what they are going through.

Secondly, as mentioned in point #2, someone with a hospitality education is more likely to have a good understanding of the big picture. This means that as someone with a hospitality degree, you are well equipped to show your team the way forward no matter which department needs your attention as a manager. For example, when you become a hotel manager, you will know the ins and outs of housekeeping service, advise on the design of your hotel lobby, or adeptly cover a front desk shift–all because you have studied and done these things in practical training at school or during one of your internships. While it is possible to become a hotel manager without a degree, there are invaluable insights gained from a formal hospitality education to become a true leader.

5. Your hospitality education IS experience.

If you are hesitating between “hospitality education” versus “hospitality experience”, the reality is that your hospitality education is experience. Although you are paying for expertise, guidance, and study resources while you get your degree, you are also constantly putting into practice what you learn. Living and learning at SHMS means studying in a historic Swiss palace hotel where you will make a souffle or rearrange a hotel room layout on top of taking various courses of hospitality subjects covering the evolution of international cuisine or boutique hotel room design. As an added bonus, you get to live and study in Switzerland, expanding your professional network with other dedicated hospitality and tourism specialists from all around the world, making more connections than you could in the workplace.

Beyond practical training on campus from lecturers who have worked in and oftentimes defined the hospitality industry, SHMS helps you find paid internships that you would otherwise not find on your own, where you will simultaneously get academic credit while also gaining real-world work experience. Swiss Education Group events such as the International Recruitment Forum, where hundreds of employers including Marriott International, Royal Caribbean, and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts come to claim the best talent to lead them into the future of the hospitality industry. Here, SHMS students can score once-in-a-lifetime internship experiences, connections, and gainful employment.

Hospitality remains a good career with exciting opportunities in a booming industry. Opting for a degree in hospitality can be a wiser choice than beginning your career from the ground up. Beyond the practicality of saving time, a degree equips you with a broader spectrum of knowledge and a holistic understanding of the hospitality industry. This helps you find your unique niche and develop valuable leadership skills. Most importantly, when we talk about hotel management courses and training at institutions like SHMS, your education directly translates into real-world experience, enhancing your practical hospitality skill set. The avenues for internships and job placements further solidify the benefits of a hospitality education over the traditional career ladder. Armed with a degree, you embark on a trajectory that not only amplifies your expertise but also propels you towards a rewarding and promising future in the dynamic world of hospitality.