THE IMPORTANCE OF ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS AND INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE FOR SUPERVISORY LEVEL EMPLOYEES IN THE MALAYSIAN HOTEL INDUSTRY

Abstract

 The hospitality industry is considered a successful sector especially there are more consumers looking at the quality, not merely quantity. Consumers will not be attracted by merely a large quantity of products offered, but they will pay attention to the quality of the products and services provided. The instruments consisted of structures and open-ended questions aimed at finding out: (1) Qualifications and Experiences. Questions on the respondent's and organization's profiles were included to ensure the reliability of responses and to cross-tabulate with the variables. The findings indicate industry experience was very important for the supervisory level employees in all the four operating areas of the hotels: restaurant, kitchen, front office and housekeeping. The respondents preferred more than 5 years of industry experience, followed by 1 to 5 years of work experience in the related areas. Meanwhile, for the academic qualification of restaurant supervisors, SPM would be the most preferred qualification. This was followed by the bachelor's degree and the diploma, while the MLVK and PMR were less preferred. For the kitchen supervisors, similar results were indicated where the first choice was the SPM, followed by the bachelor's degree, the diploma, and the MLVK. For the housekeeping supervisors, the most appropriate qualification was SPM, followed by the diploma. The bachelor's degree, the MLVK and the PMR were not considered as the choice of qualifications. For the front office supervisors, the academic qualifications that were sought after were the SPM and the diploma.