Human Resource Development (HRD) in Emerging...
Transcript of Human Resource Development (HRD) in Emerging...
Human Resource Development (HRD)
in Emerging Tourism Destinations Tom Baum
Strathclyde Business School
University of Strathclyde
Glasgow
Our topic today - where I come from
• Over 30 years engagement in HRD/ HRM themes relating to the international tourism
sector - as practitioner/ research manager, researcher, teacher, examiner and
consultant
• Particularly interested in the social construction of work in the tourism, especially in a
comparative, international context - viewing tourism work in its social, economic,
political and cultural context
• Have had the opportunity to work professionally in this area in close to 50 countries -
including the opportunity to partner in research with colleagues across the globe
• Continue to be fascinated by new perspectives and contradictions in this field
• Today’s presentation is based on four recent consultancy projects with which I have
been involved (2012/2013), funded by ADB, AFD, EU and LuxDev
One or two quotes.......
•Yangon Hotel GM: “We are planning a 1,000 bedroom hotel on this site......”
•Me: “That is a big project - where will you recruit the staff”
•GM: “That is not a problem - we can sort that out closer to when we are ready to open.......”
•Me: Can you tell us something about the training needs of tourism staff
•Expatriate Owner of Phnom Penh Boutique Hotel: Look, all the visitors to this country are
happy with their experiences, therefore we do not need to train our staff, they are doing fine
•Cookery teacher, Pakse, Lao PDR: We use the charcoal fire because that is what we have at
home. We have the new equipment which the .. (donor agency).. gave to us but nobody showed us
how to use it
•Owner of private tourism training centre, Mandalay: The (Tourism) Masterplan says we need
over 180,000 new employees every year in Myanmar....... We train about 100 every year and all of
them get good jobs abroad
•
Today’s discussion
• Theoretical context
• Tourism and development - the workforce perspective
• Tourism in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam
• Workforce and HRD issues in tourism in these countries
• Lessons for stakeholders
• Conclusions
Some thoughts on theoretical context
• Multi-disciplinary focus, drawing on development studies, human
capital development, education, sustainable tourism and more
• Based on an integrationist approach to tourism development
which incorporates all facets in the planning process and
engages widely within an inclusive stakeholder framework
• Places the workforce and HRD for the tourism industry at the
centre of the tourism planning process - without human capacity
and involvement, investment in product, infrastructure and
marketing is futile
HRD - local or global?
• Conventional thinking in HRM/ HRD in tourism is lazily
universalist and places work squarely as “low skills”, located
within a weak labour market - eg. Shaw and Williams (1994),
Wood (1997), Westwood (2004) - a perspective applied by
development agencies worldwide in their interventions
• (Interestingly, also appears to influence the thinking of
international sporting bodies such as FIFA and IOC in
promulgating volunteer programmes in their Games)
• Challenged as predominantly ‘western centric’ by, among others,
Baum (1996) and Burns (1997) and is a view which has gained
traction since at a theoretical and applied level
• Counter, localist argument goes along the lines that tourism
work and the skills that it requires are context specific in
cultural, social, economic, development and organizational terms
Tourism and development - the workforce
perspective • Tourism seen as a ‘quick fix’ development sector with potential
for short-term economic impact - and other less positive as
well.....
• Tourism as a development ‘tool’ driven by a planning model (The
Masterplan) promulgated by ADB, UNWTO etc.
• Within these plans, the workforce and its skills needs
traditionally located as a ‘bastard child’, unloved, unwanted but a
necessary reality alongside more glamourous investments
(airports, destination branding, eco-trails, cultural asset
inventories) - the final chapter
• Things are shifting but there is still a strongly aspirational sense
to the HRD agendas that emanate from Masterplans with little
sense of how to execute HRD in a long-term and sustainable
manner
• The elusive search for financially sustainable HRD in tourism
Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) Tourism at a
glance
CAMBODIA LAO PDR MYANMAR VIETNAM THAILAND
2012 INT. ARRIVALS (M) A
3.56 3.05 1.06 5.59 22.3
2011 RECEIPTS ($MILLION)
1,683 382 196 5,620 26,256
CHANGE IN INT ARRIVALS 11/12
+23.5% +12.0% +29.7% +10.0% +16.0%
SHARE OF GDP
18.3% 11.4% 5.6% 12.3% 13.8%
FORECAST % OF GDP IN 2020
15.3% 10.4% 6.1% 13.0% 17.7%
TOURISM EMPLOYMENT
302,578 51,754 37,992 819,345 2,976,934
WOMEN’S SHARE OF EMPLOYMENT
54% 50% N/A 70% 65%
Tourism in Cambodia
• ‘Honeypot’ destination - Siem Reap/ Angkor Wat
• Multi-party state with consitutional monarchy
• Emerged successfully from dark era
• Liberal economic policies encourage investment and growth
• Government play strong and active role in tourism development,
private sector voice is very weak
• High dependence on low value, backpacker markets - $7 a night
tourism
• Increasing importance of regional marekts (ASEAN, China)
Tourism HRD in Cambodia
• Low skills industry with few formally trained staff
• Poor quality service and products
• Lack of recognition of the value of skills and professionalism
• Limited investment in skills development of existing workforce
• Tourism growth means increasing demand for manpower and skills
• Very immature education and training system for tourism - no public TVET provision, limited university engagement, main players are NGOs
• Lack of skills development for tourism is a major handicap to the development of internationally competitive tourism in Cambodia
• NGO training aimed at extremely disadvantaged, ‘street kids’, focus is on social needs and not industry skills requirements - international charitable support
• Poor stakeholder engagement and co-ordination: lack of leadership in skills development from Government, private sector, industry associations
Tourism in Lao PDR
• ‘Honeypot’ - Luang Prebang
• One party state tentatively espousing market economics
• Major legacy issues - rural Lao and unexploded ordinance
• Strong government control over tourism planning and
development
• Emergence of minerals sector taking Goverment eye of tourism
ball
• High dependance for tourism growth on regional markets -
China, Thailand
Tourism HRD in Lao PDR
• “the critical shortage of the expertise required for development,
will pose one of the most serious constraints on economic
development in the Lao PDR and that strengthening human
resource capacity will represent one of the country’s major
challenges over the foreseeable future” (UN, 2006)
• TVET and university system of education and training functioning
poorly - disconnect from the industry with young teachers with no
industry exposure
• Declining enrolments in tourism TVET in spite of growing
employment opportunities
• Emerging commitment to training by private sector - “Passport to
Success” but dependence on external funding support?
• Poor capital investment by donor agencies in TVET training
alongside an absence of capacity development
Tourism in Myanmar
• ‘Honeypot’ - Bagan and its 4,000 pagodas
• Emergent multi-party system since dramatic changes in 2011
• Military retain strong control over central decision making
• Weak but growing market economy
• Foreigners welcome for the first time in 50+ years and very rapid
growth in numbers
• 70% of visitors are from China and Thailand, cross-border, local
tourism
• Very high pricing in place representing poor value
• “Low status” ministry………
Tourism HRD in Myanmar
• Major workforce growth and skills requirements predicted
• 60-70% of children are out of the school system within one year
of completing elementary school
• Virtually non-existent TVET and wider educational provision for
tourism
• Education and training fragmented accross 17 ministries but
major changes in train through comprehensive review of
educational system
• Limited private sector training, mainly for export
• Two new university programmes, pet project of the Minister for
Hotels and Tourism
• Major investments from multi-donors in the pipeline
Tourism in Vietnam
• Multiple attractions - geographically dispersed
• One party state espousing market economics
• Government-led development of tourism
• Most mature tourism destination of the four countries
• Mistrust of private sector - industry ‘associations’ are all headed up
by ex-public sector employees
• Weak voice of private sector
Tourism HRD in Vietnam
• Institutional framework in place for education and training for
tourism - ASEAN vocational standards, TVET colleges,
universities, private colleges
• Recipient of multiple iterations of donor agency support for
vocational standards, curricula, facilities (eg. Hue Hotel School),
institutional structures (VTCB)
• Failure of projects beyond donor lifecycle
• Marginal private sector engagement with HRD
• Public sector ‘rivalries’ between ministries
• Dated programmes which ignore emerging and high value
sectors
Lessons for Stakeholders (ADB)
• Recognise through policy, practice and resource allocations that
high quality tourism education and training are central to the
creation and sustainability of competitive tourism destinations
• Build tourism education and training on the basis of an engaged
and participative stakeholder model, involving multi-ministry
Government, industry associations, the private sector and
international donor agencies
• Recognise the limitations of existing public TVET systems and
their capacity and capability constraints in meeting the skills
needs of fast growing and diverse tourism sectors
• Ensure that capital investment in up-graded and new facilities
and equipment are accompanied by appropriate human resource
development in order to ensure their effective, long-term use
...................
• Implement and support a range of different organisational,
governance and resourcing models as reform templates for
tourism education and training within the broad scope of public
policy and legal frameworks for education
• In engaging with innovative governance and operational models
for tourism education and training, it is crucial that development
agencies providing support in this area, listen to, lead the debate
and engage closely with governments at the highest level in
order to ensure that the model adopted is compliant with national
laws and practice
• Ensure partnership engagement in all facets of tourism education
- policy, planning, resourcing, design and delivery - in order to
meet industry and societal needs
• Support innovative public-partnership models in order to
facilitate self-sustaining operations and development within
tourism education
Reflections
• Complex area, no ready answers
• Governments do not have the resources, capacity, capability or,
in some cases, the will to prioritise HRD for tourism - even if they
accept the case
• Fragile, imperfect build blocks for future growth of tourism
industry but these do exist and cannot be ignored
• Some evidence that without investment in skills (and enhanced
products and services that go with it), international visitors from
some markets will come but will they return?
• Some visitor markets are, perhaps, less sensitive to the
outcomes of poor/ non-existent skills than others?
• Compelling case for localism in approach