Whose job is it to fill the soft skills gap?
Although I recognise the fact that there are several educational institutes that are doing remarkably well, I am also made to understand, that there are many other providers of hospitality training who offer sub-standard and inconsistent training. I am also told that some providers, in singular pursuit of obtaining a training subsidy or funding, even go to the extent of training anyone and everyone. To what degree this occurs is difficult to say though.
Anyways, the other day, the head of a reputed hospitality training academy invited me and my wife to dinner, where students specialising in the food and beverage field, and who were mid-way during their course programme, were showcasing what they had learned thus far. To put our server to the test, we asked him about what went into some dishes on the printed 4 - course menu list. The response (which included a dash to the kitchen to verify whether ingredient x was in / not in a particular dish), was very minimal. Overall, the level of service we received was reasonably sound - from a hard skills (technical) perspective. Sadly, the degree of soft skills exhibited was rather poor.
Hard skills zoom in on the systems, procedures, tools and methods employed to deliver product and services in an efficient, responsive and accurate manner to guests. Teachers in Hotel schools often exhibit an educational approach which is biased towards curricula that focuses on hard skills – as a means to deliver effective job performance. Likewise, there is the tendency for trainers in the workplace to place a similarly high emphasis on hard skills.
An employees’ skills survey done in the UK some years ago discovered 55% of those surveyed lacked customer handling skills and 51% lacked oral communication skills. Mind you these were people who were already working in the food service industry. Alarmingly, what it also tells us is that over 50% of these workers will be held back from rising up the ladder due to the lack of soft skills. When trainers in the industry fight shy of teaching ‘soft skills’ to their staff, it further hinders their employment potential. Consequently, over time, the likelihood of many of them leaving the industry is bound to happen.
A classroom can teach hard skills that will help students land their first hospitality job. What’s much harder to teach… and ultimately necessary to rise through the ranks to one’s dream job –are soft skills. Because ‘caring for others’ is at the centre of hospitality and where hotel schools prepare students to be good with people, even under pressure, it stands to reason that ‘soft’ skills should be a part of the DNA of teaching programmes.
Shafeek Wahab – Editor, Hospitality Sri Lanka, Consultant, Trainer, Ex-Hotelier.
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