Academic literature on the topic 'Hospitality industry – Study and teaching (Higher) – South Africa'

Purpose – Uniquely among the built-environment professions in the country, professional valuers in South Africa until recently did not require to have a university degree. The vast majority of professional valuers therefore, especially at senior levels, hold the national diploma as the highest academic qualification. There is evidence to suggest that many regard this state of affairs as unsatisfactory. Given the foregoing, the purpose of this paper is to answer two interrelated questions, first, whether South African trained and educated valuers were “competent” and met industry standards, and, second, whether the South African valuation curriculum met international norms. Design/methodology/approach – Empirical data for the study were obtained by way of a survey of valuers registered on the South African Council of the Property Valuers Profession (SACPVP) database and a case study of the University of Cape Town’s valuation curriculum. The survey involved the mailing of an online questionnaire, using the “Survey Monkey platform”, to 2,062 individuals, representing the total population of valuers registered with the SACPVP, across all registration categories. A total of 324 individuals, or 15.7 per cent of the target population, responded to the survey. Findings – Results from the study on the first question showed that it was professional status and length of experience, rather than academic qualifications, which correlated with competence. In addition, the results suggest that there are grounds for concern regarding proficiency in at least some of the valuation methods across the board. Further, the study revealed significant levels of dissatisfaction amongst employers with the general competence of valuers under their supervision. On the second question, the study concludes that the South African valuation curriculum did not meet international norms in terms of certain criteria. Practical implications – The paper recommends a review of the South African valuation curriculum; to allow for a differentiation between the different academic levels, to facilitate a more conceptual approach at the higher levels, and to close the identified gaps in knowledge and skill-sets arising from both a deficient curriculum and a changing industry landscape. Originality/value – At a time when attempts are being made to improve standards in the South African valuation profession, the study makes a critical contribution, by identifying areas where the national curriculum is deficient, both in terms of industry requirements and relative to international norms.

Academic Development Programmes such as Extended Curriculum Programmes (ECP’S) at higher education institutions in South Africa were implemented and funded in 2004 by the Department of Higher Education and Training as an initiative to address low throughput rate and low graduation output. The objective of this study was to look at whether ECP’s were effective in improving throughput rates and graduation output and whether there were quality management practices in place to gauge the effectiveness of ECP’s. The ECP in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at a university of technology was used as a sample. Academic histories of the ECP and Mainstream students of the 2007 cohort were analyzed to draw comparisons graduation output of the two programmes. A questionnaire to graduates of the 2007 ECP cohort who were now in the workplace was administered and interviews were conducted with lecturers teaching on the ECP. It was found that the ECP was successful in improving graduation output and that graduates were well placed in industry. It was also found that although quality management practices were in place in the programme, it was not formalized and the results were not properly recorded.

IntroductionTraditionally, suburbs have been conceived as dormitory – in binary opposition to the inner-city (Powell). Supporting this stereotypical view have been gendered binaries between inner and outer city areas; densely populated vs. sprawl; gentrified terraces and apartment culture vs. new estates and first home buyers; zones of (male) production and creativity against (female) sedate, consumer territory. These binaries have for over a decade been thoroughly criticised by urban researchers, who have traced such representations and demonstrated how they are discriminatory and incorrect (see Powell; Mee; Dowling and Mee). And yet, such binaries persist in popular media commentaries and even in academic research (Gibson and Brennan-Horley). In creative city research, inner-city areas have been bestowed with the supposed correct mix of conditions that may lead to successful creative ventures. In part, this discursive positioning has been borne out of prior attempts to mapthe location of creativity in the city. Existing research on the geography of creativity in the city have relied on proxy data forms: mapping data on firms and/or employment in the creative industry sectors (e.g. Gibson, Murphy and Freestone; Markusen et al.; Watson). In doing so, the focus has rested on “winners” – i.e. headquarters of major arts and cultural institutions located in inner city/CBD locations, or by looking for concentrations of registered creative businesses. Such previous studies are useful because they give some indication of the geographical spread and significance of creative activities in cities, and help answer questions about the locational preferences of creative industries, including their gravitational pull towards each other in an agglomerative sense (Scott). However, such studies rely on (usually) one proxy data source to reveal the presence of creative activities, rather than detail how creativity is itself apparent in everyday working lives, or embedded in the spaces, networks and activities of the city. The latter, more qualitative aspects of the lived experience of creativity can only at best be inferred from proxy data such as employment numbers and firm location. In contrast, other researchers have promoted ethnographic methods (Drake; Shorthose; Felton, Collis and Graham) including interviewing, snowballing through contacts and participant observation, as means to get ‘inside’ creative industries and to better understand their embeddedness in place and networks of social relations. Such methods provide rich explanation of the internal dynamics and social logics of creative production, but having stemmed from text-based recorded interviews, they produce data without geographical co-ordinates necessary to be mapped in the manner of employment or business location data – and thus remain comparatively “aspatial”, with no georeferenced component. Furthermore, in such studies relational interactions with material spaces of home, work and city are at best conveyed in text form only – from recorded interviews – and thus cannot be aggregated easily as a mapped representation of city life. This analysis takes a different tack, by mapping responses from interviews, which were then analysed using methods more common in mapping and analysing proxy data sources. By taking a qualitative route toward data collection, this paper illustrates how suburbs can actually play a major role in creative city economies, expanding understandings of what constitutes a creative workplace and examining the resulting spatial distributions according to their function. Darwin and the Creative Tropical City Project This article draws on fieldwork carried out in Darwin, NT a small but important city in Australia’s tropical north. It is the government and administration capital of the sparsely populated Northern Territory and continues to grapple with its colonial past, a challenging climate, small population base and remoteness from southern centres. The city’s development pattern is relatively new, even in Australian terms, only dating back to the late 1970s. After wholesale destruction by Cyclone Tracy, Darwin was rebuilt displaying the hallmarks of post-1970 planning schemes: wide ring-roads and cul-de-sacs define its layout, its urban form dominated by stout single-story suburban dwellings built to withstand cyclonic activity. More recently, Darwin has experienced growth in residential tower block apartments, catering to the city’s high degree of fly-in, fly-out labour market of mining, military and public service workers. These high rise developments have been focussed unsurprisingly on coastal suburbs with ample sections of foreshore. Further adding to its peculiar layout, the geographic centre is occupied by Darwin Airport (a chief military base for Australia’s northern frontier) splitting the northern suburbs from those closer to its small CBD, itself jutting to the south on a peninsula. Lacking then in Darwin are those attributes so often heralded as the harbingers of a city’s creative success – density, walkability, tracts of ex-industrial brownfields sites ripe for reinvention as creative precincts. Darwin is a city dominated by its harsh tropical climate, decentralised and overtly dependant on private car transport. But, if one cares to look beyond the surface, Darwin is also a city punching above its weight on account of the unique possibilities enabled by transnational Asian proximity and its unique role as an outlet for indigenous creative work from across the top of the continent (Luckman, Gibson and Lea). Against this backdrop, Creative Tropical City: Mapping Darwin’s Creative Industries (CTC), a federally funded ARC project from 2006 to 2009, was envisaged to provide the evidential base needed to posit future directions for Darwin’s creative industries. City and Territory leaders had by 2004 become enchanted by the idea of ‘the creative city’ (Landry) – but it is questionable how well these policy discourses travel when applied to disparate examples such as Darwin (Luckman, Gibson and Lea). To provide an empirical grounding to creative city ideas and to ensure against policy fetishism the project was developed to map the nature, extent and change over time of Darwin’s creative industries and imagine alternate futures for the city based on a critical appraisal of the applicability of national and international creative industry policy frameworks to this remote, tropical location (Lea et al.). Toward a Typology of Darwin’s Creative Workplaces This article takes one data set gathered during the course of the CTC project, based around a participatory mapping exercise, where interviewees responded to questions about where creative industry activities took place in Darwin by drawing on paper maps. Known as mental maps, these were used to gather individual representations of place (Tuan), but in order to extend their applicability for spatial querying, responses were transferred to a Geographic Information System (GIS) for storage, collation and analysis (Matei et al.). During semi-structured interviews with 98 Darwin-based creative industry practitioners, participants were provided with a base map of Darwin displaying Statistical Local Area (SLA) boundaries and roads for mark up in response to specific questions about where creative activities occurred (for more in depth discussion of this method and its varied outputs, refer to Brennan-Horley and Gibson). The analysis discussed here only examines answers to one question: “Where do you work?” This question elicited a total of 473 work locations from 98 respondents – a fourfold increase over statistics gleaned from employment measures alone (Brennan-Horley). Such an increase resulted from participants identifying their everyday work practices which, by necessity, took place across multiple locations. When transferring the spatial location of workplaces into the GIS, each site was coded depending on whether it was cited by the interviewee as their “major” or primary place of work, or if the place being discussed played a secondary or “minor” role in their creative practice. For example, an artist’s studio was categorised as major, but other minor sites also featured in their mental maps, for example, galleries, supply locations and teaching sites. Each worksite was then assigned to one of four categories: Front, Back, Networking and Supply (Table 1). In a similar fashion to McCannell’s work on the “front and back regions” of tourist towns (597), the creative industries, predicated on the production and exchange of texts, objects and ideas also display front spaces of sorts – sites that facilitate interactions between practitioner and audiences, spaces for performance and consumption. Operating behind these front spaces, are sites where creative endeavours take place – perhaps not as so readily seen or engaged with by wider publics. For example, a rehearsal room, artist’s studio or a theatre company’s office may not be key sites of interaction between creator and audience but remain nonetheless important sites of creative work. However, a binary of Front versus Back could not encapsulate the variety of other everyday, prosaic work sites evident in the data. Participants indicated on their maps visits to the post office to send artworks, going to Bunnings to buy paint (and inadvertently networking with others), through to more fleeting spaces such as artist materials fossicked from parklands to photoshoot locations. These supply sites (each themselves positioned along a continuum of “creative” to “mundane”) were typified as supply locations: sites that act as places to gather inputs into the creative process. Finally, sites where meetings and networking took place (more often than not, these were indicated by participants as occurring away from their major work place) were assigned under a heading of networking spaces. Table 1: A typology of creative workplaces Space Definition Coded examples Front A space for consumption/exchange of creative goods, outputs or expertise. Performance space, Market, Gallery, Client Location, Shopfront, Cinema, Exhibition space, Museum, Festival space Back A site of production, practice or business management Office, Studio, Rehearsal Space, Teaching Space, Factory, Recording Studio Networking A space to meet clients or others involved in creative industries Meeting places Supply Spaces where supplies for creative work are sourced Supplier, Photoshoot Location, Story Location, Shoot Location, Storage Coding data into discrete units and formulating a typology is a reductive process, thus a number of caveats apply to this analysis. First there were numerous cases where worksites fell across multiple categories. This was particularly the case with practitioners from the music and performing arts sector whose works are created and consumed at the same location, or a clothing designer whose studio is also their shopfront. To avoid double counting, these cases were assigned to one category only, usually split in favour of the site’s main function (i.e. performance sites to Front spaces). During interviews, participants were asked to locate parts of Darwin they went to for work, rather than detail the exact role or name for each of those spaces. While most participants were forthcoming and descriptive in their responses, in two percent of cases (n=11) the role of that particular space was undefined. These spaces were placed into the “back” category. Additionally, the data was coded to refer to individual location instances aggregated to the SLA level, and does not take into account the role of specific facilities within suburbs, even though certain spaces were referred to regularly in the transcripts. It was often the case that a front space for one creative industry practitioner was a key production site for another, or operated simultaneously as a networking site for both. Future disaggregated analyses will tease out the important roles that individual venues play in Darwin’s creative economy, but are beyond this article’s scope. Finally, this analysis is only a snapshot in time, and captures some of the ephemeral and seasonal aspects of creative workplaces in Darwin that occurred around the time of interviewing. To illustrate, there are instances of photographers indicating photo shoot locations, sites that may only be used once, or may be returned to on multiple occasions. As such, if this exercise were to be carried out at another time, a different geography may result. Results A cross-tabulation of the workplace typology against major and minor locations is given in Table 2. Only 20 per cent of worksites were designated as major worksites with the remaining 80 per cent falling into the minor category. There was a noticeable split between Back and Front spaces and their Major/Minor designation. 77 per cent of back spaces were major locations, while the majority of Front spaces (92 per cent) fell into the minor category. The four most frequently occurring Minor Front spaces – client location, performance space, markets and gallery – collectively comprise one third of all workplaces for participants, pointing to their important role as interfacing spaces between creative output produced or worked on elsewhere, and wider publics/audiences. Understandably, all supply sites and networking places were categorised as minor, with each making up approximately 20 per cent of all workplaces. Table 2: creative workplaces cross tabulated against primary and secondary workplaces and divided by creative workplace typology. Major Minor Grand Total Back Office 44 1 45 Studio 22 - 22 Rehearsal Space 7 11 18 Undefined - 11 11 Teaching Space 3 1 4 Factory 1 - 1 Recording Studio 1 - 1 Leanyer Swamp 1 - 1 Back space total 79 24 103 Front Client Location - 70 70 Performance Space 2 67 69 Market 1 11 12 Gallery 3 8 11 Site - 8 8 Shopfront 1 3 4 Exhibition Space - 3 3 Cinema 2 1 3 Museum 1 1 2 Shop/Studio 1 - 1 Gallery and Office 1 - 1 NightClub 1 - 1 Festival space - 1 1 Library 1 - 1 Front Space total 14 173 187 Networking Meeting Place - 94 94 Networking space total - 94 94 Supply Supplier - 52 52 Photoshoot Location - 14 14 Story Location - 9 9 Shoot Location - 7 7 Storage - 4 4 Bank - 1 1 Printer - 1 1 Supply Space total - 88 88 Grand Total 93 379 472 The maps in Figures 1 through 4 analyse the results spatially, with individual SLA scores provided in Table 3. The maps use location quotients, representing the diversion of each SLA from the city-wide average. Values below one represent a less than average result, values greater than one reflecting higher results. The City-Inner SLA maintains the highest overall percentage of Darwin’s creative worksites (35 per cent of the total) across three categories, Front, Back and especially Networking sites (60 per cent). The concentration of key arts institutions, performance spaces and CBD office space is the primary reason for this finding. Additionally, the volume of hospitality venues in the CBD made it an amenable place to conduct meetings away from major back spaces. Figure 1: Back spaces by Statistical Local Areas Figure 2: Front spaces by Statistical Local Areas Figure 3: Networking sites, by Statistical Local Areas Figure 4: Supply sites by Statistical Local Areas However this should not deter from the fact that the majority of all worksites (65 per cent) indicated by participants actually reside in suburban locations. Numerically, the vast majority (70 per cent) of Darwin’s Front spaces are peppered across the suburbs, with agglomerations occurring in The Gardens, Fannie Bay, Nightcliff and Parap. The Gardens is the location for Darwin’s biggest weekly market (Mindl Beach night market), and a performance space for festivals and events during the city’s long dry season. Mirroring more the cultures of its neighbouring SE Asian counterparts, Darwin sustains a vibrant market culture unlike that of any other Australian capital city. As the top end region is monsoonal, six months of the year is guaranteed to be virtually rain free, allowing for outdoor activities such as markets and festivals to flourish. Markets in Darwin have a distinctly suburban geography with each of the three top suburban SLAs (as measured by Front spaces) hosting a regular market, each acting as temporary sites of networking and encounter for creative producers and audiences. Importantly, over half of the city’s production sites (Back spaces) were dispersed across the suburbs in two visible arcs, one extending from the city taking in Fannie Bay and across to Winnellie via Parap, and through the northern coastal SLAs from Coconut Grove to Brinkin (Figure 1). Interestingly, 85 per cent of all supply points were also in suburban locations. Figure 4 maps this suburban specialisation, with the light industrial suburb of Winnellie being the primary location for Darwin’s creative practitioners to source supplies. Table 3: Top ten suburbs by workplace mentions, tabulated by workplace type* SLA name Front Back Networking Supply Workplace total Inner City/CBD City - Inner 56 (29.9%) 35 (36%) 57 (60.6%) 13 (14.8%) 162 (34.3%) Inner City Total 56 (29.9%) 35 (36%) 57 (60.6%) 13 (14.8%) 162 (34.3%) Top 10 suburban The Gardens 30 (16%) 3 (2.9%) 6 (6.4%) 5 (5.7%) 44 (9.3%) Winnellie 3 (1.6%) 7 (6.8%) 1 (1.1%) 24 (27.3%) 35 (7.4%) Parap 14 (7.5%) 4 (3.9%) 6 (6.4%) 9 (10.2%) 33 (7%) Fannie Bay 17 (9.1%) 5 (4.9%) 4 (4.3%) 2 (2.3%) 28 (5.9%) Nightcliff 14 (7.5%) 7 (6.8%) 2 (2.1%) 4 (4.5%) 27 (5.7%) Stuart Park 4 (2.1%) 8 (7.8%) 4 (4.3%) 4 (4.5%) 20 (4.2%) Brinkin 1 (0.5%) 8 (7.8%) 9 (9.6%) 2 (2.3%) 20 (4.2%) Larrakeyah 5 (2.7%) 5 (4.9%) 1 (1.1%) 3 (3.4%) 14 (3%) City - Remainder 5 (2.7%) 2 (1.9%) 0 (0%) 6 (6.8%) 13 (2.8%) Coconut Grove 3 (1.6%) 4 (3.9%) 1 (1.1%) 4 (4.5%) 12 (2.5%) Rapid Creek 3 (1.6%) 6 (5.8%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 9 (1.9%) Suburban Total** 131 (70.1%) 67 (65%) 37 (39.4%) 75 (85%) 310 (65.7%) City-Wide Total 187 103 94 88 472 *All percentages calculated from city- wide total **Suburban total row includes all 27 suburbs, not just top tens Discussion There are two key points to take from this analysis. First, the results show the usefulness of combining in-depth qualitative research with GIS mapping methods. Interviewing creative workers about where activities in their working days (or nights) take place, rather than defaulting to incomplete industry statistics can reveal a more comprehensive view of where creative work manifests in the city. Second, the role that multiple, decentred and often suburban facilities played as sites of supply, production and consumption in Darwin’s creative economy leads theories about the spatiality of creativity in the city in new directions. These results clearly show that the cultural binaries that theorists have assumed shape perceptions of the city and its suburbs do not appear in this instance to be infusing the everyday nature of creative work in the city. What was revealed by this data is that creative work in the city creates a variegated city produced through practitioners’ ordinary daily activities. Creative workers are not necessarily resisting or reinventing ideas of what the suburbs mean, they are getting on with creative work in ways that connect suburbs and the city centre in complex – and yet sometimes quite prosaic – ways. This is not to say that the suburbs do not present challenges for the effective conduct of creative work in Darwin – transport availability and lack of facilities were consistently cited problems by practitioners – but instead what is argued here is that ways of understanding the suburbs (in popular discourse, and in response in critical cultural theory) that emanate from Sydney or Los Angeles do not provide a universal conceptual framework for a city like Darwin. By not presuming that there is a meta-discourse of suburbs and city centres that everyone in every city is bound to, this analysis captured a different geography. In conclusion, the case of Darwin displayed decentred and dispersed sites of creativity as the norm rather than the exception. Accordingly, creative city planning strategies should take into account that decentralised and varied creative work sites exist beyond the purview of flagship institutions and visible creative precincts. References Brennan-Horley, Chris. “Multiple Work Sites and City-Wide Networks: A Topological Approach to Understanding Creative Work.” Australian Geographer 41 (2010): 39-56. ———, and Chris Gibson. “Where Is Creativity in the City? Integrating Qualitative and GIS Methods.” Environment and Planning A 41 (2009): 2295–2614.Collis, Christy, Emma Felton, and Phil Graham. “Beyond the Inner City: Real and Imagined Places in Creative Place Policy and Practice.” The Information Society 26 (2010): 104-112. Dowling, Robyn, and Kathy Mee. “Tales of the City: Western Sydney at the End of the Millennium.” Sydney: The Emergence of a World City. Ed. John Connell. Melbourne: Oxford UP, 2000. Drake, Graham. “‘This Place Gives Me Space’: Place and Creativity in the Creative Industries.” Geoforum 34 (2003): 511–524. Felton, Emma, Christy Collis and Phil Graham. “Making Connections: Creative Industries Networks in Outer-Suburban Locations.” Australian Geographer 41 (2010): 57-70. Gibson, Chris, and Chris Brennan-Horley. “Goodbye Pram City: Beyond Inner/Outer Zone Binaries in Creative City Research.” Urban Policy and Research 24 (2006): 455–71. ———, Peter Murphy, and Robert Freestone. “Employment and Socio-Spatial Relations in Australia's Cultural Economy.” Australian Geographer 33 (2002): 173-189. Landry, Charles. The Creative City: A Toolkit for Urban Innovators. London: Comedia/Earthscan, 2000. Lea, Tess, Susan Luckman, Chris Gibson, Donal Fitzpatrick, Chris Brennan-Horley, Julie Willoughby-Smith, and Karen Hughes. Creative Tropical City: Mapping Darwin’s Creative Industries. Darwin: Charles Darwin University, 2009. Luckman, Sue, Chris Gibson, and Tess Lea. “Mosquitoes in the Mix: How Transferable Is Creative City Thinking?” Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography (2009): 30, 47-63. Markusen, Ann, Gregory Wassall, Douglas DeNatale, and Randy Cohen. “Defining the Creative Economy: Industry and Occupational Approaches.” Economic Development Quarterly 22 (2008): 24-45. Matei, Sorin, Sandra Ball-Rokeach, and Jack Qiu. “Fear and Misperception of Los Angeles Urban Space: A Spatial-Statistical Study of Communication-Shaped Mental Maps.” Communication Research 28 (2001): 429-463. McCannell, Dean. “Staged Authenticity: Arrangements of Social Space in Tourist Settings.” The American Journal of Sociology 79 (1973): 589-603. Mee, Kathy. “Dressing Up the Suburbs: Representations of Western Sydney.” Metropolis Now: Planning and the Urban in Contemporary Australia Eds. Katherine Gibson and Sophie Watson. Sydney: Pluto Press, 1994. 60–77. Powell, Diane. Out West: Perceptions of Sydney’s Western Suburbs. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1993. Shorthose, Jim. “Accounting for Independent Creativity in the New Cultural Economy.” Media International Australia 112 (2004): 150-161. Scott, Allen J. The Cultural Economy of Cities. London: Sage, 2000. Tuan, Yi-Fu. “Images and Mental Maps.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 65 (1975): 205-213. Watson, Allan. “Global Music City: Knowledge and Geographical Proximity in London’s Recorded Music Industry.” Area 40 (2008): 12–23.

The purpose of this research project was to explore the English communicative competency of management and supervisory level employees within the South Mrican hospitality industry. The Pro lit English Written Assessment, a competency-based assessment tool, was used to establish a relatively objective measure of the English communicative competency of nineteen managers and supervisors. Thereafter thirteen of these respondents were interviewed to determine their perceptions of their English communicative competency and the impact thereof on their work situation, as well as their perceptions of their learning needs and recommendations for intervention. The researcher selected a multi-method approach to the investigation and sought both quantitative and qualitative data. The assessment revealed that the English reading and writing ability of the respondents is distinctly lower than their recorded education level and inadequate in relation to the tasks they are expected to perform at work. The interviews indicated that the respondents are not aware of their lack of English communicative competency or the implications thereof. However, the respondents expressed important insights into the factors that should be taken into account when planning an educational intervention III an organization. These included the need to incorporate English second language learning principles, to treat the learner as an individual, to involve the learner in the decision-making process, to consider the practical concerns of the learner and to ensure that the programme content is appropriate. Recommendations for human resource practices and research in the hospitality industry are presented.

Thesis (MTech (Tourism and Hospitality Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017.
The hospitality industry is one of the most popular industries in Cape Town, where it plays a major role in the economy and offers many employment opportunities. Because of this, one might have thought that learners would be encouraged to pursue a career in the industry. But learners and Life Orientation teachers in black township schools do not know about the hospitality industry: Hospitality Studies is not offered as a subject and learners receive no career guidance about this industry. This study investigates the extent of knowledge among Grade 11 learners and LO teachers in black township high schools about the hospitality industry, with a focus on the extent to which these learners are guided towards pursuing a career in the industry. The study therefore examines the information given to Grade 11 learners about the hospitality industry and the information LO teachers have about the industry to equip them to guide learners. The aim of the study is to highlight the knowledge gap that exists amongst Grade 11 and LO teachers when it comes to the hospitality industry, with the ultimate object of enhancing awareness of the industry so that learners can make meaningful career choices informed by that awareness.

Thesis (PhD)--University of Stellenbosch, 2004.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The globalisation of business is probably the most important topic of discussion in business around the world. Globalisation impacts on business processes, and changes in the processes of economic and political liberalisation signify a radical shift in thinking about how the world works and how it should be organised. The process of change consequently means having to deal with increasing complexity. It is the complexity of change that prompts the urgency to improve the thinking of management in an organisation. As adult learners, managers need different competencies to operate; in addition their thinking skills need to be developed, as they are the key drivers in an organisation going through transformation. In a needs' assessment in a financial services organisation operating in the global environment, a need for training of middle managers to help them improve their thinking skills in order to become more effective thinkers was determined. The need to train adults to develop cognitive skills prompted a specific thinking skills intervention and the facilitation thereof. A Thinking Skills Programme aimed at teaching thinking dispositions and thinking skills was implemented as a programme to teach the managers to become effective thinkers. The study was approached from a programme evaluative perspective. The purpose of the programme was an improvement-orientated evaluation and was designed to evaluate the outcomes of the programme. Qualitative data was collected through a pre- assessment and postassessment process. Open-ended questionnaires as well as other qualitative methods were used in the assessment to capture the data. The data analysis was done through content analysis. In the process of determining the patterns and processes in the preassessment, observations, semi-structured interviews, field notes and post-assessment, the researcher looked for themes or interconnections that emerged in the units, sub-categories and categories. The sub-categories that emerged were derived from the frequency of appearance in the answers of the participants in the questionnaires. The post-assessment feedback categories indicated that a shift in effective thinking had taken place in the participants. The most significant difference in their thinking was the awareness of their thinking. They reflected on their thinking while solving problems, which is evidence of effective thinking. They used the thinking tools to help them solve problems. The intervention influenced the participants to be more creative in solving problems, which was not evident in the pre-assessment. The evaluation of the outcome of the programme through the application of a Thinking Skills Programme was successful. This was demonstrated by the fact that in the measurement of the outcome of the programme it was evident that the middle managers had become more aware of their thinking and that they applied the thinking dispositions and thinking tools in their daily managerial activities. They had become more effective thinkers.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die globalisering van die sakewêreld is waarskynlik die belangrikste besprekingspunt in dié sektor regoor die wêreld. Globalisering het 'n impak op sakeprosesse, en veranderings in die prosesse van ekonomiese en politieke liberalisering dui op 'n radikale verandering in denke oor hoe die wêreld werk en hoe dit georganiseer behoort te word. Die proses van verandering dui gevolglik daarop dat daar rekening gehou moet word met toenemende kompleksiteit. Dit is die kompleksiteit van verandering wat aanleiding gee tot die belangrikheid daarvan om die denkvaardighede van die bestuur in 'n organisasie te verbeter. As volwasse leerders benodig bestuurders verskillende vaardighede om hulle taak te verrig, en hulle denkvaardighede moet ontwikkel word aangesien hulle die dryfkrag is van 'n organisasie wat transformasie ondergaan. In 'n behoeftebepaling in 'n finansiële dienste organisasie wat op die wêreldmark meeding, is die behoefte geïdentifiseer aan opleiding vir middelvlak bestuurders om hulle denkvaardighede te help verbeter, ten einde van hulle meer effektiewe denkers te maak. Die behoefte om volwassenes op te lei in die ontwikkeling van kognitiewe vaardighede het aanleiding gegee tot In spesifieke denkvaardigheidsintervensie en die fasilitering daarvan. 'n Denkvaardigheidsprogram gemik op die onderrig van denkdisposisies en -vaardighede is as 'n program ingestelom bestuurders op te lei om effektiewe denkers te word. Die studie is benader vanuit 'n programevaluasie-perspektief. Die doel van die program was 'n verbeteringsgeoriënteerde evaluasie en dit is ontwerp om die uitkomstes van die program te evalueer. Kwalitatiewe data is versamel deur middel van 'n pre- en postassesseringsproses. Oopeindevraelyste asook ander kwalitatiewe metodes is in die assessering gebruik om data te versamel. Die data-analise is gedoen deur inhoudsanalise. Vir die bepaling van die patrone en prosesse in die pre-assessering, is observasies, semigestruktureerde onderhoude en veldaantekeninge gebruik. Vir die postassessering het die navorser gesoek na temas of interkonneksies wat na vore gekom het in die eenhede, subkategorieë en kategorieë. Die subkategorieë wat na vore gekom het, is geïdentifiseer op grond van die frekwensie van voorkoms in die antwoorde van die deelnemers wat die vraelyste voltooi het. Die terugvoeringskategorieë in die postassessering het aangetoon dat 'n verandering in effektiewe denke by die deelnemers plaasgevind het. Die mees beduidende verandering in hulle denke was die bewustheid van hulle denke. Deelnemers het gereflekteer op hulle denke tydens probleemoplossing, wat as bewys dien van effektiewe denke. Hulle het die denkinstrumente gebruik om hulle te help om probleme op te los. Die intervensie het tot gevolg gehad dat die deelnemers meer kreatief tydens probleemoplossing was, wat nie tydens die pre-assessering geblyk het nie. Die evaluering van die uitkoms van die program deur die toepassing van 'n Denkvaardigheidsprogram was suksesvol. Dit is gedemonstreer deur die feit dat in die meting van die uitkoms van die program dit duidelik geblyk het dat die middelvlak bestuurders meer bewus geraak het van hulle denke en dat hulle die denkdisposisies en denkinstrumente in hulle daaglikse bestuursaktiwiteite toegepas het. Hulle het meer effektiewe denkers geword.

Thesis (MTech (Tourism and Hospitality Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2009.
The potential for the sex tourism industry to become legalised in South Africa with the upcoming 2010 FIFA World Cup is an issue which has raised much controversy and is now at the top of the agenda for debate within government, the business sector and civil society. The study investigates perceptions of students at a Further Education & Training College towards the sex tourism industry, together with selected components of that industry. The study is undertaken to better understand student's perceptions of the sex tourism industry. In order to achieve this, the researcher set out to better understand the sex tourism industry as a whole; as well as to investigate selected socio-cultural impacts that the sex tourism industry can have upon society in order to explore the positive and negative impacts that sex tourism can have upon the youth. In terms of South African legislation, prostitution is illegal under the Sexual Offences Act 23 of 1957, and the study examines current calls for the sex tourism industry to be legalised or decriminalised in light ofthe forthcoming 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup. The study further examines life orientation for learners and sex education for sex workers. Life orientation is examined as it may have an effect on students' perceptions towards the sex tourism industry. The training of tourism and hospitality staff is seen as a vehicle for combating one of the components ofthe sex tourism industry, namely, child sex tourism and, thus, it is necessary to examine a number ofits other components. The study briefly touches on life orientation, as a key element in ensuring that learners become competent members of society, and as a tool which assists in providing them with essential life skills. Sex education is seen as necessary for both learners and sex workers in order to enable them to comprehend their rights and choices in life. For the purposes ofthe empirical study, the researcher makes use of first year tourism students at an FET College to gain insight into a student's perspective of the sex tourism industry. The iv researcher makes use of students in order to obtain a varied perspective as the students hail from different walks oflife and have diverse views and opinions. Entry into prostitution comes as a result of one or more of a number of contributing factors such as poverty and human trafficking. The contributing factors are researched and are explained in the literature review. The need to conduct the study emanates from the fact that the sex industry forms a large part of the tourism industry and it is a growing industry in South Africa. The research focuses on two areas: the students' perceptions of the sex tourism industry and the social impacts that the sex tourism industry can have upon society. The research methodology includes a literature search followed by the data collection for the empirical survey. The data collection procedure is explained in detail in the relevant chapter. A combination of the qualitative and quantitative approaches are followed for the· empirical survey. Such an approach is also known as a ''triangulative approach". The empirical survey together with the ensuing statistical analysis are conducted in collaboration with the CPUT registered statistician. The responses to the questionnaire are statistically analysed by the statistician, after which the results are described and interpreted by the researcher. The study finds that the majority of students do not want the sex tourism industry to become legalised and perceive the sex industry as immoral. The social impacts of the sex tourism industry can be harmful to society and the study found that the majority ofstudents understood the impact the industry can have and the role that education plays in reducing a few ofthese selected impacts. Finally, a set ofrecommendations and a number ofconcluding remarks are made. A comprehensive bibliography is included.

Thesis (MTech (Tourism and Hospitality Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017.
The study was planned to investigate the relevance of the National Certificate Vocational tourism programme for the South African tourism industry in terms of the employability and skills required by tourism students to work in the tourism industry, once they graduated. The main objective of this study was to identify the challenges facing the National Certificate Vocational tourism programme, with sub-objectives focussing on the level of graduates’ employability, articulation from the National Certificate Vocational programme to higher education, as well as on the skills and abilities needed by National Certificate Vocational lecturers to teach in their specific field. The research was conducted in the form of an empirical survey to gather information using research questionnaires. A mixed methods approach, using both a quantitative and qualitative methodology, was employed to gather relevant data for the study. Qualitative questionnaires were distributed to a target population comprising conveniently selected National Certificate Vocational Tourism graduates (a total sample of 100), and National Certificate Vocational lecturers (a sample of 50 suitably qualified persons), at four Technical Vocational Education and Training colleges in the Western Cape. Personal interviews were conducted with ten conveniently selected tourism industry employers and role-players. Ten specifically identified representatives of tourism and government education departments and other government organisations were also part of the target population. The first part of the study looked at the history of Vocational Education and how it is practised in other countries. The history of the National Certificate Vocational programmes within South Africa is explained, as well as the challenges facing the National Certificate Vocational tourism qualification and its relevance to the tourism industry in South Africa. Results from the research suggested that National Certificate Vocational tourism students are only employable in small to medium micro enterprises (SMMEs) once they graduate. It was concluded that graduates would need more experience and practical knowledge to be employable in the wider tourism labour market. The results confirm that the updated National Certificate Vocational tourism curriculum is critically important to make the qualification more relevant to the South African tourism industry.

Dissertation submitted in compliance with the requirements for the Master's Degree in Technology: Food and Beverage Management at the Durban Institute of Technology, 2003.
Historically, any large hotel of standing/rating in South Africa would staff the top levels of their kitchen brigade with educated, professional cooks imported from all over the world from such places as Germany, Switzerland, England or France, to name but a few
M

The primary purpose of this study was to determine how the current hospitality management curriculum at The International Hotel School contributes to students’ preparedness from their own perspectives. Generic and curriculum specific skills that can be used for curriculum evaluation were identified, a framework of curriculum variables to rate the level of student preparedness was developed, the effectiveness of the hospitality management curriculum from the perspectives of students’ perceptions of preparedness was analysed, and the aspects that contribute most to student preparedness were identified through a literature study and an empirical investigation. The findings were summarised and it was recommended that The International Hotel School needs to review the hotel and restaurant accounting course and the experiential learning components. Furthermore, lecturers of The International Hotel School should receive training on the implementation of more interactive course content delivery methods.
Educational Studies
M. Ed. (Adult Education)

Submitted in full requirement of Degree of Master of Management Sciences Specialising in Hospitality and Tourism , Department of Hospitality and Tourism, Faculty of Management Sciences, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Sfrica. 2015.
There is a considerable gap between what is provided by tourism education providers and the needs expressed by the industry. Literature pertaining to private higher education institutions based in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) curriculum provision is very limited. Therefore, this study sought to determine whether tourism qualifications offered at registered private higher education institutions in KZN are aligned with the needs of the local tourism industry. This study accordingly identified and investigated the gaps between the needs of the local tourism industry and the core tourism curriculum offered at private institutions. In addition, the study closely examined the curricula offered by analysing and comparing the similarities and differences between the tourism curriculums of each private institution. In order to provide solutions and recommendations for future curriculum development, stakeholder’s views on what a tourism curriculum offered at private higher education institutions should entail was evaluated. Respondents comprised of managers from selected sectors of the local tourism industry, tourism graduates, tourism curriculum designers and tourism academics of the selected private higher education institutions. To achieve the first and third objective, a mixed-methods approach was adapted. This empirical study utilised electronic surveys to obtain a sample of 164 participants. A document analysis entailing thematic analysis was also complied to address the second objective. The findings revealed that there are more similarities amongst the education providers’ formal curriculum content than differences. However, the tourism curricula on offer by all the sampled private higher education institutions were observed not to align with the needs of the local tourism industry. Therefore, this study identified numerous gaps between the needs of the local tourism industry and the provisions by private higher education institutions. The misalignment was found to be attributable to multiple factors for which recommendations are made.
M

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Master’s Degree in Technology: Somatology, Durban University of Technology, 2014
The beginning of the 20th century presented the Somatology profession with unprecedented challenges of acquiring a scientific base and achieving professionalisation. It is in this milieu that a few research studies were previously undertaken with regard to Somatology education however, none particularly focused in relation to areas that are preparing graduates for industry. The current study was a national study that explored the existing National Diploma offering through the lens of students, educators and members of the Durban University of Technology’s Advisory Board. In particular, it focused on developing broad guidelines to guide academics on what further content was required to be integrated into the current Somatology education. A triangulated approach using both quantitative and qualitative methods was used to guide the operationalisation of the research process. Five Universities of Technology participated in the study, viz. Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Central University of Technology, Durban University of Technology, Tshwane University of Technology and the University of Johannesburg. Third year and B.Tech students were surveyed with regard to the current Somatology Programme and what further aspects needed to be integrated into it to better prepare graduates for industry. In addition, in-depth interviews were also held with ten academics, two from each University of Technology, to examine what they thought needed to be included in education to strengthen the current programme. The same was done through a focus group discussion with members of the Durban University of Technology Advisory Board. A programme analysis of current content being taught at the five Universities was also undertaken. The results reflected that although most of the samples were satisfied with the current educational programme, they still believed that gaps existed and that graduates were still not adequately prepared for industry. It was found that both students and educators saw the need for more therapies to be included in the training. Both educators and the Advisory Board sample also saw the need for a stronger emphasis to be placed on practical skill development. The Advisory Board sample also strongly articulated for training to occur in an industry context as opposed to the University based experiential setting. Using data from these multiple samples, a set of guidelines was developed and presented. These guidelines were based on what further therapies needed to be integrated into education. The Duke Integrative Medicines Wheel of Health was adopted as the theoretical framework of the study. It was also utilised to identify specific areas that needed to be interwoven into education to further strengthen graduates’ preparedness for industry.