Tourism employers need skilled young workers but remain hesitant to hire graduates who can take six to 12 months to become fully productive and require substantial workplace training, industry experts say.
In a poll by Tourism Update, 48.4% of respondents said it takes more than six months for a graduate to become fully productive and 31.9% said they rarely hire fresh graduates.
According to World Metrics, tourism and hospitality in South Africa contributed R595 billion to South Africa’s economy in 2022, which is approximately 2.9% of GDP. Given that 32% of hospitality workers in South Africa are young people aged 15-24, these findings matter because tourism remains one of South Africa’s largest employers of young people and at a time when youth unemployment exceeds 60%.
If the industry needs skilled young workers, why are graduates struggling to find opportunities?
The biggest barrier preventing graduates from being work-ready is the large gap between a graduate’s skill set and the needs of the hospitality and tourism industry, says Gustav Pieterse, Chairperson of FEDHASA Inland.
Graduates often arrive with knowledge and enthusiasm but they are often without enough exposure to the pace, pressure, judgement and emotional intelligence required on the floor, he told Tourism Update.
Workplace experience takes time
Work readiness cannot be taught in a classroom, Pieterse says. “Hospitality is learned in action through guests, pressure, pace, emotion and expectation. A newly qualified graduate may have a solid understanding of hospitality theory but becoming truly productive in a live operating environment usually takes six to 12 months and sometimes longer depending on the complexity and pace of the business.”
The challenge is also the amount of investment needed by employers. Graduates take time to become productive and the staff responsible for training them lose productive time.
“In reality, close to half of a supervisor’s or mentor’s time can be spent training and supporting an intern. While they were investing in developing someone else, their own work still needed to get done. That has a very real impact on operations,” says Marilda Wiegand, a tourism and hospitality coach and consultant.
Graduate readiness is often treated as the responsibility of education institutions alone but employers, industry bodies and government all have a role to play in preparing graduates for work, Pieterse says.
“Employers need to take greater ownership of this journey. If we want better outcomes from newcomers, we need to build better support structures around them, proper induction, clear expectations, hands-on coaching, regular feedback, visible career pathways and real accountability from management.”
Public-private partnerships needed
That is not to say that the industry isn’t offering opportunities. However, in many cases, these efforts are isolated and on a smaller scale, Pieterse says. A coordinated national approach is needed to reach all parts of the hospitality and tourism industry from major hotels and lodges to restaurants, attractions, SMMEs and frontline operators, he says.
“If government views tourism and hospitality as part of the solution to unemployment and economic growth, then it must help create the conditions for that solution to succeed.”
This can be achieved through incentives, structured partnerships, sustainable funding and genuine collaboration between government and industry, adds Pieterse.
“We cannot keep asking whether graduates are work-ready without also asking whether the industry, education systems and government are truly ready to prepare them.”
