Hospitality and tourism students' part-time employment: Patterns, benefits and recognition

Part-time working has long been a part of the university student experience, and a variety of studies have examined the extent, reasons and nature of student part-time employment. In return for increasingly necessary financial reward, students provide employers with a flexible and intelligent workforce, and those studying hospitality and tourism management also bring with them a range of skills and knowledge which employers find important and useful. This paper reports on research that develops an understanding of the pattern of part-time working among a cohort of 486 undergraduate students studying hospitality and tourism subjects at an Australian university. This research identifies that the majority (77 per cent) of this cohort of students are involved in some form of part-time employment across a range of industries and on average work 16 hours per week. While the main reasons for working were financial, respondents recognised a range of non-pecuniary benefits accrued from their part-time employment and concluded that their employment did not have a negative effect on their studies. Underpinning this research is the notion that educators are changing their approach to the teaching of practical skills, and the findings from this research indicate that students desire more recognition of their employment commitments through the provision of flexible teaching methods, part-time contacts and formal credit for their experience.