Визы

By
Magdy Attalla, M.Sc.
Regional Marketing Director & Marketing Professor BHMS Business & Hotel Management School - Lucerne, Switzerland

Would you like to travel around the world? Are you interested in meeting people from different cultures and countries? Would you like to climb a career ladder in relatively short time? Are you hands-on and high energy person? If so, then you may consider a career in hospitality and tourism.

Hospitality and Tourism are people industries. To climb up your career ladder, you must enjoy dealing with people. Human skills and the ability to "empathise" are of great assets. The international hospitality and tourism has global standards and very few adjustments are required to move from one country to another. Instead of re-starting again every time you take a move to another country, you will rather climb further and your value goes up every time you change jobs and change country. For example, if you are a Front Office Manager in a large hotel in Switzerland and you move to the US, you become a Rooms Division Manager in a large hotel as well. The more you move, reasonably, the higher you rise. Besides, the hospitality and tourism have become the world's largest employers and provide highly rewarding and successful careers irrespective of sex, nationality or cultural background, something which no other industry can match. According to World Tourism Barometer - February 2011 "In 2010, World Tourism recovered more strongly from the shock it suffered from 2008 and 2009 due to the global financial crisis and economic recession". The need for manpower will always be there as people are constantly crossing borders every year. It is forecasted that 1.6 billion travellers cross borders by 2020 compared with 924 millions crossed borders on 2008. The more people travel, the more the demand for new hotels, resorts, cruise liners, airports, etc. I constantly travel around the world to recruit students to study in Swiss Hotel and Business Schools and also to give presentations in various local schools and universities. I noticed that skills-based education, learning-by-doing, or emphasis on developing the human resource were lacking in many academic curricula. In contrast to European institutions, and specifically Swiss Hotel & Business Schools, much emphasis is put on developing the human resource, human skills and addressing their specific needs. Our concern is to prepare individuals for the corporate level of the industry. At BHMS Switzerland, we are keen to grant dual qualifications in a fastest track possible. In the undergraduate level, students earn Swiss Higher Diploma (granted by BHMS Switzerland) as well as British BA Degree (granted by The Robert Gordon University RGU). Course duration is 36 months divided into 3 blocks of 6 months study followed by 3 blocks of 6 months of guaranteed paid internship in Switzerland. According to 2011 Guardian ranking of British Universities, RGU ranked 27th from 118 British Universities. In the postgraduate level, students earn Swiss Post Graduate Diploma as well as American MBA Degree (granted by City University of Seattle, USA) within 18 months period; 9 months study followed by 9 months of guaranteed paid internship in Switzerland. Student may specialize in Global Management or Hospitality Management. This education system allows student to conclude their studies in the fastest possible track thereby allowing them to launch their global career earlier than many graduates of other institutions in Switzerland or outside Switzerland. Our education is for dreamers, people who want to make it big in a relatively short time. It is also for people who feel the passion of "entrepreneurs" as they could launch their own business in relatively short time with relatively small capital.