Analysing employers’ expectations of employee skills in the South African tourism industry

Owing to the nature of the tourism industry, which is highly service orientated, employees should possess certain skills such as self-reliance, people and certain specialist skills, and general employability when working in this industry. However, it seems that employees are not well enough prepared and equipped with these skills to satisfy the requirements of employers. Thus human resource practitioners need to provide more in-service training. Furthermore, there is a high turnover of employees, which adds pressure to the management of human resources. Education, training and the creation of employment are amongst the key priorities of the South African government for improving the current labour situation in the tourism industry. However, the industry has complained that learners are not prepared for the workplace. Thus, it is important to determine the skills that are supposedly lacking. This study focused on comparing employers’ expectations of employee skills in the tourism industry and the skills acquired by learners in the Culture, Art, Tourism, Hospitality and Sport Skills Education Training Authorities’ (CATHSSETA) programmes with regard to self-reliance, people and certain specialist skills, and general employability.