Learn Tourism Management and Tour Operation
Tourism is a huge employer worldwide and in many countries it is the largest employer. In short, this is a significant industry that employs large numbers of people. Despite this fact; many of those who work in tourism, are relatively low paid.
If you aspire to a well paid and secure job in tourism; you either need to think about self employment (starting your own tourism business), or developing skills that will enable you to rise to a position of responsibility in a larger organisation such as a hotel, resort or theme park.
This course provides the skills and knowledge needed to build a career, following either of these pathways.
Course Structure
You need to study a total of six modules. This includes four core modules, and two electives.
Core Modules provide foundation knowledge for the Certificate in Tourism, and are:
Two Elective Modules can be chosen from of the following 8 modules:
- Leisure Facility Management I BRE205
- Ecotour Management BTR101
- Ecotourism Tour Guide Course BTR301
- Hotel Management BTR202
- Tourism II Special Interest Tourism BTR204
- Entrepreneurship BBS204
- Adventure Tourism BTR302
- Personnel Management VBS107
Content of Core Modules
Food & Beverage Management
This subject has 9 lessons as follows:
1.Human Nutrition - This covers all the major food groups and their importance in a nutritional diet. Also including factors in nutrition from compatibility and range of ingredients through to healthy cooking and eating methods.
2.Cooking - Includes various cooking methods for a variety of different foods, covering both palatability and digestibility through to the nutritional value in processing foods.
3.Kitchen & Food Management - Learn to maximise efficiency and service through proper management of kitchen facilities, including the handling of food storage and preparation, hygiene and ethics.
4.Planning A Menu - Covering menu planning for the needs of special groups in different situations, including children; adolescents; elderly people; expectant and nursing mothers; immigrants; vegetarians and other health related diets.
5.Alcoholic Beverages - Learn how to provide adequate variety and product knowledge in order to manage the provisions of alcoholic beverages appropriately for different situations.
6.Tea, Coffee and Non-Alcoholic Beverages - This lesson provides an understanding of non-alcoholic beverages available in the catering industry and how they should be made and served.
7.Scope & Nature Of Catering Services - Learn to understand the differences in appropriate management and catering for a variety of situations from pubs to a-la-carte.
8.Personnel Management -(waiting skills, staffing a restaurant, kitchen etc) This lesson covers the management of people in the food and restaurant industry, including training programs, job specifications, recruitment etc.
9.Management Of Catering Services - By consolidating the skills developed throughout this course you are given a comprehensive understanding of marketing through to food purchasing in order to effectively manage in the food and beverage industry.
Tourism 1
There are ten lessons in this module as follows:
1. Travel Industry Overview/Introduction : Holiday travel, Business travel, Resources, Components of travel (Accommodation, Transport, Food, Luggage/what to take, Health, Money, etc)
2. Destinations : Local, State, Interstate, International; health before departure.
3. Money, Insurance & Legalities : Credit cards, travelers cheques, exchange rates, International driving, quarantine laws, Islamic law, political concerns, tariffs, duty free, departure taxes etc.
4. Transport - Airline reservations : International Air Transport Assn, Aircraft types, Flight information, transfers, time zones, passports, visas, baggage, travelling with animals, making a reservation, etc.
5. Transport - Car Rental : Types of hire cars, reading manuals, different road rules, making reservations, cost structures, etc
6. Transport -Other, boat (ferries, cruising), bus, rail etc
7. Accommodation : Camping, Caravans, Tents, B & B's & Guesthouses, Hotels, Youth Hostels, Resorts, etc
8. Package Tours
9. Travel Agency Systems : Ethics, Tourist organisations, Client records and accounts procedures, etc.
10. Special Project -planning a trip
Bookkeeping I
There are 10 lessons as follows:
1. Introduction – Nature and Function of Accounting for Service Firms
2. The Balance Sheet
3. Analysing and Designing Accounting Systems
4. Cash Receipts and Cash Payments Journal
5. The General Journal
6. Profit and Loss Statements
7. Depreciation of Non-current Assets
8. Profit Determination and Balance Day Adjustments
9. Cash Control: Bank Reconciliation and Petty Cash
10. Cash Control: Budgeting
Event Management
There are nine lessons in this module as follows:
1. Scope and Nature of Event Management
2. Developing the Concept
3. Physical an Human Resources
4. Project Logistics
5. Marketing an Event
6. Financial Management
7. Risk Management
8. Staging the Event
9. After the Event
On completing these four core modules, you then select and complete two further (elective) modules; to complete the certificate.
Tips for Getting a Job (or a promotion)
This course can help a lot -but no course, not even from the best university -will by itself guarantee career success -The world is more complicated than that!
What Study Gets You a Job?
- Put yourself in the employers shoes -they get dozens (sometimes hundreds) of people competing for the same job.Their choices are usually based upon lots of different things (Your studies are part of their consideration, but only part)
- People who stand out from other applicants get the job; so you need to do things to make yourself stand out.
- In the past, a qualification made you stand out, because few people had qualifications -but today, most people have qualifications (There are a lot of people with degrees, diplomas and certificates who are unemployed)
Why Study then, if Qualified People are Unemployed?
Having a qualification may be no guarantee for work; but what you learn from a good course does greatly increase your opportunities to be employed.
Getting the Qualification is not as important as Learning what Employers Seek
Employers today look for all of the following:
- Ability to communicate verbally fast, clearly and effectively with co-workers and clients
- Ability to write in a concise, clear and accurate fashion
- Computer skills -not important everywhere; but IT skills are important in an increasing range of jobs
- Capacity to solve problems; fast when needed, and systematically and in detail when required
- Natural Efficiency -some people do things fast (naturally); others do things slow. Where an employer sees an indication of speed without compromising accuracy, the applicant can have an edge.
- Awareness of "state of play" in the industry
- Knowledge and skills that are pertinent to the job
- A thirst for learning -demonstrated by networking within industry, volunteering to get experience, memberships to clubs, societies, associations; reading literature
- Psychology and Personality -Employers are increasingly cautious about employing people who may not be a team player. Psychological profiling is used increasingly by employers to gain some insights into a person's profile.
- Presentation and Grooming -people who present as being well organised and well groomed will impress
How then can Doing a Course help Get a Job?
- Study can help a lot if it focuses on developing all of the things employers look for (the points above -and more)
- Courses at ACS and with our affiliate colleges do this -but not all colleges or universities have the same focus today.
What Can You do to Improve Your Career Prospects?
- Study a course for the right reasons and with the right attitude -Be open to learning, use the course to build a foundation, but understand that study is only the starting point, and that career success depends upon continuing your learning throughout your whole career, by reading, attending conferences, networking, being involved with colleagues, etc.
- Study a course that makes you stand out -a qualification that is different to all the other applicants will always catch the attention of a boss, and may be the difference between getting an interview or not.
- Build a mix of skills that is not the same as everyone else -if you study different modules at a different school, join different associations, volunteer for different organisations, network with different people -you will stand out from the crowd.
- Make sure your C.V. is really good -get help if you need it (Tutors at this school will help our students with their C.V.'s if you ask -no cost. Resume Writing services can also be used, but they charge)
- Recognise your weaknesses, and work on improving them -not just academically.
