The Crusade of the Hotel Management Schools
A rumble of discontent is spreading through the Hotel Management Schools. Established schools are pillorying the different standards. The industry is on a crusade to gain better recognition of their vocational training programmes at federallevel.
What is at stake is Switzerland's reputation as a training location.
Text: Andreas Bättig I Illustration: Rolf Willi
Hotel after hotel are strung along the streets of Macau in the Chinese special
administrative region. Massive buildings with thousands of rooms. Also known as the Las Vegas of the East, Macua is a gambler's paradise, generating billions every year. The young Chinese woman Hoi Ton Vong came from here originally. The 19-year-old left her home town for Switzerland, to study at the Hotel Management School of the Swiss School of Tourism and Hospitality in Passugg. "Many Chinese people come to Switzerland because the Swiss Hotel Management Schools have an excellent
reputation", says Vong. "If you can boast a Swiss degree, then you have a better chance of finding a job in China." Vong came to Switzerland last August and is in her third semester at the school. Like the young Chinese woman, hundreds of oversea residents are drawn to the country every year, all wanting to be trained at one of the numerous Hotel Management Schools. Competition between these schools is fierce. "Agents in China heavily invest in advertising the Hotel Management Schools in Switzerland", says Knut Rupprecht, Head of the Hotel Management School SSTH in Passugg. However, he criticises that the diplomas being touted are often not even Swiss ones. "Many small management schools only have their site in Switzerland. The vocational training has nothing to do with the local education system then and often cannot comply with their standards", says Rupprecht. The Association of Swiss Hotel Management Schools (ASEH) was founded in 1986 precisely because major quality differences exist between the Hotel Management Schools. The intention was to accept only those institutions that had a robust programme of vocational training.
Meanwhile, it has not escaped the attention of the Chinese government that some of the Swiss Hotel Management Schools are luring people under false pretences.
Foreign Title
Until recently, the SSTH Passugg was a member of the ASEH. However, it
announced in June that it would be leaving the association together with the Hotel Management School of Thun (HF Thun). "Just recently, the strategic institutions of HF Thun and SSTH have gained the impression that the interests of the two schools are no longer optimally represented and that they have nothing much in common with some of the other members", a press release states. Rupprecht spells it out more clearly: "Unlike ourselves, some of the schools have not gone through the lengthy accreditation process the Swiss government demands of the Colleges of Professional Education and Training (Höhere Fachschule = HF). That is why you cannot compare the schools within the association."
Rupprecht does not wish to suggest that the other Hotel Management Schools in the ASEH are untrustworthy per se. "If other schools are offering Bachelor and Master diplomas from universities from overseas such as the USA or England, this no longer has much to do with Swissness", he criticises. According to his Chinese students, the Chinese government has also caught wind of the fact that several Swiss Hotel
Management Schools are luring their fellow countrymen under false pretences now. "It has not gone unnoticed that big business is being operated with the students", says Rupprecht. For Christoph Rohn, Head of the Hotel Management School in Thun, the differences between the schools within the ASEH were also simply too large. "It is true that we offer training for the same industry, however, there is too little common ground." Consequently, they have decided that the Hotel Management School of Thun would rather be a member of the sub-conference of Professional Education and Training Colleges for Tourism, Hotel/Catering, Facility Management founded in 2013. "Our interests will be better represented with this sub-conference and only schools recognised as a Professional Education and Training College are members."
Association as a marketing tool
One of these schools recognised by the federal government is the Swiss Hotel
Management Academy Lucerne (SHL). Unlike the colleges in Passugg and Thun, the SHL has not left the ASEH. "But it is something that we have already considered", says the director, Christa Augsburger. According to Augsburger, the association is no longer fulfilling its original purpose of quality assurance. "It is increasingly being used as a marketing tool by the private schools." Augsburger also finds it disturbing that many of these schools are using Switzerland to advertise overseas although the Bachelor or Master's degree they offer is from a foreign country. A situation that Augsburger is only too well aware of. There are numerous such private colleges peppered around Lucerne. One of them was the cause of rather scandalous headlines in 2010. The college went bankrupt, funds were embezzled, the foreign students suddenly found themselves out on the streets – with no money and no degree. "As a result of this incident, one of our representatives was officially
reprimanded at a reception held by the Minister for Tourism in Sri Lanka. The minister thought it was us who had been declared bankrupt", says Augsburger. "Switzerland's reputation as an educational location suffers through such incidents", Augsburger is convinced.
The ASEH itself does not wish to pass comment on members leaving, as this is not yet in effect - membership is still valid until the end of the year. Alain Brünier, President of the ASEH and Director of Ecole Hôtelière de Genève, says "We regret this move but respect the decision." Brünier counters the accusation that not all ASEH schools have met the federal education system's standards: "The facilities criticised are run by colleagues with the same fundamental training. They train up-and-coming talent who are held in high esteem by the
industry." The decision, therefore, should be regarded more for political reasons than from rational motives. "As a matter of fact, extending the number of ASEH members has always been unanimously decided and in full knowledge of the facts», says
Brünier. That is to say, ASEH members must meet "Swissness" criteria (see box). Now, Federal Bern has also recognised that there is a need for action with regard to the Colleges of Higher Education and Training. Admittedly, the Swiss Council of States rejected the move to allow Colleges of Higher Education and Training - and hence the Hotel Management Schools – –from offering a "Professional Bachelor". However, according to Eva Desarzens, General Secretary of the Swiss Conference of Colleges of Higher Education and Training, the federally-recognised diploma of the College of Higher Education and Training should be upgraded. One new
development is that a logo of the Swiss flag may now be printed on the diplomas. The aim, however, is to allow the Colleges of Higher Education and Training to award a federal diploma with a logo of the federal coat of arms similar to all other degrees for vocational training. Only those who have gone through the time-consuming federal recognition process should be entitled to use this logo on their diplomas. The first step is to be the new English translation of the title, which should help strengthen the market position overseas. The new title should now be "Advanced Federal Diploma of Higher Education". "The Professional Appointments Committee
(Berufsbildungskommission) will make a decision on this proposal at the end of the year", says Desarzens. She is confident that "(Federal) will also be on the English HF diplomas."
At the moment, the situation for the recognised Hotel Management Schools is rather unsatisfactory, that their diplomas are not recognised abroad is a common
occurrence. "We are constantly receiving requests from former students wishing to continue their training abroad, asking if we can send a description of the diploma", says Christoph Rohn from the Hotel Management School in Thun, citing one example. "The terms Bachelor or Master are well known abroad", says Rohn.
Every minute in the school was simply "amazing" - wonderful.
A federal coat of arms on the Swiss diploma would make the document appear more official. Implementing a national qualifications framework for completing vocational
education and training (NQF vocational education and training) would also lead to an improvement in this regard.
Recommendations by the Embassies
If it were up to the industry association of Hotelleriesuisse, students should stay with those particular schools, whose training courses have been granted accreditation by the federal government through a process lasting many years. "This is a guarantee of quality. Something that a student can rely on", says Ueli Schneider, Head of
Education and member of the Hotelleriesuisse Executive Board. The recognised training courses include those of the Ecole Hôtelière de Genève EHG, the Swiss School of Tourism and Hospitality in Passugg, the Swiss Hotel Management School in Lucerne (Schweizerischen Hotelfachschule Luzern = SHL) and the Hotel
Management School Belvoir park in Zurich. Still undergoing the recognition procedure are: Scuola superiore alberghi- era e del turismo in Bellinzona, Vatel International Business School Hotel & Tourism Management Martigny as well as the Hotel Management School in Bern. The famous Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL) also offers an established course. As it happens, this is actually a University of Applied Sciences.
However, according to Schneider, the federal accreditation should have a much higher degree of recognition. "The embassies should make recommendations to interested parties and we hope that they point out this mark of quality." The cantons are equally as important as they are the ones who grant the visas. They should also be aware that the accredited schools are a serious business. "We consider this way to be more practical as opposed to restricting the competition with banned measures. That goes against our liberal mind-set", says Schneider.
At least Hoi Ton Vong can be assured that her diploma will be well received at home. After all, the SSTH Passugg is a recognised and established school. The young Chinese woman still has another one-and-a-half-years to go before she has
completed her course. She would then like to stay on in Switzerland and continue her further education. "I really enjoy the Swiss lifestyle", says Vong. Every minute in the school was simply "amazing" - wonderful. ■
