Q & A

Your questions answered by Brian Mooney

My son worked in a local hotel during the summer. He really enjoyed the experience and says that he "had a ball". The hotel provided him with work experience in the restaurant, bar and banqueting and he says that he loved "the buzz of the different activities and dealing with different people, including overseas tourists". He is now in his Leaving Certificate year and says that he would love to work in the hotel business, following his Leaving Cert next June. I am worried, however, because I read so much about poor pay and long hours in the hotel and tourist industry, as well as poor career prospects. Is this true?

The short answer is no. There may have been a time when low pay, long hours and poor working conditions were prevalent in the hospitality sector - but that day is past. Market forces alone have dictated a rise in pay and improved conditions and the industry has made great strides to become a "best practice" employer through programmes such as Fáilte Ireland's Optimus and the Quality Employer Programme developed by the Irish Hotels Federation.

Tourism also offers huge opportunities for young people like your son. The industry is scheduled to double in size by 2012, by which time Ireland will welcome a projected 10 million visitors producing €6 billion in revenue. In order to cope with this growth, tourism needs to recruit 6,000 workers a year. The continued expansion of the sector has also created many opportunities for promotion and career development and young people can now climb the career ladder much faster than in the past.

The industry has opportunities for a wide range of skills in operations, management, sales and marketing, IT, Human Resources and many more. It also offers the attraction that courses leading to qualification in these skills are widely available in institutes of technology, tourism colleges, and Fáilte Ireland centres. Graduates from these courses achieve qualifications from Further Education & Training Awards Council (Fetac), Higher Education & Training Awards Council (Hetac) and other bodies, which are recognised internationally.

Fáilte Ireland has developed career paths across the spectrum of tourism careers including bar, restaurant, front office, accommodation, food and beverage, professional cooking, leisure centre operations, tourism services, hospitality skills and others, details of which are available through its offices, guidance counsellors in schools, and a range of media.

Your son can access up-to-date information on opportunities in the industry from the guidance counsellor in his school. All guidance counsellors throughout Ireland have just received a new careers video profiling industry success stories, a CD-Rom setting out courses, careers and development opportunities within the industry, a guide to careers in the tourism industry entitled Get a Life in Tourism, and a Go Places in Tourism prospectus for 2006. These provide an excellent overview of opportunities and career development paths within the industry and should be of assistance to you and your son as you evaluate career prospects within the industry.

These and other initiatives arise from the work of the Tourism Careers Promotion Group, which includes representatives of employer bodies, educators, careers specialists, and Fáilte Ireland. This group is organising the first National Career Festival for the tourism industry, which is running this week at venues in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Waterford, and Tralee. Events to be held during the festival include a Fáilte Ireland Go Places in Tourism Road Show, a College Open Day which will allow members of the public to visit colleges offering tourism-related courses, a second-level schools competition entitled The Next Generation Game, and Buddy Taster Days during which current employees in the industry will mentor a student, guidance counsellor or parent who is interested in finding out more about a career in the industry.

A visit to the Careers Festival before Friday would provide you and your son with an ideal opportunity to see what is on offer, to meet young people working in the industry and to talk directly with educators and employers. For details contact the People in Tourism Centre, Fáilte Ireland, telephone 1850 256 256 or website at www.failteireland.ie

Brian Mooney is president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors. E-mail questions to bmooney@irish- times.ie