Dr. Ren-Fang Chao
Distinguished Professor, College of Tourism and Hospitality
I-Shou University
No.1, Sec. 1, Syuecheng Rd., Dashu District, Kaohsiung City 84001,Taiwan, R.O.C.
Phone: +886-7-6577711 Ext.5021
Email: rfchao@isu.edu.tw
To support the development of tourism, hospitality and leisure industries in Taiwan, as well as to integrate strategic planning of E-Da World, I-Shou University (ISU) firstly launched the Department of Hospitality Management, the Department of Tourism, and the Department of Leisure Management. Later in 2011, the Department of Culinary Arts Management was established. ISU then officially established the College of Tourism and Hospitality. Actively cultivating hospitality industry professionals, our college has entered its sixth year. At the moment, the College of Tourism and Hospitality contains four departments and one specialized Program for Indigenous Peoples. Although the tourism and hospitality industry is practice-oriented, the College of Tourism and Hospitality at ISU, playing the role in higher education, has been devoting itself to blending theories with practices and cultivating specialists in tourism and hospitality with knowledge, skills, and abilities.
Every department at our college has on-campus and off-campus internships as part of the curriculum for students to put what they have learnt into practice. With the “learning by doing” teaching design, it is to develop the human resource of the tourism and hospitality industry at advanced education. Our college designs the programs by three aspects as learning, teaching, and practice and applies them to our educational system in order to combine the basic theories with real-world practices. To facilitate the teaching and practice, our college establishes a systematic and professional learning center which leads the nation, as providing practiced Travel Agency, Hospitality Operations Center, Multifunctional Teaching Kitchen, Scenario Teaching Restaurant, Mixology Center, Housekeeping Demo Room, Hospitality Service Center, Cooking Laboratory, and Baking Laboratory. They work together to provide a close-to-reality learning and practicing environment for our students.
As for course design, interactive learning which combines learning and teaching on both theories and practice makes students capable of integrating their knowledge into real-world practices. For example, the course “Introduction to Hospitality and Tourism” provides students with an opportunity to learn the basic theories of hospitality and tourism in the classroom-setting and undertake preliminary service of hospitality and tourism by activities such as tray service, restaurant service, travel planning, short-term on-campus internship and long-term off-campus internship. Besides, in order to equip students with the essence of service, our college provides community services courses for students to have first-hand experiences in serving the local communities. For example, our college has collaborated with the Tourism Bureau of Kaohsiung to provide our students with the chance to work at the tourism center and old-bridges scene spot of Dashu District for cleaning, tour guide and consultant services.
For teaching and research, our college not only has professional faculty with master's or Ph.D. degrees but also recruits some professional faculty with industrial experiences, to facilitate the integration of teaching, practicing and internship activities. As for practice, we plan on having the students practice at the aforementioned practice centers as extracurricular activities during their semesters. With the internship experience and faculty motoring system, students are aware of their future work environment so they can prepare themselves for future careers by estimating the person-job fit. We particularly create a restaurant “Hospitality 101” to develop the innovation and entrepreneurship abilities for students so they can get spontaneously involved with the business model of hospitality and tourism by anticipation and learning during the operations. It also builds the best learning environment on the campus for our students.
The six-month off-campus internship starts after the interactive processes of theory-learning, practicing and short-term internship. This long-term internship prepares students with real-world experiences. Our college not only works with the neighboring hotels such as E-Da Skylark Hotel, E-Da Royal Hotel and E-Da Theme Park but also collaborates with important domestic companies (such as Taiwan High-Speed Rail, Kaohsiung International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport and many airline companies) and international institutes (Singapore Social Service Institute) to develop students’ ability in innovative practice and activities planning. By training students with talents for independent operation and management, our college tries to achieve the learning goal of “zero gap between school and real-world, super strength on employment.” Prior to internship assignments, college faculty and staff members arrange for students to have interviews with the internship providers and organize the recruit and hire, so our students are prepared to know the job market and business operations. During the internship, faculty members are sent to visit the interns and their institutes in order to deeply understand the work status of each student and provide prompt occupational and consulting assistance so the students can successfully complete their six-month internship.
After accomplishing the internship, each department further organizes seminars to obtain feedback and share experience from each intern. Students, therefore, understand the different characteristics of each company, self-abilities and required knowledge in the industry. Through this process, students would be well-prepared to enter their careers by knowing the values and meanings of their job and the hospitality and tourism industry. With an understanding and positive attitude toward the tourism and hospitality industry, it aims at enhancing intellectual capital.
The hospitality and tourism industry is getting more and more attention domestically and internationally, and the service qualities of its relative and peripheral industries had become the essential indicators of the economic development of every country. Our college will continue to uphold the planned goal as educational and practice-and-learn-as-a whole concepts to stick to our position at the higher education system to train and develop future career talents.
Ren-Fang Chao