Secondary school education for the needs of tourism and hospitality in croatia – analysis of present state and proposals for improvement

Abstract

The Republic of Croatia has a total of 93 vocational schools for professions in hospitality and tourism: chef, waiter, pastry-chef, hotel and tourism technician, and hotel and tourism sales officer. Evidently, the outcome of such a wide dispersion of educational institutions can only be a decline in the quality of the teaching process. While there is obviously no lack of secondary schools in the field of hospitality and tourism, the skills of pupils graduating from these schools are dubious in the opinion of many tourism and hospitality professionals. It is assumed that the causes behind the adverse results of the entire secondary schooling system lie in the lack of motivation in young people, who tend to leave the selection of their future occupation to their parents or who are likely to enrol in a vocational school only after they have failed to enrol in the school of their choice. The educational system in Croatia needs to undergo thorough change. Or, rather, it needs to adapt to European educational standards, because after the flow of services and goods with the EU, the flow of labour is to be expected, which will demand standard education for various levels and profiles of personnel, at least with regard to basic core subjects. On the other hand, there is a need to integrate hospitality schools in Croatia to create strong and well-equipped county centres for the schooling of future workers in tourism and hospitality. This paper seeks to put forward concrete solutions for reorganising the Croatian secondary schooling system for the needs of tourism and hospitality and to meet the demands of modern tourism practise.