Career in hotel industry: Dilemma and challenges for muslims graduates

• Main Author: Rashid, Basri
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: BP Islam. Bahaism. Theosophy, etc; G Geography (General)
• Online Access: http://repo.uum.edu.my/6222/1/Bas.pdf; http://repo.uum.edu.my/6222/

The hotel industry has becoming one of the fast growing industries in Malaysia and the world.Around the globe, people from all walks of life and religious background enter this industry hoping to gain a promising career.Many Islamic or Muslim majority countries such as Malaysia, Maldives, The UAE, Turkey and so forth encourage the development of hotel industry in order to support tourism or tourism related activities.The hotel industry on the other hand is looking at ways to obtain a good source of workforce to sustain the increasingly challenging business environment.One of the ways is to recruit fresh graduates who have completed their internship/industrial placement program. They can be considered as trained or semi trained workforce since they are formally trained at relevant hotel/hospitality institutions thus having knowledge and skills required by the industry.Through the industrial placements program, students are exposed to the 'real life' experience of working in the industry.Therefore the program benefits in terms of preparing them for their future career.The hotel industry meanwhile would enjoy the advantage of having a pool of trained professionals to choose from.Nevertheless there seems to be some problems with this type of labour supply.A study on industrial placement program of graduates of a higher learning institution in Malaysia suggests that many graduates did not enter hotel job market due to certain negative experiences or had negative perceptions about this industry after undergone their industrial placements.Some may simply feel that it was hard to work in the industry, while others feel that the industry may not be suitable to them due to religious reasons.Thus, this paper discusses a number of issues related to challenges and dilemma faced by Muslim trainees which seem to impede them from joining the industry's future workforce.Issues related to aurat,praying times, alcohol and halal foods and drinks are deemed as significant in influencing their perception of joining the industry in the future.Information for this study was gathered from a number of internship trainees from a public university through series of interviews by phone, visits to the training sites as well as from trainees' reports. Ultimately, a list of problems and limitations that trainees faced during the training were compiled. In addition, their perception of the industry and their intention to enter the job market within this industry were also solicited.This paper concludes that although the industrial placement program provides hands on experience for the students, it is crucial that the issues faced by the Muslim trainees are addressed.By doing so, they could be persuaded to stay in the hotel industry; thus increasing the number of Muslim workforce and at the same time the industry would not lose a significant number of potential Muslim managers.