Angelo Nicolaides
Although race, age, ethnicity and religious background influence the cultural attitudes of employees in the hospitality industry, it is clear that education has a greater role to play in engendering a spirit of acceptance and respect for people who may differ from us. The rationale behind this mixed design research was to investigate the cultural diversity competency of future hospitality employees in multicultural work environments. Graduates need to be educated in aspects pertaining to cultural diversity and in this regard, the role of the Work Integrated Learning (WIL) mentor as well as lecturers on a university campus, is critical in improving the cultural aptitude of new hospitality employees. There are very few curricular models which lecturers can follow to enable them to enhance the ability of their students to serve in the diverse work environments which exist in the industry. Informal learning opportunities and critical reflection of diversity issues can constitute an invaluable learning foundation for diversity related issues. This article seeks to tackle this question to an extent.
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