Essential Competencies for Business Educators: The Demands of Today’s Professional Landscape (Published)
Business Education, a specialized branch within the education sector, focuses on imparting practical business skills and knowledge at both secondary and tertiary levels. It combines theoretical instruction with hands-on experience to prepare students for real-world business challenges. Recognized as a vital tool for fostering entrepreneurial skills and job creation, Business Education is crucial for individual self-sufficiency and global economic development. However, challenges such as insufficient instructor preparation and an overemphasis on procedures over practical skills hinder its effectiveness. A competent business educator must possess both academic and professional qualifications, and be adept in teaching methodologies, administration, and human relations. Key competencies for business educators include professional competency (effective teaching and curriculum management), administrative competency (departmental management and organizational skills), and human skill competency (interpersonal and teamwork skills). Various factors affect the ability of educators to exhibit these competencies, including unqualified teachers, inadequate resources, poor remuneration, and lack of ongoing professional development. To address these issues, it is recommended that governments employ specialized business education teachers, provide updated textbooks and resources, improve teacher salaries, and offer regular professional development opportunities. Enhancing practical teaching periods and ensuring adequate teaching practice and industrial experience are also crucial. By implementing these recommendations, Business Education can better equip students with the necessary skills to contribute to national and global economic progress.
Keywords: Professional, administrative, business educators, competency, human skill
HOSPITALITY CLIMATE AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS IN THE HOSPITALITY SECTOR (Published)
Demand is on the increase for encouraging strategic human resource practices that are value-added in terms of enhancing competitive ability of organizations. The hospitality sector which has recently witnessed increased level of participation with new entrants and customer patronage is faced with heightened competition, therefore requires exploring and understanding workplace practices that are likely to influence desired outcomes. The study used a structured survey instrument named Hospitality Climate and Competitiveness Survey (HOCACS) to generate data from the sampled four star hotels in the South-South and South-West geopolitical zones. The analyzed data showed some findings thus: encouraging competency is a potent means of staying competitive as employees have the requisite skills to undertake strategic and real tasks; empowering employees and rewarding were also found to have link with competitiveness and clear communication of task and work goals were necessary practices to remain competitive. The study concluded that hospitality climate is required in the face of heightened competitiveness in the hospitality sector and recommended that managers should encourage a friendly work climate and guarantee cross-functional relationship and work member cooperation and commitment.
Keywords: Employee empowerment, Hospitality, communication, competency, employee rewards