Hospitality and Tourism (HT) higher education is a recent occurrence in Ghana. Issues of disparity in instruction and curriculum contents create problems for graduate’s employability. The industry demands graduates with employable skills and competencies, which lacks hospitality and tourism management students of higher learning put continuous pressure on educators. And can be corrected through higher education curriculum design. The study examines lecturers’ insights regarding students’ potential employability in HT sectors concerning course content, structure, relevance, adequacy and quality of lectures delivered. The results revealed that lecturers’ perceptions of skills and competencies developed by the graduate programme in Hospitality and tourism management (HTM) is inadequate and lacks employable skills. Lack of knowledge and understanding amongst students and lecturers of the hospitality and Tourism industry required skills such as generic hospitality required skills (interpersonal skills, communication skills, work ethics, professionalism, and emotional intelligence). The study adopted a qualitative approach. An in-depth semi-structured interview involving all 40 lecturers of the Department of Hospitality and Tourism of Tamale Technical University The study recommends lecturers and students having industry experience to be abreast with the industry’s needs for graduate’s employability.
Keywords: Competencies, Employability, Skills, hospitality and tourism
