NIHOTOUR: Moulding students for Nigeria’s tourism, hospitality

It was a colourful and lively atmosphere at the combined convocation ceremony which took place at the Women Development Centre, Abuja. 1, 480 students from NIHOTOUR campuses across Nigeria were awarded degrees in courses including Tourism and Hospitality management, Hospitality & Catering Services, Travel & Tourism, Catering Craft and Cookery & Pastry Practice, among others. […]

It was a colourful and lively atmosphere at the combined convocation ceremony which took place at the Women Development Centre, Abuja. 1, 480 students from NIHOTOUR campuses across Nigeria were awarded degrees in courses including Tourism and Hospitality management, Hospitality & Catering Services, Travel & Tourism, Catering Craft and Cookery & Pastry Practice, among others.
In his convocation lecture, Professor Prince Ayibaye Efere examined the positive effects National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) could have on Nigeria and the reasons government needs to take such alternative educational forms more seriously.
With the lecture titled, ‘The Need to Adopt NVQs for Effective Training in the Nigerian Hospitality and Tourism Sector’ Efere explained that the current Nigerian education system in general emphasizes too much on theory and too little on the practical aspect of acquiring knowledge.
 “This has a profound effect on the quality and effectiveness of students and the labour force. This is in complete contrast with developed countries where there is a committed emphasis on skills acquisition and demonstration of high level performance at the workplace. This is an area that Nigeria lacks badly. The NVQs system should in part be able to remedy this problem,” he said.
 Emphasising the need for NVQs, Efere stated that, “Unlike theoretical academic qualifications, these are work based awards that are achieved through training and practical assessments.”
In comparison to other countries, he said NVQ qualifications are very common in the United Kingdom and many other developed countries, after students must prove that they have the ability to carry out their job to the required standard, before achieving an NVQ qualification.
He concluded that for Nigeria to make great strides in economic and social development, it has to make a radical and surgical change in the education sector.
“The current system is too rigid, unfriendly and backward looking. We need a system that is exciting and inspiring, not a system that is frustrating and discouraging. We cannot continue to pretend that all is well with our education system. All is not well at all, in fact too much is wrong with the current system,” he said.
For NIHOTOUR boss, Mrs Chika Balogun, it was gratifying that the institute had additional responsibility as a regulatory body through its hosting of the Sector Skills Council for Hospitality and Tourism.
She said: “with this it will be easy for the institute to regulate the activities of hospitality and tourism institutions in both the public and private sectors to enhance efficient service delivery in line with global best practices.”
According to her, youth employment, infrastructural development and peaceful coexistence require the inputs of a well-trained and retrained manpower. Hence the importance of institutions likes NIHOTOUR.
Olupana Rotimi who was graduating with a Post Graduate Diploma in Hospitality and Tourism Management after nine months of study, sharing his experience said, “It was wonderful because when I heard about it in NIHOTOUR Oshogbo campus, I was impressed.
“For a long time, I have desired a tourism certificate. I was pleased to see that it was a combined course with hospitality.”
This inspired him to go higher, that he has now completed an MSc in Tourism Development Programme from the University of Ibadan.
Another graduating student from the Abuja campus, Mrs. Deborah Thaddeus Musa who took courses including Hospitality Law, Food and Beverage Management, Marketing and Accounting, said prior to the programme, “we thought it was like many other institutions where teachers don’t give their all to students. But here lecturers are consistent and give interesting classes.”
Regardless, she stated that it wasn’t without challenges. “I would like the classroom conditions to be improved upon. There are times when it is getting dark that we had to close for the day because there was no electricity. Also, the hygiene of the environment can be better,” she told Daily Trust on Sunday.
Other areas students said the management should look into were accommodation and facilities for teaching which they described as ‘not so sufficient’ especially for practical classes. They also urged the management to look into the possibility of moving to the permanent site as soon as possible so that the environment is more conducive for students.