International Hospitality Management Foundation Year

Program Overview

This Foundation Entry (Year 0) Hospitality program provides a stepping-stone to a degree in Hospitality Management. It equips students with a comprehensive understanding of tourism, hospitality, and events, alongside transferable skills for the industry. The program offers a strong focus on professional development, preparing students for careers in the global hospitality sector. It features strong industry links and accreditation by the Institute of Hospitality, ensuring graduates meet industry standards.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

This program is a Foundation Entry (Year 0) Hospitality program designed for students who do not have the necessary formal qualifications to join the first year of a degree. It is a stepping-stone to continued degree study in Hospitality Management. The program aims to provide students with a broad understanding of Tourism, Hospitality, and Event management, and to develop their transferable skills to meet the demands of the dynamic hospitality industry.

Outline:

Year 0

• Compulsory Modules:
• Tourism, Hospitality and Events Themes in Action:
This module introduces students to the key concepts and issues in Tourism, Hospitality, and Events (T.H.E) from a local, national, and global perspective. It includes field visits to T.H.E organizations in and around Preston.
• Service Excellence in the Visitor Economy: This module focuses on the theory, practices, and techniques of effective customer service and the achievement of service excellence in Tourism, Hospitality, and Events.
It emphasizes professionalism, personal and interpersonal abilities, and the pragmatism of customer service in customer-centric organizations.
• Study Skills for Success: This module equips students with the study skills necessary for academic studies.
It includes an academic literature review and aims to prepare students for effective use of learning opportunities in other modules and in the workplace.
• Contemporary Business in Context: This module raises awareness of the impact of business in the U.K., investigates business in the news, and develops an awareness of the global business context.

Year 1

• Compulsory Modules:
• Creativity, Enterprise and Scholarship:
This module develops key skills in scholarship, research, and learning technology. It includes oral, presentation, debating, academic writing, and research skills.
• Business Landscape: This module develops an understanding of the contemporary landscape of business, examining the internal and external environment of business and defining key issues impacting business.
• Global Hospitality Operations: This module provides an introduction to the Global Hospitality Industry, teaching students the knowledge, skills, and techniques involved in managing within the industry.
• Professional Practice in Tourism, Hospitality and Events: This module develops the professional skills necessary for success in Tourism, Hospitality, and Events, demonstrating confidence and competence in simulated and live industry situations.

Year 2

• Compulsory Modules:
• Managing Experiences in Tourism, Hospitality and Events:
This module provides knowledge and skills development opportunities related to the delivery of successful experience systems within Tourism, Hospitality, and Event (THE) organizations. It acknowledges that managers, staff, and customers co-create experiences within individual service contexts.
• Professional Skills in the T.H.E Workplace: This module prepares students for the implications of working in hospitality and venue operations.
It covers legislation relating to Health and Safety, Food hygiene, GDPR, Fire safety, First aid, Human trafficking, and Employment law protection.
• Contemporary Issues in the Global Hospitality Industry: This module provides grounding in understanding current issues and major influencing factors affecting the global hospitality industry.
• Optional Modules:
• Learning in Action:
This module explores the core features of relevant work experience, including competencies, transferable skills, reflective practice, and continuous development. Students record their work experiences in a reflective account and in conjunction with subject-specific theories, knowledge, and behaviors.
• Global Meetings, Industry and Business Events: This module articulates the global meetings industry's social, cultural, legal, and political impacts and economic importance.
It explores issues relating to the delivery of high-quality business events and current global trends in the management and operations of the Event Industry.

Year 3

• Compulsory Modules:
• Global Hospitality: The Future:
This module engages in a critical multi-disciplinary exploration of current and future hospitality themes, issues, and cases, ensuring students understand real-world links between conceptual issues and empirical application.
• Independent Project for Tourism, Hospitality and Events: This independent study project allows students to study a topic of their choice related to their areas of study.
It involves gathering and analyzing secondary data within the context of current academic theory.
• Tourism, Hospitality and Events Graduate Innovation and Creativity: This module consolidates managing oneself, managing others, and managing a business.
It evaluates students' competencies in areas associated with work within tourism, hospitality, and event management, and explores the theory and practice of business strategy through innovation and creativity within a corporate setting. It includes engagement with external organizations to develop transferable skills and abilities for managerial strategies.
• Optional Modules:
• Managing Service Quality:
This module provides an in-depth and critical understanding of the business management issues involved in managing quality in service organizations. It critically analyzes tools, techniques, and approaches for achieving service quality within the contemporary business landscape.
• Critical Insights into Dark Tourism and Difficult Heritage: This module studies a niche component of global tourism, focusing on travel to sites of or places associated with death, disaster, or difficult heritage.
It prepares students to become socially responsible managers of potential dark tourism sites, attractions, and exhibitions.
• Applied Research in Tourism, Hospitality and Events: This module allows students to work independently, developing and demonstrating their academic skills and abilities.
It involves primary and secondary data collection techniques and provides a logical rationale for the study, supported by detailed methodology, findings, and analysis sections. Students learn experientially and apply their knowledge of international destination development and the visitor economy to a particular case study.

Assessment:

The program uses a variety of assessment methods, including coursework, essays, reports, presentations, poster presentations, development journals, and portfolios. Some assessments are individual, while others involve group work.

Teaching:

The program is taught through lectures, seminars, and online classes. Students attend an average of 12 hours of study per week. Personal study also forms a significant part of the course, with students expected to work for about 36 hours a week in total.

Careers:

Graduates from this program work for large international organizations or the local UK hotel industry. Potential places of work include cruise ships, nightclubs, casinos, major hotel chains, and restaurant groups.

Other:

• The program has strong links with employers, including Marriott Hotels, Legacy Hotels, Heathcotes, and Northcote.
• The program also has links with smaller companies in the region and offers help and assistance to a number of these.
• The program is accredited by the Institute of Hospitality, meeting the recognized levels and standards of professional knowledge, skills, and understanding relevant to the needs of the industry and meeting accepted international benchmark standards.
• The program is based in the School of Business.
• The University of Central Lancashire has two Research Institutes: The Institute of Transport and Tourism and The Dark Tourism Institute.
• Hospitality is a global industry, and the program supports students in developing intercultural communication skills.

UK First year£9,250 for the first year Full-time£9,250 per year International First year£16,400 for the first year Full-time£16,500 per year