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Introduction
From a macro perspective, the hospitality and tourism industry in Malaysia has made a significant contribution to Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) with an increase of 9.4 per cent since 2015, attaining 14.8 per cent of GDP in 2016, which equates to 182.4bn Malaysian Ringgit (MYR) (Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2017). Given the Malaysian government’s goal to transform Malaysia into a higher income nation, the country needs to have at least 500,000 skilled and trained graduates in support of this initiative (Selvaratnam, 2016). Furthermore, with the launch of the Visit Malaysia 2020 programme early in 2018, Malaysia aims to attract at least 36 million tourists with projected income generation of 168bn MYR (Corporate Communication Division, 2018). In 2016, Sarawak received a total of 8.4bn MYR in tourism receipts with 4,661,100 tourist arrivals, an increase of 3.19 per cent since 2015. However, there was a decrease in tourism receipts of 13.45 per cent as compared to 2015 (Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture Sarawak, 2017).
Research conducted by Kasa and Hassan (2016) concluded that by ensuring the relevance and applicability of the hospitality and tourism education curricula to the industry, a skilled and competent workforce can be created. Not only that, but for the tourism industry to succeed, Kasa and Hassan (2016) argue that it must follow the government’s plan for equipping employees with the skills to deliver and maintain consistent service quality. The over-arching human capital development need in the industry is for an educational curricula that fosters an immediate interconnection with the economic development of the industry (Ladkin, 2005). After an extensive review of documents and guidelines published by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (2013) relating to hospitality and tourism education, it was discovered that Bachelor-level graduates should be well trained and possess specialised and extensive practical skills and theoretical knowledge that are relevant to the industry. Additionally, graduates should be able to work ethically and efficiently in their chosen field of the hospitality and tourism industry.
According to Professor Theodore W. Schultz, the essential element in developing human capital is “‘education’ as it enhances the ability of a person to deal with uncertainty and it sharpens problem-solving skills (Lo, 2005; Lin, 2005). Although Schultz was writing about human capital in 1961, Gary S....