Research On Professional Identity Of Students Majoring In Operation And Management Of Star Hotels In Pearl River Delta

The booming of China’s economy and the fast expansion of hotel industry have led to a substantial need for hospitality staffing.Hotel management majors(Operation and Management of High-star Hotels in secondary vocational majors)have been winning popularity in vocational schools.However,hospitality jobs do not seem attractive to young graduates;instead,the industry generally has an embarrassing situation of low social recognition,large talent flow,high turnover rate and poor professional identity.This directly affects the tendency of young graduates to choose employment in the hospitality,but also affects the sustainable development of the industry.Based on the related literature review and empirical research objects,Using Social Cognitive Career Theory,results show that professional identity of students majoring in high star hotel operation and management are influenced by five dimensions,namely profession training,profession emotion,profession cognition,profession adaptability,profession determination,which are scaled for a questionnaire.Students of this major from four representative secondary vocational schools in the Pearl River Delta have attended the research by means of questionnaire,or one-on-one interviews.904 questionnaires out of 1099 were effectively collected,and 24 students undertook the interview by phone calls,online text or recording,and face-to face interview.Analysis is undertaken to illustrate the students professional identity from the perspective of different dimensions and different variables.Results show that the average value of students’ professional identity was at a low level of 2.237 points,with the profession determination under 2.4 points,the other four dimensions above 2.4 points,which means that the professional identity was medium.The average value of the five dimensions is ranked as follows: profession training > profession emotion >profession cognition > profession adaptability >profession determination.Demographic variables such as gender and grade also differ in professional identity.This implies that students majoring in high star hotel operation and management from the Pearl River Delta have a typical problem of low profession cognition,negative profession emotion,weak profession determination,profession training burnout,and poor profession adaptability.To overcome this problem,strategies are put forward in this paper,which aim to improve the professional identity of students,so as to encourage the employment rate in the hotel industry,and promote the construction of high star hotel operation and management and the long-term development of human resources.