AN EVALUATION OF STUDENTS PERCEPTION OF HOSPITALITY AS A CAREER CHOICE IN NIGERIA

Muntari Ado Matazu

Department of Food Science Catering and Hotel Management

College of Science and Technology Hassan Usman Katsina Polytechnic Katsina, Nigeria

E-mail: adomukhtar@gmail.com

Abstract: The students’ perception of hospitality is expected to move from negativity to positivity. To date the enrolment into hospitality and related courses are still debatable and below expectation. This study examines and evaluates the effect of personality traits, socio-economic status and employment status on choosing hospitality as a career with the aim of finding solutions to why students develop negative perception of hospitality programme and to improve students’ enrolment into hospitality and related programme. After reviewing related literature, a questionnaire was prepared and distributed to 200 students, out of which 60% were from hospitality courses and 40% from hospitality related courses. The participants were selected through purposive random sampling. The data collected were analyzed using mixed strategy i.e. quantitative and qualitative methods of data analysis. In conclusion, the results of the study showed that the effect of personality traits and employment status have a strong influence on students’ negative perception of hospitality while socio-economic status has mild influence. The research finds students positive perception due to five motivational factors as provided by the industry. The motivational factors include self-actualisation, job opportunity, field attractiveness, ease of study and scholastic achievement. On the other side the study also out line some of the reasons for negative perception as long hours out of the normal work schedule and relatively low pay, low status, low employee retention, job dissatisfaction, poor employment conditions and absence of motivating factors and high turnover that appear common in the industry as the major causes of setback in the industry.