Industry involvement and career focus are critical components of the Hospitality College at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, where students earn degrees in restaurant management, hotel management and its fastest-growing major, sports/entertainment/event management, among others.
This year, J&W graduated 650 students with degrees in various areas of hospitality, and according to statistics from the university, better than 50 percent will go on to serve in management-level positions. Typically, according to J&W research, a graduate can expect to enter the job market making between $30,000 and $40,000 annually in a position such as an assistant restaurant manager, assistant front desk manager at a hotel or sales coordinator.
Karen Silva, Ed.D., director of student advising at Johnson & Wales’ Hospitality College, said the program’s career-focus begins as soon as a student arrives on campus as a freshman, with as many as 14 guest lecturers to address them in their first term. To further keep educators in tune with new issues in hospitality, the college’s 25-member industry advisory board meets biennially and also hosts one distinguished visiting professor each term to address all students in the hospitality program.
"From the very first term that a student is here, we start emphasizing that focus," she said. "That sets the tone."
That intensity results in jobs. For 20 years, the university has maintained a very high employment rate for graduates – 98 percent of J&W students seeking employment after graduation find a job within 60 days.
"As a faculty member, you really can’t check into a hotel without seeing someone you’ve had in class," said Silva.
A typical class schedule consists of four courses in each of three 11-week terms each year. Classes are held Mondays through Thursdays, to allow students an opportunity to supplement their class work with work experience on the weekends.
By graduation, most students have worked in the industry throughout their schooling, and J&W’s emphasis on classroom interaction allows students to address work issues at school.
"They bring that into the classroom . . . It’s much more interactive, not lecture-based," Silva said. "By the time the student is finished with classes, they hopefully will apply that to their position."
Students are also required to complete an 11-week internship (for credit, and the equivalent of one term in the classroom) that relates to their major subject area.
As a student conducts a job search, a performance transcript – acting as a supplement to an academic transcript – helps potential employers identify skills at which a student is proficient and those where he may need work. The report focuses on each task, tool, industry trend and process that impact or make up a particular job.
Such a report is useful to an employer because "the quicker you can assess where they can hit the ground running and where they need work, the less time you have to spend spinning your wheels," said Celeste Brantolino, J&W’s director of career development. "It’s a work in progress and it probably always will be, because industry changes."
The term before graduation, students participate in "Career Capstone," a course designed to help them research companies to which they’re interested in applying and compose resumes to start their job searches. Each March, J&W hosts the Hospitality/Food Service Expo, which brings 100 hospitality employers to the campus. Brantolino estimated that 30 percent of students find jobs in either their capstone class or at the Expo, with the balance finding employment through their own search process.
Brantolino said that nearly 50 percent of J&W grads opt to remain in the area, already a restaurant "hot spot," with many eateries that were opened by J&W grads.
"We’re bringing people into the state who came to school here and stay in this area to work," she said. "About half of them will stay within a 50-mile radius."
