Over these past months some worrying indicators have been reported . In June 2016 Identity Malta and ETC ( now Jobsplus ) confirmed that they would start welcoming applications for waiters from third country nationals ( TCN ).
With rising demands for labour during the summer period , hotels and general operators in the hospitality industry are finding significant challenges in staffing their seasonal operations . Traditionally , entry level roles within the hospitality industry during the summer period would have been filled in by students who would look into getting some earnings and work experience in the same instance . The lure however seems to be fading , and students are increasingly looking into taking roles that mirror closely their future career ambitions , or in participating in learning opportunities locally or overseas . The perceived value of the summer job appears to be dwindling and this is creating a significant gap in human resources availability .
A major challenge resulting from the employment of third country nationals in client facing roles , relates to what can be described as an attrition in the ‘ local ’ experience for holidaymakers . The National Commission for Protection of Equality ( NCPE ) allows the possibility to employers to advertise and recruit for select positions using ‘ discriminatory ’ criteria when looking to employ persons within a context aimed at building a set experience . Thus a Chinese restaurant may opt to advertise a vacancy for Waiter and listing Chinese nationality as a required criterion . Local hotels and restaurants may at a point be called to consider this option in advertising and recruiting , particularly when looking at building a ‘ Maltese ’ experience for their clients .
While the above indicators point towards the challenge in attracting summer workers in the field of hospitality , the challenge becomes even more significant when looking at employment patterns relating to permanent positions and / or more senior positions . At a policy level , a significant push has been made in the past years to promote key areas such as finance , information technology , i-gaming and nursing , with however less consideration being offered to career paths in hospitality .
The Institute for Tourism Studies ( ITS ) has recently been in press following the decision taken to relocate its operation from St . Julian ’ s , a current tourist hub , to Kalkara , a site with future potential . It remains to be seen what form of impact this will have on currently enrolled students ( once the move takes place ) as well as on the decision of future students to enrol in the courses offered by the institute .
Once a tourist has made his or her way to the island , the ‘ Maltese ’ experience will be in influenced by the human resources offering the services .
HOSPITALITY MALTA Q1 | 2017
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