Career Essentials & Services

About the Course

The Career Essentials and Service (CES) online business course was designed for students who are preparing to begin their business or hospitality career, or anyone currently working in the service industry. The overall purpose of the CES online hospitality course is to enhance the participant's career essentials and professional development skills. The topics and activities in CES are designed to inspire participants to deliver service excellence by developing an "A HA!" Amazing Hospitality Attitude!

The course modules emphasize the importance of personal leadership development as you cannot begin to lead others until you can first begin to lead yourself. CES inspires you to develop a more positive attitude, strong character, an appreciation for the benefits of effective communication and cultural understanding.

You Will Learn

• Career and Professional Development Skills
• Top employability traits deemed essential by hotel industry leaders
• People and service skills enriched with multicultural understanding and awareness
• An appreciation of other cultures, traditions and beliefs, to perform more effectively in the workplace
• "A HA!" or Amazing Hospitality Attitude needed for success in life - both personally and professionally

Program Syllabus

1. Module 1 Attitude

   It is not your aptitude but your attitude that will determine your success in and after school. A positive attitude is the essence of life and career achievement, which is why the most successful companies hire for attitude and train for aptitude. Life produces extraordinary rewards for those who give in extraordinary ways. This seminar will show you how to soar to new heights with an attitude of gratitude that sees life challenges as opportunities.

2. Module 2 Character

   Good character does not just happen. We develop this, each and every day, by the choices we make in all we do. After completing this seminar, you will appreciate the importance of developing positive character traits and be able to explain their benefit in the workplace. You will also be able to recognize personality and behavior flaws that cause difficulties in all areas of our life.

3. Module 3 Diversity and Cultural Awareness

   The process of cultural understanding challenges us to stop jumping to conclusions and stop making judgments about other people from our own set of cultural values. Instead this seminar encourages you to learn about cultural differences so that you can understand why other people behave the way they do. Once you understand and appreciate differences you can begin to more effectively socialize and work with people from a wide range of cultural backgrounds and bridge the cultural gap rather than make it even greater.

4. Module 4 Communication and Listening

   To effectively communicate, it is important to make certain that the people you are talking to clearly understand both your words and your actions. This seminar will focus on both verbal and nonverbal skills and present the essential elements of communication to help you become confident when communicating with others during school, work and life.

5. Module 5 Appearance and Etiquette

   Studies have shown that thirty seconds is all it takes for someone meeting you to form an entire list of impressions about your character and your abilities. In this seminar we will discuss the importance of appearance, grooming, hygiene and etiquette in your everyday life.

6. Module 6 Time Management

   In this seminar, you will learn about the essence of time. Those who manage their time wisely lead well-rounded lives, accomplish more personally, as well as professionally, experience less stress and feel better about themselves. This seminar helps you develop strategies for delegating tasks, prioritizing, and increasing your efficiency.

7. Module 7 Teamwork

   The ultimate goal of any school, organization, or workplace is to achieve overall effectiveness. In other words, the sum should be greater than its parts! Of course, we all want to succeed as individuals, but our primary focus should always be on the success of the organization as a whole. This requires teamwork. This seminar will discuss how you and the teams you are part of work together to display the “a ha!” - Amazing Hospitality Attitudes.

8. Module 8 Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

   The ability to think critically is one of the most important Career and Life Essentials tools you can have on your belt, because good thinking leads to a better understanding of the world around you and your place in it. In this module you will learn how to better think critically by asking questions and cultivating a genuinely curious attitude. You will learn that having your own point of view will help you make decisions, solve problems and communicate effectively.

9. Module 9 Service Excellence

   We have all been customers. And when we are customers, we expect to experience excellent customer service. In today’s world, we all need to understand what it means to be a customer and also how to deliver service. No matter what your future career choice may be, all businesses strive on fantastic customer service. Use this seminar, to help you begin understanding what it takes to have commitment, imagination, creativity and customer magic skills.

10. Module 10 Personal Leadership

    A leader is effective because of who he or she is on the inside, and how those qualities are reflected on the outside. In this last module, you will learn that you don’t have to have a special set of talents to take a leadership role in your life. Leadership is shown through your everyday action and interactions with others. You will see how this is achieved by leading with the little “l.”