The Impact of Financial Tsunami in 2008 on Temporary Labour Market - A Reflection on Higher Education

Hospitality student interns play an important role as temporary workforce of the hospitality industry. The Financial Tsunami in 2008 has imposed pressure to the temporary labour market and directly affected the hospitality internship in Taiwan. The purpose of this study was to explore the problems existed in the hospitality higher education through the impact of Financial Tsunami in 2008. The data collected in this study was conducted through face-to-face in-depth interviews. The finding indicated four problems existed in higher education: (1) Faculty members possess higher education degree but not hospitality own profession; (2) Students are managerial-level oriented educated but not entry-level oriented trained, (3) Hospitality education focuses on quantity increasing but not quality improving; and (4) Hospitality schools are academic research oriented but not practical experience pass-down.