Ep5 – The Rise of Trades and Applied Degrees

Hospitality Business with The SilverFox Podcast – The rise of Trades and Applied degrees and the fall of the traditional university degree.

It’s all about job readiness

One of the biggest mistakes we make in education is telling every young person that the only path to success is a traditional university degree. The reality is that many young people are better suited to practical, applied careers, including trades and applied degrees, where they can learn by doing, gain experience quickly, and start earning sooner.

In hospitality especially, we see young people thrive when they are given the opportunity to work in real environments. A student can study hotel management in the classroom, but until they have stood at a front desk with a queue of guests, worked in a busy kitchen, dealt with a customer complaint, or managed an event under pressure, they have not really learned the industry.

Stephen Hickmore

Stephen is a hospitality professional from Johannesburg South Africa. His career started with THF hotels in the UK and subsequently with the Southern Sun Hotel group in Johannesburg. Stephen’s first steps into entrepreneurship was Hickmore Recruitment / CareerMap,  a leading supplier of Senior and Exec recruitment services.  Stephen was a founder  of Pple Hospitality (formerly HSC) the largest Hospitality Industry full-service outsourced staffing company in South Africa. In March 2020 Stephen became a director and owner of the Swiss Hotel School South Africa, which is now his full time passion.

SHS – Institute of Hospitality Management

SHS – Institute of Culinary Arts

Stephen writes for a number of publications on food and hospitality industry matters, trends and opinions. He also hosts a Podcast on Spotify “Hospitality Insight with The SilverFox”