MURFREESBORO — An
MTSU marketing professor has earned credentials to teach college students about
the burgeoning hospitality industry.
The American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute has
designated Virginia Hemby-Grubb, a marketing professor, to be a certified
hospitality educator.
Certification criteria included knowledge of learning
theory, establishing a positive classroom culture, classroom presentation
methods, general classroom communications, interactive teaching methods and
analysis of a case study.
The type of professional meeting, event, exhibition and
convention management courses that Hemby-Grubb teaches at MTSU are affiliated
with hospitality management programs at most universities.
“Having a Certified Hospitality Educator designation is
important when teaching courses that relate directly to that industry,” said
Hemby-Grubb.
The professor said she undertook the professional
development course because occupational trends reveal that the hospitality
business is one of the fastest growing in both Tennessee and the United States
as a whole.
Statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics project
a 41 percent increase in the number of meeting, convention and event management
jobs in Tennessee in 2022 and a 33 percent increase in those same jobs in the
country at large.
In fact, the bureau last year moved hospitality out of its
tourism category and into its business and finance category because the
industry has become so lucrative.
“This is obviously an area that we (in higher education)
need to look at developing, and we need to do it in such a way that we bring in
the right people to help us do this,” said Hemby-Grubb.
After meeting with Elisa Putman, senior vice president and
chief operating officer of Music City Center in Nashville, Hemby-Grubb said she
learned that Putnam went to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, for
professional development.
Butch Spyridon, chief executive officer of the Nashville
Convention and Visitors Bureau, told Hemby-Grubb that colleges and universities
should consider adding a hospitality major with a marketing concentration or
minor to their degree tracks.
“Secondary education has a hospitality module in its career
and technical ed program,” she said. “Students can take courses in hospitality,
one of which is meeting, event, exhibition and convention management.”
Hemby-Grubb suggests enabling college students to engage in
experiential learning in the business and then they would be able to take the
certification test to become Certified Meeting Planners while still in college.
“Students would be able to sit for the exam after three
years of work in the field, and … that CMP designation elevates them
significantly in terms of job success and achievement,” said Hemby-Grubb.
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