Qualification -CERTIFICATE IN HOSPITALITY VTR013

Train for a Career Hotels, Resorts, Events, Restaurants or Catering

Hospitality is a major employer, through enterprises ranging from hotels, resorts and guesthouses to restaurants and catering businesses.

This course is a great starting point for building skills, knowledge and opportunity; both for those who already work in hospitality or food service, and those who hope to forge a career or start a business.

Learn about Accommodation, Food Service and other areas of Hospitality

A successful hospitality business is one that creates an experience that goes beyond the anticipated expectations of the guest.
This course helps you understand how you can cater to a guest's expectations, in a diverse variety of ways. It will expand your horizons, help you explore things that you have not previously thought of; and lay a foundation for continuing to learn, and develop your capacity to deliver ever better hospitality services.


Course Content and Structure

To obtain this certificate, you need to complete a total of six modules, spread over 600 hours of study.

Three of the modules are compulsory core studies; and the other three are chosen from a range of electives

Core Modules are:

  • Food & Beverage Management BTR102
  • Event Management BRE209
  • Hotel Management BTR202

Elective Modules can be chosen from any of the following:

  • Bed and Breakfast Management BTR203
  • Bar Service VTR204
  • Wedding Planning BTR104
  • Starting A Small Business VBS101
  • Human Nutrition 1 BRE102
  • Human Nutrition II BRE202,
  • Bush Tucker Plants BHT328
  • Industry Project BIP000

Core Module Outlines

Food & Beverage Management BTR102

This module has nine lessons as follows:

  1. Human Nutrition
  2. Cooking
  3. Kitchen & Food Management
  4. Planning A Menu
  5. Alcoholic Beverages
  6. Tea, Coffee and Non-Alcoholic Beverages
  7. Scope and Nature Of Catering Services
  8. Personnel Management
  9. Management Of Catering Services

Event Management BRE209

This has 9 lessons as outlined below:

  1. Scope and Nature of Event Management
  2. Developing the Concept
  3. Physical an Human Resources
  4. Project Logistics
  5. Marketing an Event
  6. Financial Management
  7. Risk Management
  8. Staging the Event
  9. After the Event

Hotel Management BTR202

This module has nine lessons as follows:

  1. Introduction: Scope and Nature of Hotel Management
  2. Organisation of the Hotel Workplace
  3. Staff Management in Hotels
  4. Control Systems
  5. Front Desk Management (Reception)
  6. Servicing Rooms and General Cleaning
  7. Building and Facility Maintenance
  8. Activities Management
  9. Food Service


How to Improve Hospitality Services

Improvement always begins with good planning. The when, where and how of things for example: how will things be done and where and when will things be supplied?

Every visitor who visits, has the potential for an experience beyond their expectations, in any one, or all, of the following areas  

  • Anticipation
  • Arrival
  • Atmosphere
  • Appetite (for all the senses not just food)
  • Activity
  • Departure
  • Reflection 


Plan for a great experience with respect to each one of these aspects:

Anticipation – before arrival, they anticipate the experience they are going to have. Some may have realistic expectations and some unrealistic. The way an experience is presented beforehand can have a huge impact. Raising unrealistic expectations can be an easy way of promoting accommodation, and getting people to visit; but it can create huge problems later on and even lead to early departures, negative memories and may lose (you) business in the future events. Word of mouth cannot be underestimated!  

Arrival – make arrival easy: travel information, transport, signage/directions, parking, entrances, meeting, greeting and welcoming packages should all be straightforward. Of equal importance are access, shelter, queues and toilets. How queues are dealt with is an crucial issue. A long wait may be off-putting.  If they then have to wait in yet more inside (for restaurants, pool towels, toilets or to buy food or drinks or attend particular smaller organised events) it can lead to a frustrating time for the visitor.

Atmosphere – The atmosphere is about how much fun or enjoyable or interesting an event is. What type of atmosphere you are aiming for will depend on the type of event. If you are planning something intellectual and/or academic, then it should be interesting, informative, quieter and more subtle. Music can create a relaxed atmosphere. Friendly people staff are more positive than staff who are clinical in their treatment of people. The people who visit obviously impact on the atmosphere, but the atmosphere can also be affected by other factors. The physical environment can definitely have an impact. If places on site are too cold, too hot, dry, wet, windy, too exposed to the sun, dirty or clean – all of these can potentially affect the atmosphere. If you have lots of visitors moaning about how poor the conditions are, this will affect other people there who hear them and can affect the atmosphere.

The venue itself can also affect the atmosphere.  Is it easy to reach? Easy to find your way around? Good signage? Is it clean? Well landscaped? Well organised? Has it got good information for visitors?

Appetite (for all the senses not just food) – The   sight, sound, smell, taste, touch of an event all impact on how much the visitors enjoy the event. This again can affect the atmosphere, and affect future attendance at such an event It depends on the attendees, what they are looking for. What style of event? What style of food? Who they are? What do they like? What can they afford? Have you considered mood music?

Think of the senses –

Smell – supermarkets will pipe smells of fresh bread from their bakery around the store, to make people feel hungry. When people are hungry, they are more likely to purchase more.  Hotels can try the same thing, piping smells of food they offer, cakes they offer and so on. Obviously this is difficult in an outdoor event, but smells of food cooking, barbecues and so on can have the same effect.  A health spa may have essential oils wafting around, calming and relaxing visitors.  

Sight – the venue and the show should look good.  People do not want to see a shabby tent or a pile of rubbish. They expect more, particularly when they have paid money. Presentation obviously affects how people view and remember an event.  And remember that many people post their photographs now on social media, which can be seen by many thousands of people.  If something doesn't look too good, who knows how many people will see it, potentially influencing them to not come next time.

Hearing – we mentioned mood music. We have to consider the type of event we are offering and what is appropriate. Classical music may not be appropriate accommodation targeting young families.  Heavy rock music may not be appropriate in a quiet lounge area. 

Consider all the senses and what you think your visitors and stakeholders are looking for.

Activity – Anyone who stays in a resort, hotel or guesthouse wants to enjoy it and get something from it, whether it be a fun day, pampering or whatever they came for.  So any visit should aim to be a collectible experience. A collectible experience is any experience that is unique or interesting or novel or unusual.  The visit should be more interesting to the visitor than sitting at home watching TV on a Saturday afternoon.