TOURISM ONLINE CERTIFICATE COURSE
Tourism is a huge employer worldwide and in many countries it is the largest employer. In short, this is a significant industry that employs large numbers of people. Despite this fact; many of those who work in tourism, are relatively low paid.
If you aspire to a well paid and secure job in tourism; you either need to think about self employment (starting your own tourism business), or developing skills that will enable you to rise to a position of responsibility in a larger organisation such as a hotel, resort or theme park.
This course provides the skills and knowledge needed to build a career, following either of these pathways.
Modules
Note that each module in the Qualification - Certificate in Tourism is a short course in its own right, and may be studied separately.
Content of Core Modules
Food and Beverage Management
This subject has 9 lessons as follows:
1.Human Nutrition - This covers all the major food groups and their importance in a nutritional diet. Also including factors in nutrition from compatibility and range of ingredients through to healthy cooking and eating methods.
2.Cooking - Includes various cooking methods for a variety of different foods, covering both palatability and digestibility through to the nutritional value in processing foods.
3.Kitchen & Food Management - Learn to maximise efficiency and service through proper management of kitchen facilities, including the handling of food storage and preparation, hygiene and ethics.
4.Planning A Menu - Covering menu planning for the needs of special groups in different situations, including children; adolescents; elderly people; expectant and nursing mothers; immigrants; vegetarians and other health related diets.
5.Alcoholic Beverages - Learn how to provide adequate variety and product knowledge in order to manage the provisions of alcoholic beverages appropriately for different situations.
6.Tea, Coffee and Non-Alcoholic Beverages - This lesson provides an understanding of non-alcoholic beverages available in the catering industry and how they should be made and served.
7.Scope and Nature Of Catering Services - Learn to understand the differences in appropriate management and catering for a variety of situations from pubs to a-la-carte.
8.Personnel Management -(waiting skills, staffing a restaurant, kitchen etc) This lesson covers the management of people in the food and restaurant industry, including training programs, job specifications, recruitment etc.
9.Management Of Catering Services - By consolidating the skills developed throughout this course you are given a comprehensive understanding of marketing through to food purchasing in order to effectively manage in the food and beverage industry.
Tourism 1
There are ten lessons in this module as follows:
1.Travel Industry Overview/Introduction : oliday travel, Business travel, Resources, Components of travel (Accommodation, Transport, Food, Luggage/what to take, Health, Money, etc)
2.Destinations : Local, State, Interstate, International; health before departure.
3.Money, Insurance & Legalities : Credit cards, travellers cheques, exchange rates, International driving, quarantine laws, Islamic law, political concerns, tariffs, duty free, departure taxes etc.
4.Transport - Airline reservations : International Air Transport Assn, Aircraft types, Flight information, transfers, time zones, passports, visas, baggage, travelling with animals, making a reservation, etc.
5.Transport - Car Rental : Types of hire cars, reading manuals, different road rules, making reservations, cost structures, etc
6.Transport -Other, boat (ferries, cruising), bus, rail etc
7.Accommodation : Camping, Caravans, Tents, B & B's & Guesthouses, Hotels, Youth Hostels, Resorts, etc
8.Package Tours
9.Travel Agency Systems : Ethics, Tourist organisations, Client records and accounts procedures, etc.
10.Special Project -planning a trip
Bookkeeping I
There are 10 lessons as follows:
1.Introduction – Nature and Function of Accounting for Service Firms
2.The Balance Sheet
3.Analysing and Designing Accounting Systems
4.Cash Receipts and Cash Payments Journal
5.The General Journal
6.Profit and Loss Statements
7.Depreciation of Non-current Assets
8.Profit Determination and Balance Day Adjustments
9.Cash Control: Bank Reconciliation and Petty Cash
10.Cash Control: Budgeting
Event Management
There are nine lessons in this module as follows:
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
Planning is the Key to Success in Tourism
If you want to work in the tourism industry, you must understand that the most important aspect is PLANNING. The time and effort required for planning tourism activities/events far exceeds any other component of the job.
Tips for Planning a Tour
When planning a tour, the major decision will be where to go and if the tour is to include overnight accommodation. The latter decision will be influenced by the facilities available, and the cost of using those facilities.
- Ensure that the facilities match the demographics of the tour group
- Certain types of people will be attracted to, and expect, certain types of facilities (and experiences). For example, a group of teenagers may enjoy long hard walks and very basic camping facilities, but families with young children may not.
- It may be important to plan the tour for a particular demographic group and then promote it very clearly for that group by providing clear, written warnings of what is to be expected for the benefit of anyone outside of that demographic who might be interested.
- Beware of surprises - The participants in any tour will not be impressed to arrive at a destination only to find unpleasant surprises such as:
- Having to pay unexpected fees
- Finding that there is no fuel to cook their meal because the gas or wood supply has run out
- Discovering that there is no hot water for a shower (when they expected there would be)
- Encountering a major insect problem and not being prepared with insect repellent.
- Match the price with the facility - People like value for money and are generally prepared to pay more if they get a top quality facility.
- Set numbers at a manageable level:
- Do not have too many people in a group
- Be certain that you have adequate accommodation, and the right type of accommodation, for all who book.
ACS Learning Facilities
ACS follows the old fashioned idea that “the student comes first”. Our staff are told to treat every student as an individual and respond promptly to their enquiries; and the facilities we have developed and continue to develop, are all focused on that goal. Facilities include:
- Offices in two time zones (UK and Australia) –which means an international team of academics are responding to students 5 days a week and 16 hours a day.
- An online student room with unique resources that are only available to students studying our courses, including online library.
- Bookshop offering quality downloadable e books
- A data base of 20 million words of unique information written by our staff over 3 decades that can be drawn upon if needed by academics for use in supporting our students.
- Systems that ensure assignments are tracked, marked and returned to students, fast -commonly within a round 1 week & rarely more than 2 weeks (note: many other colleges take longer).
- The school is active in social networking and encourages students to connect with us and each other.
- No automated handling of student phone enquiries. When you call you get a real person; or leave a message and a real person will call you back within a day, but more commonly within an hour or two.
- No additional charges for extra tutor support over the phone or email.
- Free careers advice for graduates –It is our policy to provide support and advice to our students even after they graduate. If a graduate needs help with getting a CV together, or advice on setting up a business or looking for work; they only need ask.
- The quality of academic staff is higher than many other colleges.
How our Courses Differ
- Courses are continually improved –we invite feedback from all graduates and change courses immediately the need is detected.
- Courses are relevant to the whole world –we try hard to teach make the learning transferable to any region or country because the world is increasingly a global economy
- Courses written by our staff, teach different skills to standard courses; giving a unique mix of skills and knowledge to provide a career advantage. Do you want an accredited certificate and the same skills as 100 other job applicants; or one of our courses with skills that no other applicants have?
- Certificates and diplomas are longer. They teach you more, and our qualifications have built a reputation amongst academics and industry as being a very high standard for this reason.
- We are focused on helping you learn in a way that improves your capacity to understand your discipline, apply knowledge, and continue learning and developing your capabilities beyond your course.
These things cannot be always said of other colleges.
Career Opportunities
Study alone can never guarantee career success; but a good education is an important starting point.
Success in a career depends upon many things. A course like this is an excellent starting point because it provides a foundation for continued learning, and the means of understanding and dealing with issues you encounter in the workplace.
When you have completed an ACS course, you will have not only learnt about the subject, but you will have been prompted to start networking with experts in the discipline and shown how to approach problems that confront you in this field.
This and every other industry in today’s world is developing in unforeseen ways; and while that is unsettling for anyone who wants to be guaranteed a particular job at the end of a particular course; for others, this rapidly changing career environment is offering new and exciting opportunities almost every month.
If you want to do the best that you can in this industry, you need to recognise that the opportunities that confront you at the end of a course, are probably different to anything that has even been thought of when you commence a course.
Books
Visit our School bookshop at www.acsebook.com
- Downloadable ebooks that can be read on ipads, PC’s, Laptops, or readers like a Kindle.
- Titles are written by our principal and staff.
- Anyone can purchase books –ACS students are offered a student discount
