Assessing the Effectiveness of the Ministry of Tourism Youth Training Program in Five-Star Hotels: Trainee Perspective

The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism plays an important role in preparing graduates for employment in hotels through the provision of youth training program in the five-star hotel chains. Despite the recognition of the program importance, neither the program nor its outputs have been assessed yet. Also, there is no a clear evaluation criteria or scientific technique followed by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism to determine the success or effectiveness of this training program. Hence, the objectives of the study were to explore the design of the youth training program provided by the Ministry of Tourism in five-star hotels and to examine whether the Ministry of Tourism contributed to the program  or not. In addition, this study also used Kirkpatrick model to measure the trainees’ reaction toward the program, to assess whether the learning objectives of the program were met or not, and to identify the effect of the program on participants’ behavior. For achieving these objectives, data were collected using questionnaires. A convenience sample of 400 trainees from 14 five-star hotels in Greater Cairo was chosen for investigation. However, only 149 questionnaire forms received from the trainees who completed the program. To analyze these forms, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used. The findings showed that the hotels and the Ministry of Tourism did not concern about measuring the level of trainees’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes. In addition, there was no specific test for trainees during or after the training program. Results suggested that hotels and the Ministry of Tourism should adopt a specific technique in evaluating the level of the trainees’ skills. Furthermore, the Ministry of Tourism should follow-up both the hotels and the trainees during the training process