Hospitality Management

The aim of the Bachelor’s Field of study Hospitality Management is to prepare specialists across the broad spectrum of hospitality and gastronomy services and in management of enterprises in this field of business. Hospitality Management major field of study is suitable for creative and flexible students who tend to upgrade their professional education and work in the milieu of hotel and gastronomy services. The field of study is intended for students who want to work and manage business operations and teams of personnel in domestic and international companies, independent businesses, including the family-run ones. It does not matter if applicants or students completed secondary grammar or hotel school, or any other type of secondary schools.

Characteristics of professions, graduates, employment
Graduates from this study program are prepared to hold managerial and key operations positions across the spectrum of services in hospitality and gastronomy, especially in small and medium-sized enterprises, in accommodation, catering, technical and other hotel operations/sections. They are also prepared to act when providing advice services on lifestyle, catering, the implementation of new accommodation, hotel and gastronomy concepts. Due to fundamental skills graduates can find managerial positions in small enterprises and family-run businesses. They are also prepared to work for hotel companies, in catering services, wellness programs, food industry, in convention services and in institutional forms of food services (schools, hospitals, companies, spa resorts). They will also be qualified specialists for advice in the field of hotel services, the manufacture of food and beverages and in creating well-balanced gastronomy offers (menus and beverage lists), in the provision of social events (event management and catering) as well as in the application of social etiquette in managerial practice. During their studies, students gain knowledge of professional terminology in two foreign languages and are prepared to apply these skills in their work. Students understand the information sources needed for business development and for company or its particular segment management. They are able to master fundamentals of processing and interpretation of this information.

Major field study subjects: Fundamentals of Hospitality and Gastronomy, Fundamentals of Travel and Tourism, Beverage Gastronomy, Hotel Facilities and Design, Hotel Reservation and Restaurant Systems, Hotel Marketing and Event Management.
Optional subjects: students can choose those subjects that help them to develop their knowledge and skills in the field of gastronomy, hospitality management or economic management of an enterprise.
Subjects of common theoretical fundamentals primarily are: Macroeconomics for bachelor´s program, Microeconomics for bachelor´s program, Management, Marketing, Banks and Financial Markets.

The bachelor´s program is concluded in a form of the state final examination and a defence of one´s bachelor´s thesis. The Institute of Hospitality Management notifies a list of topics based on the IHM research orientation and also based on requirements of practice.

Study results
The competence of the graduate from the field of Hospitality Management is based on the study of the common theoretical fundamentals subjects. The graduates gain knowledge of broader social context of the study field. Within their program they obtain knowledge of the study field and about its segments, they develop their essential skills in application of theoretical knowledge in hospitality and gastronomy practice. They have needed knowledge of economic, managerial, social and legislative practice and at the same time they command skills connected with nutrition, hygiene, healthy lifestyle, logistics and sustainable development. The graduate can obtain further knowledge and skills in the programme of specialized compulsory optional subjects.

Professional knowledge and skills

the graduate is well informed about economic development of real economy on the level of economic subjects,
is well informed about economic policy and is able to predict its impacts on business practice,
is qualified in his/her approach to decision-making of financial issues, namely on lower and mid-management levels,
commands organizational structure and hotel setting, including gastronomy technologies and processes,
is familiar with methods of hotel facilities operations and knows issues of gastronomy segments, scale of sales and their analysis, risk evaluation, costs calculations, management of provided services quality and sale support,
is able to apply principles and methods of food and beverages preparations, including the utility of technologies and methods of serving a well as hygienic standards, standards quality concerning nutrition and factors effecting our health,
knows the legislative duties and organizational processes of catering and accommodation services,
knows particular categories of beverages that constitute a gastronomy assortment,
knows the principles of ethical behaviour and decision-making of particular subjects.

Compatibility of the program of Hospitality Management with similar programs abroad enables the graduates to find employment in domestic and international companies dealing in the hotel industry and offers further education and improvement of professional know-how in on-going master´s program at IHM or other institutes and colleges.

The study program of Hospitality Management was accredited in 1999 and it was extended by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic in 2006 and subsequently in 2013 by 6 years. In accordance with the period of time since the first accreditation of the program, particular changes in the program have been implemented. They primarily respond to the development of the hotel industry, gastronomy, economic and business milieu in the Czech Republic, as well as its full EU membership in 2004 and to other socio-economic factors.