Linking with industry through our greatest resources - students

I love where I work.  Today I attended a Cooperative Education Symposium hosted by the Campus Career Center at Vancouver Island University.  The event brought together a range of employers from recreation, tourism and hospitality to recognize the role they play in education and also to profile fourth year students case studies.  There are rare occasions where we stop and pause for a moment and recognize each others role in this complex delivery system.

Educators are not always included as agents in the tourism delivery system - yet we are responsible for producing the industry's most valued asset - great people for the labour market and research to drive good decisions with. Today's event brought those threads closer together and made the reality of our interdependence extremely obvious.

  

The students case studies covered a range of topics from what to do about alcohol in public recreation facilities, to global labour market, to the suitability of paintball at camps, tipping behavior, Leaders in Training Programs and volunteerism (and many more...). Well done students and thanks for sharing.

Both our President - Dr. Ralph Nilson and our Vice-President Dr. David Witty attended and provided congratulatory remarks to employers and students. This show of support for experiential education doesn't cost a thing, and yet holds so much value to employers and students. Thanks for taking time out of your day to demonstrate your supportive leadership.  And to Micki McCartney and Lynda Robinson - well done!  Thanks for taking the initiative to pull something like this together. Your report is great and your work is greatly appreciated.

Graduate students debate public investment in tourism

This week, our new Graduate students in the Masters in Sustainable Leisure Management met to debate to what extent public investment should be made into tourism in the Vancouver Island Region. It was held at the Annual Tourism Vancouver Island Conference in Nanaimo from Sept 20-22.

The pro side, led by speaker Laurel Sliskovic, argued that investment into tourism is actually reinvestment into an industry that generates significant revenue for local and provincial governments. The pro team also argued that consistent investment is needed in a number of areas, including into the systems that are required for tourism such as BC Parks.

The con side, led by Marc Sorrie, argued that investments in tourism should come from the private, not the public sector. His team also suggested that there are numerous other competing priorities for the limited public dollars that exist, and tourism takes a back seat to things like health and education. He also suggested that until First Nations agreements are made, public investment would be inequitable and we would not reap the full benefit of the potential that will be present when Aboriginal communities can more fully participate in the industry.

Both teams did a great job of presenting to a packed room full of operators, Mayors, marketing organizations, and a variety of other delegates. I am sure their ideas sparked off conversation for the conference as well. While a show of hands indicated that the pro side won, it was obviously, a biased audience in the room!

I was reminded in organizing this debate at how effective they are in bringing about both sides of issues. We all too often hear what we want to hear, that which validates our own thinking on topics. In a democratic society, where complex issues are all around us - we can learn from these students perhaps, to think about the opposing sides and ideas to try and find common ground to move forward.