Hospitality in Uniform

Hospitality graduates increasingly find work outside the hotel and tourism sector. They are more and more often asked to contribute to humanitarian aid, defence-related services and crisis logistics. Students themselves indicate that they feel insufficiently prepared for such roles — especially where ethical choices must be made under high pressure and where intercultural sensitivity and resilience are required. At the same time, hospitality curricula remain strongly anchored in commercial service models and pay little attention to hospitality as a societal and ethical practice in unstable environments.

The project addresses three connected challenges. First, current education does not adequately prepare students for non-traditional, socially relevant careers in which crisis competence and ethical judgement are central. Second, students have few structured opportunities to translate hospitality values into concrete action in high-pressure, culturally diverse and resource-constrained environments. Third, the institutional connection between hospitality education and the humanitarian and defence sectors is nearly absent, despite the clear overlap in the skills required.

The project takes a design-oriented, practice-based approach built on Design-Based Education (DBE) and Scenario-Based Learning, centred on one of DBE’s core principles: Civic-Action Learning. Together with defence and humanitarian partners, realistic and authentic cases are developed that confront students with ethical dilemmas, intercultural challenges and operational uncertainty. Learning outcomes focus on ethical reasoning, resilience and inclusive service. The module is evaluated through student performance, reflective assessments and structured feedback, allowing further development and easy transfer to other programmes.

The project is led by Georges El Hajal, Senior Lecturer and Researcher at Hotel Management School Leeuwarden and member of the International Hospitality Education professorship. It is developed together with Dr Rodney Westerlaken, Dr Geesje Duursma and Victor de Reuver, under the supervision of Prof. Dr Hanneke Assen. Students take part actively through scenario- and design-based learning, simulations and reflective assignments; lecturers are involved as facilitators of the learning process.

The project results in a validated educational context in which humanitarian ethics and crisis skills are structurally integrated into the curriculum. Preliminary and expected results include improvements in students’ ethical judgement, resilience and confidence in non-traditional professional contexts. It also produces concrete pedagogical strategies and scenarios that can be used structurally within Hotel Management School Leeuwarden and other programmes, and that are easily adaptable by other institutions.

At an institutional level, the project strengthens collaboration with defence and humanitarian organisations and positions hospitality education as socially relevant and future-oriented. At a societal level, it contributes to a better-prepared workforce able to apply hospitality skills in contexts of crisis, care and public service.