Dongseo University's Department of Hotel Management in the Division of Tourism, which strives to improve the job competitiveness of students by responding quickly to the changing hotel industry, was selected for the '2020 Customized Employment Support Projects for University Departments’ program in July. With the intention of nurturing Property Management System (PMS)-OPERA Masters, the official commencement of the 'Global Hotel Information System Practice' course from the project was announced on September 3, 2020, at the Centum Campus.

The purpose of the 2020 Customized Employment Support Projects for University Departments program is to enable universities to provide customized vocational training programs for students completing their degrees with the aim of improving their job competitiveness and practical skills to supplement their regular curricula. The project is operated in urban centers throughout Korea. For the Department of Hotel Management specifically, the 'Global Hotel Information System Practical (PMS-OPERA System)' course has been selected for operation. Through this course, students who will graduate in 2021 will learn the OPERA operating system, which is required by employers in further additional training courses after graduating students gain employment. In addition to cultivating participants’ operational capabilities and management skills, this course will provide 162 hours of comparative studies during the semester to provide optimal lectures by hotel industry experts, as well as effective education such as on-site training, special lectures by CEOs, and mentoring for seniors. Students who complete and pass the exams will also be issued a certificate of completion of the OPERA course under the name of the associated participating hotel industry.

The Department of Hotel Management has also prepared an educational program that focuses on the importance and necessity of the PMS used by most hotels, and enables students to understand PMS and acquire the practical skills required in practice.

In particular, a 200-room virtual hotel PMS was built for the purpose of ORACLE's 'OPERA' education, which is designated and used by global chain hotels as their main PMS, and related subjects within the major education were expanded accordingly in both the 2019 curriculum and 2020 curricula.
At the same time, a professional education program was prepared for graduates who were in the blind spots of their corresponding education at that time (such as those in the second year courses ‘Front Office Practice’ and/or ‘Hotel PMS Practice’). In particular, this training has the wherewithal to raise the PMS to the level where it can be operated immediately upon entering a hotel company, based on responses to various situations and repeated operation exercises on a foundation of sufficient training time and support.
To this end, the Westin Chosun Hotel room and reservation team trained professional instructors with 28 years of experience in PMS operation, and the program was evaluated by experts in hotel companies on the educational outcomes of students in the future (a performance evaluation is made when issuing a certificate). Based on this, the program is expected to produce talented people with PMS operation and management capabilities that are recognized for the program name due to the practical skillsets learned that the name entails.

In connection with the implementation of this course, global chain hotels such as the Hyatt, Hilton, and Marriott located in Busan are showing a lot of interest in the curricula and methods, and have provided generous encouragement and advice on the direction of its educational components and management. In particular, the head of the HR and education team at Hilton Hotel Busan predicts that this education will be a stepping stone in preparing for the post COVID-19 era as the tourism industry is shrinking a lot due to the pandemic, and students' interest in the tourism industry is unfortunately also decreasing accordingly. Consequently, hotel tours and field trips are core components of the program.

Project head Hong Jung-hwa, Dean of the DSU Division of Tourism, said, “We are grateful for the meaningful process that has progressed based on strong support and encouragement from related family companies despite the adversities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through careful quarantine management, students' personal efforts, the introduction of a blended-style education that combines both the online and offline, and DSU’s continual efforts to reflect industrial demands, we will strive to strengthen the curricula and build a network for students until human resources with specialized competencies are fully connected to the field by linking with global chain hotels.”