Certification curricula developed and delivered by associations serving the hospitality industry must be validated from time to time to ensure relevance and as part of long-range planning procedures. Generally, in North America, this process is not handled well, but through the use of forced scales and qualitative research methods, even those with little experience in evaluative procedures can obtain validation data.
A study validating the AH&MA's Certified Rooms Division Executive Program, completed through the Pennsylvania State University's Institute for Research in Training and Development, is used to exemplify the methodology. In the example, samples of both property- and corporate-level managers “tend to agree” that most (but not all) of the various knowledge elements in those AH&MA curricula under study were necessary for effective performance in a rooms division. The study did not deal with elements that are necessary but not included in the AH&MA course, but similar qualitative procedures could be used to obtain such data.
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