Learning Package on Food and Beverage Service Competency Development for Upper High School Students

Abstract

The purposes of this research were to 1) identify food and beverage service competency for upper high school students in order to earn some income during their studies, 2) develop a competency based learning package on food and beverage service for them and 3) verify the learning package. This study was conducted in three phases. For the first phase, a survey study was conducted to identify food and beverage service competency for upper high school students. Three groups of population in this studying were 300 upper high school students experiencing food and beverage service job during their studies, the Secondary Educational Service Area Office 2, 65 food experts, the Secondary Educational Service Area Office 2 and 70 food entrepreneurs, Bungkhum, Bangkok. Sample groups of 30 upper high school students, 30 food experts and 40 food entrepreneurs were selected by purposive sampling technique. Three questionnaire forms were used to collect data from the selected samples. Collected data was presented to a focus group of 8 food service experts for identification of essential competencies and its practical use for upper high school students for income earning during their studies. The second phase was the development of a competency based learning package on food and beverage service. For the third phase, verifying the learning package on food and beverage service competency was conducted by administering the learning package to 30 volunteer high school students from 4 schools in Bangkok area.

At the end of the first phase, seven essential competency areas for food and beverage service required for upper high school students for income earning during their studies were identified as follows: 1) manner, 2) customer service mind, 3) occupational characteristic of food and beverage service, 4) language and communication, 5) service skill on food and beverage, 6) personal health, and 7) knowledge of food and beverage service. The development of a competency based learning package included knowledge development part and skill development part. The knowledge development part consisted of 4 volumes of knowledge booklets and a self assessment booklet. For skill development part, a set of practical skills workshop were designed to organize in a real setting. The verification of learning package indicated that the volunteer students were satisfying with all aspects of the knowledge part and theirs learning outcome were detected. For the skill practice part, volunteer students gained very high degree of competence on food and beverage service.