Five hospitality schools get SMART

OTTAWA — Tourism HR Canada has announced the first five post-secondary programs to achieve its SMART accreditation.

The national recognition was created by Tourism HR Canada to honour programs that exceed industry standards.

The inaugural five programs from the four institutions recognized include: CEGEP de Saint-Félicien’s Techniques de tourisme program (Diploma); Centennial College’s Hospitality-Hotel Operations Management program (Diploma); Centennial College’s Hospitality and Tourism Administration program (advanced diploma); Olds College’s Hospitality and Tourism Management program (Accelerated diploma); and Ryerson University’s Hospitality and Tourism Management program (Bachelor’s degree).

The SMART Accreditation Program aims to provide an opportunity for post-secondary institutions and corporate training providers to demonstrate their programming meets or exceeds industry standards, but also provides benchmarks that tourism educators can use to assist them in continually improving their programs.

"There is a well documented skills shortage in the Canadian tourism industry. Tourism HR Canada is an innovative leader in providing informed labour market data critical to understand the workforce needs of the expansive tourism industry," said Joe Baker, Dean of Centennial's School of Hospitality, Tourism and Culinary Arts. "To be accredited by this organization is to demonstrate to the country and the world that Centennial College is preparing our graduates for flourishing careers in any of the sectors of this industry – locally and abroad." 

Tourism Canada’s SMART accreditation offers two levels of accreditation: SMART Program status for programs that meet a basic standard and a SMART + Premium Program status for programs exceeding the basic standard. All programs currently recognized received the SMART + Premium status.

“This recognition is an impressive accomplishment, and we commend these progressive institutions for their commitment to creating programming that reflects current industry needs and provides the type of graduate that will be integral to growing Canada’s tourism sector by providing quality professionals to the sector,” said Tourism HR Canada President Philip Mondor. “A key aim of the program is to promote and recognize institutions that prepare graduates that are in high demand. These are graduates that have the skills and abilities to help tourism prosper now and the future.”