Postgraduate Diplomas
Tourism Management
The tourism industry has emerged as one of the largest and
fastest growing industries in the world today and, as the industry
expands, so do the job opportunities. The postgraduate diploma in
Tourism Management in the School of Management Studies at the
University of Cape Town recognises that the current era of rapid
global change is increasing demands for highly skilled managers in
the tourism industry. The programme, which is the first and only
such programme in South Africa, has been designed to prepare you for
such a career. The course gives you the opportunity the build upon
your previous undergraduate qualifications and experience by
expanding your knowledge in key academic fields such as marketing,
business, information technology. Former students occupy positions
of seniority in both public and private sectors in South Africa and
overseas.
Aims
The programme is vocational in nature and aims to provide
generally educated graduates with a combination of general business
management skills and specialised knowledge of the tourism industry.
The postgraduate diploma in tourism management is designed to meet
the educational requirements of future managers and executives.
Programme content
The diploma aims to attract graduates from a wide variety of
undergraduate faculties and universities. As with the other
diplomas, the learning is focused on the acquisition of both general
and specific skills. The first semester is spent acquiring a solid
grounding in good business practice (finance, marketing and
corporate finance) whilst exploring the industry of tourism, and the
focus during the second half of the year moves to courses that have
been developed specifically for the tourism industry, such as
marketing research methods, responsible tourism, events management,
information systems management, and financial controls for the
tourism industry. Students will also attend a course in
communications and career development.
During the second semester, students will also be required to
take an elective in one of the following specialist modules:
- Hospitality Management
- Transport for Tourism
A core feature of this diploma is a six-week
internship programme, which has been developed with key players in the
industry in South Africa (students have been posted at tourism
departments in local government through to working in marketing
departments of large private tourism organisations). In addition to
successful completion of the coursework as a requirement for the
award of the diploma, so too will be the successful completion by
each student of a 250 hour long internship with an organisation
affiliated to the diploma. The elective and internship that each
student selects should be focused on the same area.
Careers
Past students have been successful in gaining employment in both
public and private sectors in South Africa and overseas and many now
occupy positions of seniority. These include senior officials with
national and local tourism organisations such as the Department of
Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT), executives and managers
with airlines, hotels, tour operations, NGOs (such as Open Africa)
and visitor attractions and in education.
Downloads
- Postgraduate Diploma in Tourism Information Brochure 2008 - Click
here
(.PDF)
(292.8 KB) (04/02/2008)
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