PHDBUS007 Volunteering and Skills Development: an analysis of the Scottish tourism sector

The concept of transferring skills from volunteer work to paid employment has been the focus of a high number of researches in the past four decades. Holdsworth (2011), Hybels (1978), Schram (1985) and Janey et al. (1991) are examples of academic literature exploring the relationship between the skills gained during volunteer work and skills used in paid employment. Holdsworth (2011) examines volunteering from a student perspective while Hybels (1978) found that skills developed during volunteer work enhanced the opportunities for employment, reinforcing a point made by Loeser (1974) who asserted the importance of volunteering as a career preparation. However, tourism researchers have partially neglected the importance of skills developed through volunteering. Previous publications emphasised aspects such as the economical importance of volunteering to the tourism industry and the social impacts of volunteer tourism, ignoring or superficially exploring the skills developed (Wearing 2001; McGehee and Santos 2005). There are approximately 18,000 tourism-related businesses in Scotland, making of 10% of the workforce, and research undertaken by the Skills Sector Council for the industry (People 1st, 2011) suggests a number of skills gaps that might be developed through volunteering.

Using a mixed-method approach, this research project will explore the importance of volunteering to the Scottish tourism industry and aims to better understand the skills developed by volunteers as well as the skills required by the tourism industry. The results of this research will contribute to fill a gap in the existing tourism literature but can also contribute to the development of new policies and practices in the tourism and volunteering industries as well as the education sector.