Is It Competent Enough for Handling Foodservice Quality? From the Students’ Viewpoint of Self-perceived Competence and the Contribution of Hospitality Course

Abstract

This study evaluated the self-perceived importance and competence with regard to foodservice quality of hospitality students in Taiwan. The study used a 6-dimension food quality scale to gather self-assessed data from student participants. A total of 400 questionnaires were sent out, with 355 (88.75%) returned, validated, and used in research. In the dimension of perceived importance, participants placed the highest importance on “food safety” and the lowest importance on “food characteristics”. In the dimension of competence, participants placed the highest competence on “service quality”, while the competence concerning “culinary skill” was lower. An importance-performance analysis (IPA) identified “food safety” as showing the greatest be improved among the six dimensions. The courses and internship experience predicted 26.4% of the variability in perceived competence of foodservice quality. Both the two variables showed a statistical significance. The culinary courses had a greater impact on food quality-related perceptions than did either hospitality professional or general management courses. Finally, this study identified that the school courses had a positive contribution to the competence of foodservice quality and with hospitality students who completed school courses having better quality perception competence than those who had not.