On-the-Job Training Essay

ASSESMENT OF THE PRACTICUM PROGRAM Its proven and well tested! Experience is definitely the best teacher. There are countless things that I’ve learned during my On-the-Job Training at Best Western Premier F1 (Fort 1) Hotel in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, Metro Manila. Being in a new and never-been-to environment was a big challenge to me. I exerted great effort to cope up with the means and manner of living of the new environment that I’d indulged into. Associated essay: Problems Encountered by HRM Students A.K. Kraipak CaseI did my best to blend in and went in with the flow of what the real world is offering, the sheer pressure and always on the move, busy and fast-pacing world of the metro cities. With tall and grand infrastructure, busy multi-lane roads, huge crowd of people whom I passed-by now and then, and the hustle and bustle caused by the usual cacophony of the metro cities created not only by great number of vehicles but also by the muttering shouting people; the digging and pounding of the upgrading and growing enormous new structures made of cement and steel.At first, I was so scared and nervous but was very excited at the same time. While configuring and scrutinizing the entire vicinity of the area where I did my OJT, at some point I lost my sense of direction. It was nerve-wracking yet it was a funny experience though. Good thing, later on I managed to find my way through every destination that I supposed to go to. I w as able to meet many distinct individuals and gained many relevant insights about the hotel industry, getting a profound job and a glimpse of how it really looks like.That very moment, it came to my senses that I must never waste the opportunity that I had, I must give my best and with all extend learn everything what I can learn about hospitality industry that will broaden and expand my knowledge and skills in my field of expertise and never confide myself with the hindrances in achieving my ultimate goals in life. For the very first time, I had experienced a real job interview with a real Human Resource executive in a real HR office. Everything seemed so formal with air of professionalism in the atmosphere of the office.Every personnel were so prim and proper wearing their corporate suits and were very polite and amiable. Upon arriving a bit early of the scheduled interview, I waited for my name to be called by the executive secretary. When the interview had started, I tried my be st to hide my nervousness. To my astonishment, the HR executive turned out to be very kind and easy to talk with. He wasn’t stern and strict as what I had expected; in fact he helped me boost up my confidence that made me feel comfortable talking with him all throughout the interview.Everything went well, I was told to wait for an email and a text message for the confirmation and schedule of the orientation before I could start my training in the hotel. I was informed that their hotel requires their On-the-Job Trainees to render not less than 500 hours and preferably at least 720 hours of training as imposed by the management of the hotel and being very benevolent to the welfare of their OJT trainees, they allow students to have their practices on the desired departments they required to be assigned to.During our orientation, we were taught about the essential features and information of the hotel and its services and standards. They taught us how to handle costumer and do se rvices in accordance to the premiere standard of the hotel. I had my orientation together with some students from De la Salle of St. Benil, Pamantasan ng Pasig, and other famous schools in Manila, Pampanga and Batangas. I learned that even if I came from a college in the province, it doesn’t mean I cannot cope up with them, that they are much more equipped and skilled than me.I had proved to them that students from Saint Vincent’s College possesses an edge in customer service and are much more hardworking and we can compete with them in the field of hospitality industry as being taught and embedded to us by our skilled and competent instructors. I am blessed because all the personnel of the hotel were so kind and generous to me during my training at Best Western F1 Hotel. They had taught me well and were very much willing to share all their insights about their job and about the natures of services in hospitality industry.As per assigned by the Human Resource Departmen t, my first assigned pose was as an assistant of the Accounts Payable Manager in the Accounting office of the hotel, where my task involves with screening and handling incoming calls, attend to guest that goes in the office, receiving and logging down received documents, checking and reviewing incoming receipts and invoices and summarizing them down in the excel table.Also attend to basic accounting procedure and processes like checking salary distributions of casual and on-call employees, second review checking for billing statements and payables of the hotel and dissemination of checked and reviewed payable and reimbursement accounts of executive personnel. Making summary of cash disbursement of the hotel, checking purchase order invoices and filling them for preparation of payable checks to clients.Later on I realized that the office that I was assigned to is the Chairman’s office, the owner of the hotel. In the office I learned to be very careful in my every action especi ally in handling payable accounts transaction for it involves huge sum of money. The executive employees were so kind and friendly despite of their high positions in the company. They crank jokes to break the silence in the office and they are generous enough to share some snacks or food that they have even to me though I was just an OJT.I admired the executive bosses because though they have high positions they are humble and down-to-earth, like the hotel’s General Manager, Cost Control Manager, Credit Manager and especially the Resident Manager of the hotel who he, Himself wipes cutleries, fold table napkins and do table set-ups during busy hours in the function rooms. The next department that I was assigned to was in Housekeeping. Here, I learned a lot of things about room services and standards after my first task as a public area attendant.I have encountered many distinctive types of guest and I was taught how to handle them well. Most of our guest staying in the hotel a re foreigners, that’s why I was told to pay attention carefully to each and every request of the guest especially to Korean’s and other Asian guests because most of them don’t know how to converse well in English. I was partnered to the hotel’s Room Attendant who treated and taught me well everything that I wanted to know about being an excellent housekeeper and effective customer service.He showed me some good techniques in bed making and doing duvet in an easy and fast manner. He taught me ample of towel folds and proper way of arranging amenities in a Premiere standard. He guided me in every rooms cleaning procedure and added some techniques how to effectively finish it quickly and splendidly. He also taught me all the amenities and facilities of each room types. He allows me to have my on hand experience throughout all procedure and guides me if I’m having a hard time.Every time we are done with our room clean-up and make-up room requests, we p roceed to the pantry to arrange the stocks and amenities in the trolley and the storage while waiting for new guest request and room services. I also assigned to the linen and laundry section of the housekeeping department where I learned a lot about different laundry services and how to operate facilities and machineries. I was able to do laundry pick-up and delivery procedures, logging and incorporating each services we had rendered and trusted enough to post it in using the Opera system in the computer.The staff treated me like I’m one of them and they even trusted me with big tasks like when they assigned me to take over the duty of the linen attendant who got sick and was absent that day. Since no one can replace her for a while, they assigned me the duty to handle all linen and laundry responsibilities because they were confident that I am skilled enough to handle the task. I was also given a chance to be the housekeeping coordinator who attends to all calls for houseke eping intended for guest requests and room status reports and updates.I experienced turndown services and did rooms cleaning and services on my own without the aid of a Room Attendant during full house accommodation of the hotel and also assigned to mini-bar housekeeping attendant to check and replenish all amenities needed in the mini-bar and pantry areas. Finally, I was assigned to the Food and Beverage department. This time all my skills and patience has been well tested. I experienced a lot of functions and events during banquet services.It was absolutely a tough task because it seems like we never run out of guests to attend with plus we need to serve them food precisely to the scheduled time and extra services upon requested. Mostly of the guests that we had were from huge and renounced companies like Proctor and Gamble, Mead Johnsons, Holcim, Unilever, and many more whom usually they brought with them guests celebrities like, Coco Martin, Tony Gonzaga, Bea Alonzo, John Estrad a, Kathryn Bernardo, Lovie Poe etc during their held events at F1 hotel.That’s why we were instructed well by the supervisors to be extra careful in handling and attending guests especially the VIP’s. I learned to do multi-tasking and was thought how to do different food station and table set-ups which varies depending upon the kind and theme of the event. I’ve learned that you need to handle each and every costumer well with extra care. As we all know, costumer is the lifeblood to every business. It is a must to treat them well and provide their needs, wants and give them a satisfying service because the success of every business relies on them.I’ve learned to adjust to every person or costumer that comes in the workplace, not every individual is alike so you must know how to handle each situation and adjust to their differences. Also, you need to be versatile, well rounded and able to work efficiently under pressure. In case of any problem, you need to act on it promptly. Being shy or sluggish has no room in this industry. You need to have focus, have a presence of mind and give your best on everything you do.Knowing your job and enjoying what you’re doing also helps a lot for an effective performance in providing quality performance in costumer service, you need to smile, have a positive attitude, be patient and create rapport with the every person that you’re dealing with, especially the costumer. I also acquired from my On-the-Job training that for a person to be efficient and successful, you need to work hard, exert great effort, work well even under pressure, be flexible, learn from every mistake and correct them, never complain on task given to you, respect your co-workers, be humble and have your mind set on what you’re doing.I really had a great experience with all the people around me during my practicum, especially the staffs. They taught me a lot and I really learned a lot from them. All of them are friendly and fun to work with. During the practicum they help us learn many thing and allows us to have a first-hand experience with dealing with costumer and if ever we commit mistake they are considerate enough to guide us in correcting them, tells us what to do to refrain from doing it again, teach what we can further do to improve our learning on different aspects in customer service and expound our newly acquired learning.First they let us observe what to do in different task and how they do it then assist us in performing it and finally let us do it in our own. I also experienced meeting different customer that come and go in the workplace; most of them are kind, approachable and easy to deal with and there are also those who are very strict and rude but eventually I’ve learned to handle and deal with them well, you just need to be patient with them, humble and please them with a great and satisfying service.One event that I can’t really forget during my practic um was when I had successfully accomplished my task well, had pleased a bunch of costumer and they complimented on my service. They uttered that they are pleased with my performance and the management complimented me and said that we were very well taught by our school where I came from because of the quality of good service, hard work and dedication that I showed them.It was really a great privilege to have heard such gratifying words from people that you had worked with. It was as if all my hard work and stress had paid off and I were further motivated to do better, show my best in everything that I do and prove that hotel and restaurant management students of Saint Vincent’s College are skilled, knowledgeable and competent enough to compete with other colleges and universities offering the same field of study in terms of hotel and restaurant industry.Indeed, this practicum experience is really a great help to each every student that wishes to be in the Hospitality Industry for it will really allows student to be more skillful in doing different task in hotel, restaurants and other related establishments in providing customer service. For those who will undergo the practicum program soon, they must be disciplined and must do their best in everything they do. They must be patient, must have perseverance, and must have a presence of mind and willing work without being told.They also need to know well what they are doing, focus, establish rapport with the people around them, be well rounded and ensure quality service to costumer. They must learn to adjust to every situation. And must be eager to learn new things that can help them in the near future because this is just a start and a taste of what the real world can be, where you will face real costumers and problems that you need to please and overcome.