P.I.M. Connect - "Hospitality, tourism, and human resources management in Canada"

Beginning in 2019, Seneca began working with Panyapiwat Institute of Management (P.I.M.) on an exciting Faculty-led Program Abroad opportunity for students in the School of Hospitality and Tourism. Based in Bangkok, Thailand, P.I.M. offers an attractive destination to students in programs that often express enthusiasm for international travel.

A program model was soon developed that would see students spend three weeks in Thailand, during which they would study a Human Resource Management course from their diploma program, while at the same time receiving an exciting General Education course on Thailand’s culture and society from our partners at P.I.M.

Feedback from students and faculty has been overwhelmingly positive, and we look forward to further collaboration with this fantastic international partner institution!  

Originally planned for October 2020, the program was canceled along with other mobility activities for the year, and then again for 2021. Not wanting to lose momentum with this new partner institution, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed virtually by the Presidents of both institutions in September 2020, with discussion focusing on how to collaborate virtually in 2021, before in-person student and faculty mobility would be able to safely return.

Heather Laver, Professor and Program Coordinator from the School of Hospitality and Tourism, set to work in developing a three-part program addressing topics from the Seneca’s Human Resource Management (HTM330) course, for delivery to students at P.I.M. Providing an introduction of Seneca to students and faculty in Thailand, this model would also allow for the possibility of P.I.M. students joining us during a future Faculty-led Program Abroad course delivery at their institution. Colleagues at P.I.M. were enthused by the program, and delivery was scheduled for May 2021.

We were soon thrilled to learn that 17 P.I.M. students and 6 faculty members from the Hospitality and Tourism Management and Communicative English for Business programs would be participating on this lecture series. Delivery took place on May 13th, 17th, and 20th, with Professor Laver bringing tremendous energy to sessions that were commencing at 10:00pm EST!

For the final delivery, Heather was joined by Professor Debra Watkinson, also from the School of Hospitality and Tourism, to provide an overview of Human Resources today and trends in the future of the workplace. Keith Monrose, Executive Director of Seneca International, and Usanee Kulintornprasert, Director of International Affairs at P.I.M., also attended this finale to provide remarks to those attending.