Diploma of Higher Education in Tourism and Service Business Management, 60 ECTS cr*
The Diploma of Higher Education provides knowledge and competence in tourism and service business management. You enhance your expertise in customer-oriented service development and digital marketing in European business environment. The studies are carried out online on Xamk Learn digital learning environment.
The Diploma of Higher Education
- consists of study entities included in Xamk's degree programmes curricula
- courses are bachelor level (EQF 6) and credits are fully compatible with the ECTS
- can be accepted as part of a selected, international degree program (for example BBA, International Digital Business), thus shortening the study time in Finland
- is open UAS studies without prior requirements or special work experience
- consists of 12 courses, 5 ECTS each, total extent of the diploma is 60 ECTS credits.
- is not a degree in terms of Finnish education system.
The studies are suitable for students who
- need deeper understanding or new competences – regardless of their prior studies
- want to study in a flexible way – studies are carried out online
- are interested in developing their own work
- are looking for a new direction in their own professional career – whether currently between jobs or at work
- are looking for more extensive studies, but not the whole degree.
Students are required to
- have the capability to study on university level
- have enough time to familiarize on materials and sources of information
- be commited to these studies
- complete all tasks and tests on time
- to be initiative.
Continuing education in Finland
- Diploma of higher education is one form of continuing education and it is aimed at people who do not want to complete a whole degree.
- More info on Continuing professional education on MINEDU's site here.
*) ECTS credits
ECTS credits represent the workload and defined learning outcomes (”what the individual knows understands and is able to do”) of a given course or programme. One credit equals 27 hours of student's work.
Target group: All that are interested in these studies. Please notice, that
Xamk degree students cannot enroll on Xamk Pulse's courses.
Price:The courses included in diploma are free of charge.
Enrolment on nonstop basis: You must enroll on each course separately. You can find the courses by their name or from 'Type' -> Diploma of Higher Education. Choose just the number of courses that you are capable of completing by the end of year 2024! All courses will be available in year 2024, when you can start the courses weekly on nonstop basis. Courses can be completed in any order.
Enrolment period: You can enroll on the courses that will start on 23rd January 2024.
Requirements: The student has to have a fluent skills in English and readiness to study online independently on university level.
Device: You need a laptop or PC. Smartphone or tablet does not necessarely meet the requirements of completing online tasks on our Learn digital learning environment.
Credited in degree: Partly to degree 'Bachelor of Business Management, Digital International Business' at Xamk University of Applied Sciences (15 cr core competence + 15 cr optional studies), see the curricula (Intercultural competences, Customer oriented marketing and Customer insight and customer experience). All other Bachelor degrees (except for Bachelor of Health Care, Nursing), 15 cr to optional studies.
Additional information on enrolment
Open University of Applied Sciences office, email openstudies@xamk.fi.
Terms of cancellation: If you want to cancell your enrolment, it is important to infom us. Cancellation by email to openstudies@xamk.fi.
You'll receive an invitation by email to this course approx. one week before the course starts.
South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences (XAMK)
The South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences (XAMK) – the 5th largest UAS in Finland. Xamk is situated in the popular tourist region around Saimaa lake system and archipelago.
More information on higher education in Finland on page https://minedu.fi/en/higher-education-and-research.
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– Victor from Spain, Málaga, completed the diploma in 2020. What are Victor's thoughts about the diploma studies? Read his experiences here. –
Courses included in Diploma of Higher Education in Tourism and Service Business Management and timetable 2024
- Management and workplace skills, starting 5 January
- Customer insight and customer experience, starting 15 January
- Profitability and financial planning, starting 15 January
- Intercultural competences, starting 15 January
- Customer oriented marketing, starting 15 January
- Destination Finland, starting 4 March
- Hospitality management, starting 23 January
- Digital skills in hospitality service production, starting 1 February
- Responsibility in hospitality business development, starting 23 January
- Experience and well-being services, starting 23 January
- Customized services in hospitality business, starting 23 January
- Tourism safety management, starting 23 January
Courses by modules
MODULE I: MANAGING BUSINESS OPERATIONS
The goal of Module I is to provide students with basic knowledge of Finland, improve writing skills, raise the knowledge of how to anticipate risks and increase understanding diversity. The extent of each course is 5 ECTS credits and their duration as following
- Destination Finland
- Tourism safety management
- Intercultural competences
- Management and workplace skills
MODULE II: EFFECTIVE MARKETING AND CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
The goal of Module II is to provide students with professional capabilities to understand hospitality and tourism business, study the objectives and roles of customer-oriented marketing and gain digital skills in hospitality service production. The extent of each course is 5 ECTS credits and their duration as following
- Hospitality management
- Digital skills in hospitality service production
- Customer oriented marketing
- Customer insight and customer experience
MODULE III: GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
The goal of Module III is to provide students with knowledge of responsibility issues, and produce and evaluate opportunities for well-being tourism and furthermore the importance of customer experience. Module III also provides understanding of economical viewpoints in service business. The extent of each course is 5 ECTS credits and their duration as following
- Responsibility in hospitality business development
- Experience and well-being services
- Customized services in hospitality business
- Profitability and financial planning
You must register for each course separately.
You can complete the courses in any order, but we recommend to starting from module I with all courses including in it.
Also, if you are not interested in completing the whole diploma, you can choose just some of the courses.
The courses are available on Course calendar – Xamk -> from ‘Type’ choose ‘Diploma of higher education’.
!Please register for just the amount of courses that you have time to complete!
After you have completed all of the 12 courses included in diploma (altogether 60 ECTS credits) you are awarded the certificate ”Diploma of Higher Education in Tourism and Service Business Management”. The certificate and a transcript of records will be delivered by email in PDF form.
The curricula is valid at least for two years, 2023-2024. This means that if you complete all of the 12 courses by the end of 2024, they will be accepted as diploma studies. If the curricula changes (new courses replace some old ones), the situation will be checked for you individually.
Additional information on enrolment:
Open University of Applied Sciences office, openstudies@xamk.fi.
Terms of cancellation:
If you cannot participate, please inform us by email to openstudies@xamk.fi. It is important to enrol on just those courses you are about to complete.
Instructions how to start
Before the courses starts, you'll receive an invitation by email to each course.
Please notice that you need a laptop or PC in order to participate this programme. Smartphone or tablet are not sufficient.
COURSE CONTENTS
MODULE I:
Destination Finland
What are the key concepts of domestic and international tourism in English? Which elements of Finnish nature and culture could be used as basis of experience tourism product for international market? What are the pull factors, major tourist areas, destinations, ways of travelling and special features of tourism in Finland? What is the structure of tourism business and what are the traveler streams arriving in and leaving Finland? How do you work in an international team?
Management and workplace skills
How do you lead yourself? How do you identify various roles, behavior patterns and phenomena in work communities? How do you communicate and act as a responsible member of a work community and lead it? How do you apply leadership models in various types of organisations? How do you develop work community collaboration in a goal-oriented way? How do you act as a leader and supervisor in changing working life environments?
Tourism safety management
Where do you find information, models and guides about tourism risks and safety issues? What kind of risks and safety issues are involved in tourism? What are the duties and responsibilities of entrepreneurs and staff in tourism field? How do you perform a risk assessment? What kind of safety documents are required in hospitality business? How do you work responsibly and in compliance with safety norms?
Intercultural competences
What is culture? What are values, beliefs, (negative) cultural perceptions? How to recognize cultural differences based on comparing elements of your own national culture to other cultures? How to communicate effectively in intercultural settings?
MODULE II:
Hospitality management
What is the scale of tourist movements in the 21st century? How to activate team skills by understanding the different tasks, activities and functions of your team when managing a hospitality organization? Why is there a need for sustainable tourism development? What are the topical issues, revealing the fast-changing nature of the tourism and hospitality business in terms of both demand and supply? How to be aware and understand the complexity and interconnection of the modern tourism and hospitality industry?
Customer oriented marketing
What are the objectives and role of customer-oriented marketing and relationship marketing in the operation of the organization? How does the digital economy and operational environment affect the planning of marketing? How is customer buying behavior and segmentation taken into consideration when defining the objectives and target groups? What does marketing- mix consist of and how can it be used to reach organizational goals?
Digital skills in hospitality service production
What kind of digital solutions can you use in hospitality service production? How can digital solutions improve the competitiveness of service production? How can you define the effects of digitization on service costs, quality, usability and customer experience? The course involves a practical project with a case company or organization (3 ECTS credits).
Customer insight and customer experience
What does the customer process mean and what is its role in business? How do consumers, companies and organizations differ as customers? What does customer experience consist of and how are you able to gain insight into it? How are customer relationships built, maintained and developed? What are the components of good customer service?
MODULE III:
Responsibility in hospitality business development
What are the positive and negative sociocultural, ecological and economic impacts of the hospitality field? What are the relevant assessment methods and indicators of responsiblity in regional destinations and at national level? How do you anticipate the global sociocultural, ecological and economic changes and risks related to responsible development of the field? How do you plan, implement and assess a development project to improve the responsibility of enterprises, networks of enterprises or destinations? The course involves a practical project with a case company or organization (3 ECTS credits).
Experience and well-being services
What key factors do experiences involve? How can experiental services improve the competitiveness of service concepts? How to improve experiental services? The course involves a practical project with a case company or organization (3 ECTS credits).
Customized services in hospitality business
How to customize services? How do you collect customer information and develop customer experience? How can you measure customer experience? The course involves a practical project with a case company or organization (3 ECTS credits).
Profitability and financial planning
What is the role of the financial accounting in decision making? How to categorise the revenues and costs of an enterprise? How to apply the cost-volume-profit analysis when evaluating the profitability of an enterprise? How does the price setting affect on the profitability of an enterprise? What is the role of investments and budgeting in financial planning?
South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences is audited by the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre (FINEEC).