The youth do not lack discipline. They lack examples.

Let's be honest: the level at which many graduates enter our sector is low. Everyone knows it, few dare to name it. But is it the fault of the hotel schools? Two things make someone truly good at this job, and neither of them can be learned in a classroom.

The first is the foundation. The real foundation. You see it, you experience it. I had the unfair advantage of growing up in a family of the trade and, as a child, accompanying them to the best restaurants and hotels. I saw the foundations and the pinnacle. I learned etiquette through good examples, not by reading a book, but by being immersed in it.

The second is managing a team. In my training sessions at Flemish hospitality businesses, this is the number one problem, and it isn’t covered in any curriculum. We train people to prepare dishes and serve guests, but not to lead a team. That is precisely what makes or breaks every business. Can the school do anything about it? Hardly: no budget, no practical experience, no innovation. That is not an educational problem; it is a structural problem.

And it goes deeper than money and rules. I recently read a handbook from one of the best hotel management schools in the world. One chapter was titled ‘complaint management’. Read that slowly: so, that training assumes complaints will arise. I would rather see a chapter called ‘complaint avoiding techniques’. Because that's what hospitality is all about: not handling complaints, but ensuring they are never needed.

Don't take my word for it: look at where top craftsmen really come from. Joël Robuchon, with thirty-two stars, was the most decorated chef ever. But his greatest achievement isn't that number, it's the chefs who came out of his kitchen: Gordon Ramsay, Eric Ripert, a whole generation.

Closer to home, Peter Goossens and Geert Van Hecke both studied at the same hotel school, Ter Duinen, also my alma mater. They didn't achieve greatness there. They were shaped by masters, in grand kitchens. And their legacy lives on in the chefs they trained. Tellingly, Van Hecke later took it upon himself to provide training. The masters had to take matters into their own hands.

So spare me the story that “young people no longer have discipline.” That's not true. They don't lack discipline, they lack role models. At our butler school, we therefore do the opposite: the training is more demanding for the instructors than for the students. My students always see me in a suit and tie, I'm on time, I mind my language, because I want them to do the same. I am the example. And you see: discipline follows naturally. We've let precisely those role models disappear, and then we send the bill to eighteen-year-olds.

So what is the solution? Not a new curriculum, but the teachers. Give them the oxygen to continue developing themselves. Don't let them wait for the curriculum, but let them detect trends themselves, before they reach the government. Because a new professional qualification passes through the sectors and the government before it reaches the classroom. By the time the teacher has mastered the material, it's already outdated.

The craft was never passed on in a classroom. It went from hand to hand. So stop pretending a curriculum can replace a master. Don't blame the teacher, give them oxygen.

Vincent Vermeulen, Founder of the School for Butlers & Hospitality / International Keynote Speaker