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The paper reports on a research project undertaken for the North West Tourism Skills Network.

The project explored the provision of information technology within hospitality and tourism programmes in educational institutions in the region. Researchers conducted telephone interviews with key specialist staff in 80 per cent of the schools, colleges and universities delivering programmes for introductory, operational and managerial programmes.

Findings suggest that IT provision occurs in all programmes and can now be considered as a core basic skill along with literacy and numeracy. Provision was generally applied to the industry and the specific requirements of the programme. There were several examples of excellent educational practice. However, some smaller colleges and sixth‐form college providers found the high purchase price of industry software a barrier to on‐site resources. That said, many ensured familiarity with industry software through industry partnerships and industrial visits.

While research gathered responses from 85 per cent of hospitality and tourism providers in the North West region, the study needs to be replicated nationally because these interviews suggest that information technology skill development is a key requirement for those destined to work in hospitality and tourism occupations.

Highlights the importance of information technology in the curriculum.

Nottingham Business School recently validated a suite of generic qualifications based round the theme of leisure retailing. The purpose of this paper is to describe the Advanced Diploma, where one of the first cohorts on the programme was pub managers and area managers from J.D. Wetherspoon.

This paper presents the findings of a telephone survey of 17 pub managers and three area managers who had successfully completed the Advanced Diploma in 2005.

Around eight out of ten pub managers interviewed reported positive impressions of the course and went on to state that their property had increased sales, profits, customer and staff satisfaction. Results from company sales and performance data support the impressions created by these qualitative interviews. Sales, gross profit and unit profit performance all show overall improvements in performance compared to company averages.

Apart from students obtaining a university qualification it would appear that in every case individual pubs reported a substantial improvement in their business. The other implication is that the way in which these students are able to obtain a degree might well become the accepted alternative to full time education and all the financial implications that go with it.

The paper provides a model for evaluating the impacts of education and training interventions that could be employed by both university teams and professional in‐company trainers.

For many years, breweries made profits from producing beer and selling it to public houses which they owned, thus making further profits through retail sales. The government decided that this monopoly should cease, and in the 1990s most brewing and pub‐owning companies became separate entities. This, together with increasingly competitive conditions, led to a far greater emphasis on customer satisfaction, and so the training of licensees became an issue. However, the basic role of licensees has always been to ensure that the customer is treated well enough to return to their pub. This raises the question of the skills and attitudes needed by a successful licensee. Can training offer enough, or is there something else which separates the competent from the really good? This study attempts to identify the characteristics needed for success.

The aim of this study is to identify some of the reasons for the failure of firms, particularly within the licensed trade, so as to offer some advice to assist practitioners. This will be done by a review of the general literature on business failure, looking particularly the small and micro‐business. The trading conditions within the public house sector are examined, and the importance of business knowledge is recognised. In addition, several people who have experienced serious financial problems have offered their comments. These include one owner of a free house who was obliged to close the doors; two tenants and one lessee whose businesses were repossessed; one lessee who suffered serious financial difficulties but survived, and a wholesaler who went into receivership. It is not suggested that these are representative of the trade as a whole. However, an expert in insolvency, with much experience of pub failure, added his views, so that some conclusions could be drawn.

To examine the work done by the business development managers (BDMs) who are employed by the pub owning companies with leased/tenanted estates to support the individual licensees.

The public statements issued by the pub owning companies, together with job descriptions were studied. A national survey about the attitude of leaseholders to their landlords was considered, and then both BDMs and lessees were interviewed, so as to see if the employers, the BDMs and the lessees agreed about the service provided.

The companies maintained that the BDM assisted the individual licensees, but licensees felt that they lacked real power and existed mainly as a debt collector and a company man to check that the tie is not broken. The national survey suggested dissatisfaction with the business relationship between lessee and landlord.

The case study was confined to a small number of lessees and BDMs. Practical implications: the work confirmed that many licensees resented the lack of practical assistance. This is significant information for the owners and prospective lessees.

The role of the BDM has been neglected, barely rating a mention in most papers addressing the leasehold sector of the licensed trade. This is an attempt to evaluate their work.

The image of Mel Gibson and Hugh Jackman (as Wolverine) in the Mad Max and X-Men franchises represents traditional heroic action masculinity. This chapter explores the roles of female action heroes in defying patriarchy and subverting action film genre stereotypes in male-dominated franchises. In contrast to past characterisations of Max, Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) provides both a departure to the role of Max as the male saviour seeking vengeance, by focusing on Imperator Furiosa and offering space for a portrayal of femininity characterised by inclusivity and tolerance. In Logan (2017), the decay of Wolverine is central to the narrative. Rather than the portrayal of an immortal hypermasculine hero in the previous X-Men films (with emphasis on men in X-Men), a new female mutant Laura assumes his mantle. In this context, I consider the gender roles and depiction of women in these films, and how they may be read as offering a futuristic vision of utopia in dystopian narrative worlds.

In the distant future, the social and economic systems build by the patriarchy are crumbling, causing an environmental crisis and divisive society, where people who are different (mutants) are hunted down. Mad Max: Fury Road and Logan both offer an alternative depiction of women and girls, providing new perspectives to navigate an uncertain dystopian world through fierce female warriors Furiosa, and mutant girl Laura. Ultimately this chapter demonstrates that survival in the post-apocalyptic and dystopian worlds represented in Mad Max: Fury Road and Logan may be achieved via a subversive feminist solution/utopia to the crisis of masculinity.