NOSES are to the grindstone at Athlone RTC. There is an air of endeavour and enterprise in the college's school of business, management and general studies. Socks are firmly pulled up with the focus on hard work and dedication.

Students who want a career in hotel management have been availing of a newly-introduced degree year which has been on offer for the past two years. The aim is to prepare students for managerial and executive positions in the tourism and hospitality industry.

Marie Keane, from Ardmore, Co Waterford, has returned to college after working for five years in the hotel and catering industry to complete this year and study for a degree. "It's quite an intense year," says Keane, who is 27. "I'm enjoying it. Tourism is such a growing industry. This degree gives you a lot of opportunity."

Those who complete a national diploma in hotel and catering management at merit level are now able to carry on into fourth year for a degree qualification. The degree is a bachelor of business studies in tourism and hospitality management. There are 13 in the current academic year.

"I would have been interested in hotels and restaurants," says Keane about her interests when she left school. She went to Birmingham College of Food, Tourism and Creative Studies to study and graduated with a diploma in hotel and catering management in 1991. After working in a range of establishments in both Waterford and Britain, she says: "I felt I would like to branch into other areas."

Keane began to feel over the past year or two that she would like to move into the general area of tourism, in particular into the planning, development and marketing of, a tourism product. She mentions interpretive centres as an example of what she means.

"It's such a growth area," she says. As a career "you are dealing with people every day. It's the variety that keeps you going. The image of it being an industry of long hours and poor pay is changing."

Ronan Maher (25), from Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim, is also in the degree year. "It's in the blood," he says about his calling. Seven generations of his family have been involved in the "hospitality or inn-keeping business". He completed a certificate in hotel and catering management at Athlone RTC after three years of full-time study.

After graduating in 1993 and working for a few years, he decided to return to the college because "the timing was right and also because the course affords me the flexibility of forging out into other areas in the hospitality field".

He challenges the view that a career In the hotel and catering industry does not appeal to many people. "It's a very broad industry and a very challenging industry," he says. "A lot of others who have studied in different areas move into it after graduation. There is a growing number of people who are going into it.

One of the great attractions of a career in the hotel, catering and tourism area is the opportunity to work abroad, according to Maher. "It's very hard work, but," - he laughs recalling his own three month stint in Brittany - "it's character building. I think in hindsight it develops the person more roundly."

The degree year, he says, is very much business orientated compared to the first and second years of other courses which place their emphasis on the craft and skill side.

"The fourth year is built on a very strong foundation," says John Cusack, head of the college's school of business, management and general studies, under whose umbrella the degree course is run. The direct entry into the degree year is following the completion of the national diploma in hotel and catering management. Cusack stresses "the ladder of opportunity for the student who can come in on a craft, course" which allows students who join a craft-based course under the auspices of CERT to progress to degree level also.

Fourth year students study a range of subjects including tourism, strategic management, economics and development, financial management, marketing and enterprise development, French or German and business research methods.

According to John O'Hara, head of the college's hotel catering and tourism studies department, there is a sense of excitement among some of the students because of the opportunity this degree year affords them. In the past a number of students had to go to colleges in Britain to continue to degree level. The degree year has changed this trend.

Frances McGettigan, a lecturer in the department, says that those who choose to go on to degree level are very eager. "They get the opportunity to participate in research and development projects" at regional, national and international level.

AS to work placements which form part of the three-year hotel and catering management course, the college is unable to meet the demand. "We've lots of contacts," says O'Hara.

Graduates are in demand within the industry both at home and abroad, with the college handling an increasing number of enquiries from prospective employers in both the United States and Europe.