Research Article: 2019 Vol: 22 Issue: 6
Olha Bezkorovaina, Rivne State University for the Humanities
Olena Kulyk, Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi State Pedagogical G. Skovoroda University
Liudmyla Ovsiienko, B. Grinchenko Kyiv University
Lyudmila Pet'ko, Dragomanov National Pedagogical University
Ruslana Soichuk, Rivne State University of Humanities
Ganna Turchynova, Dragomanov National Pedagogical University
Nataliia Stanislavchuk, Rivne State University for the Humanities
Citation Information: Bezkorovaina, O., Kulyk, O., Ovsiienko, L., Pet'ko, L., Soichuk, R., Turchynova, G., & Stanislavchuk, N. (2019). Journal of Entrepreneurship Education, 22(6).
The study provides the theoretical justification of the structural components of the readiness of future travel managers for realization of various investment projects in the professional entrepreneurship activity: motivational and personalized one, which stimulates the further realization of design processes; content-cognitive, which covers the acquisition of knowledge about the keystones of investment management; and activity-practical, which is associated with the professional engagement of the acquired skills and abilities. There were specified the general criteria (motivational, cognitive, and procedural), indicators and levels (low, medium and high) of formation of the readiness of future travel managers for realization of various investment projects. It was established that the indicators of the motivational criterion include the personalized belief in the need to acquire the knowledge and skills of investment management; the cognitive one—knowledge of the business engineering procedure; and procedural one—the ability to process and interpret the figures using the basic knowledge, required for realization of the project activities in the tourism sphere.
Entrepreneurship Education, Tourism Sphere, Managers, Investment Activity, Motivation.
I2, F6.
Internationalization of the education as the natural phenomenon of modern development of the society, as well as the benchmark of the education policy in the European Union, contributed to formation of a new set of requirements for the professional competence of future travel managers from the society, which is facing new transformation trends, travel agencies, which activities are being modernized, and the tourist contingent, which also continues changing in a qualitative manner. Due to establishment of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) of education in Ukraine, as well as the educational services of the Management of Business Administration (MBA) program, it became necessary to improve the process of training of new specialists of tourism industry.
Formation of the regional tourist complexes in Ukraine mainly depends on the investment maintenance, which should focus on the sustainable combination of tourist and recreation resources, build-up of small tourist businesses, development of the tourist infrastructure, development of the study of local and history, student and youth tourism.
The successful implementation of the reporting tasks largely depends on the justified investment decisions at the level of certain enterprises, industries and regions. The issue of development and estimation of the investment attractiveness of certain tourist spots and the types of tourism activities receives the special relevance, because only trained professionals have to work in the sphere. According to our opinion, improvement of the process of formation of the readiness of future tourism professionals for realization of various investment projects, which will contribute to the promotion and development of the tourism industry in Ukraine is one of the methods of solution.
A good rule of thumb is that the professional travel managers often fall short of knowledge and skills concerning preparation, making and realization of decisions on the effective using of the regional tourist resources in the project investment activities. Taking into account the availability of various sources of financing support, investment projects and programs, there is a need arises that future travel managers to acquire the specific investment knowledge in tourism management.
Therefore, training of specialists in the sphere of tourism, who are able to develop investment projects on the basis of mobilization of resources (financial, investment, tourism, labour, etc.) at the professional level becomes even more relevant. In particular, it makes sense for future travel managers to take into account the potential of school (out-of-school) tourist and local history work as the special resource for creation of the domestic tourism product, as well as development of the amateur tourism, which combines various forms of excursion activities, and becomes the basis for the further development of professional tourism as the branch of economy.
On the basis of the analysis of the scientific heritage, it was established that scientists usually considered the problem of formation of the readiness for professional activities in various aspects: philosophical (Ateljevic, 2017); psychological (Kelly & Fairley, 2018); professional and teaching (Kim & Fesenmaier, 2017); and technological ones (Priandani et al., 2017).
Such specialists as Drobyazko et al. (2019), Makedon et al. (2019) and others, studied the methodological and general theoretical aspects of the investment management. At the same time, the analysis of various studies on the issue of professional training of travel managers demonstrated that the range of interests of scientists mainly focused on the standard of subject matter personality development. Thus, the problem of formation of the readiness of the specialist in the sphere of tourism for creation of innovative investment projects has not ever become the subject of any stand-alone study, and to date it still remains unsettled in the teaching theories and applications.
The practical experience of formation of the readiness of future travel managers for investment project development highlights a number of contradictions between: the needs of the tourism industry for specialists, who are able to effectively realize designing of the investment projects, and the professional level of their readiness for such type of activity (Tetiana et al., 2019; Hilorme et al., 2019); the accumulated theoretical knowledge and the best industry practice of investment, as well as their actual usage in the training practice of future travel managers for the activities; requirements of the tourism market on the professional readiness of the specialists for investment project development, and the deficit of advanced technologies of preparation of future travel managers for realization of the investment projects.
The relevance of the reporting problem, the insufficient level of its theoretical and practical development, and the specified contradictions contributed to the choice of the current topic of the study.
At different stages of the scientific search, the study used the complex of interconnected methods of analysis: theoretical one (analysis, systematization and comparison of the provisions of research and teaching literature)—to reveal the condition of development of the problem under study, specify the conceptual and categorical framework of work, as well as figure out the nature and structure of activity of travel managers on investment project development; generalization and systematization of the theoretical aspects of the study—to justify the technology of training of future travel managers for realization of the investment projects; empirical one (questionnaires, testing, expert appraisal)—to diagnose the level of competence of students as future specialists in investment management; educational experiment—to verify the efficiency of the developed technology for preparation of future travel managers for realization of the investment projects; graphical one.
The need to estimate the quality of provision of the educational process brings up the problem of its criteria and the relevant indicators. The indicator is defined as the guide, which one can use for estimation about development and progress of any issue. Studying of the condition of readiness of future specialists in the sphere of tourism for investment activities required the solution of the corresponding research task—definition of the adequate criteria and indicators of the reporting readiness. Therefore, within frames of our study, in order to estimate the readiness of students for realization of investment projects, we specified the motivational, cognitive (educational) and procedural (organizational) criteria, which were developed in accordance with the parameters of motivational and personalized, content-cognitive and activity-practical components, respectively.
We highlighted the reporting criteria and indicators of the readiness of students for realization of investment projects, taking into account the fact that the professional training for the business engineering procedure is the overall process, which main component is the student's awareness of the need to know how to design and model the tourism related business with attracting of investments and the desire to put the theoretical knowledge to use, gained in the process of training.
The readiness of a future tourism specialist for realization of the investment projects may have different levels of formation. Therefore, in accordance with the above-mentioned criteria and indicators, we specified three levels of the readiness of students for realization of investment projects: low, medium and high (Table 1).
| Table 1 Levels of Readiness of Future Tourism Professionals for Realization of Investment Projects (Original Development) | |||
| Levels | Criteria | ||
| Motivational | Cognitive | Procedural | |
| Level 1 (low) | he understands the general value of the investment mechanism, but does not realize its significance at the personalized level, sometimes does not display activity in the sphere; generally, he demonstrates a positive reaction on the process of formation of new knowledge and skills, and their further professional engagement; shows interest only in certain elements of the investment management process | knowledge about the investment resources of the studied issue may not be extensive and thorough; sometimes there may be some troubles with definition of the prospective directions of investment for the regional tourism and application of the research methodology for estimating the investment potential of the region; knowledge on the procedure of investment project development may not be extensive and thorough | skills and abilities to design the investment objects were formed at the insufficient level; the activities in the process of designing of the regional routes has reproductive character only; there can be some difficulties in the usage of the practical skills through the organizational, technical and work experience practices |
| Level 2 (medium) | he is aware of the need to acquire knowledge and skills concerning the mechanism of investment; considers it necessary to know how to create investment projects, and sees the prospects of the professional engagement of the acquired knowledge and skills; shows the interest in the procedure of investment project development | has the fairly solid knowledge of the investment resources of the studied issue; is able to analyse the investment potential of the region, and specify the perspective directions of investment attracting; has the sufficient level of knowledge concerning the procedure of investment project development | he demonstrates the sufficient level of skills and abilities to create a new investment project; almost always finds the imaginative way to the problem of investment in a new project; able to put the theoretical knowledge to use, gained in the process of training |
| Level 3 (high) | he has the personalized belief in the need to acquire knowledge and skills of investment management; looks for acquiring of new knowledge and practical skills concerning the investment project development for the purpose of their further professional engagement; shows the strong interest in the issue of the current study | has the extensive systemic knowledge concerning the investment resources of the studied issue; fluent in the research methodology for estimating the investment potential of the region, and clearly specifies the perspective directions of investment attracting; has the solid systemic knowledge concerning the procedure of investment project development | skills and abilities of the investment project development were formed at the high level (within frames of development of new investment opportunities, he always applies the procedure of investment project development); always finds the imaginative way to the problem of investment in a new project; makes free use of the knowledge acquired during training through the organizational, technical and work experience practices |
The low level demonstrates the following indicators: students understand the general value of the investment mechanism, but do not realize its significance at the personalized level. Generally, they have a positive reaction to the process of formation of new knowledge and skills, and their further professional engagement, but may take interest only in the certain elements of the investment management process; their knowledge about the investment resources of the studied issue and the procedure of investment project development are not extensive, as well as the skills and abilities for investment activities were formed at the insufficient level.
Therefore, such students have some difficulties in using of their practical skills in the professional activities.
The students, who have the medium level, are aware of the need to acquire knowledge and skills concerning the mechanism of investment management, show the interest in the investment project development, have the fairly stable theoretical knowledge, as well as see the prospects for the further professional engagement of the acquired skills and abilities. However, the main problem is that in such case the students are able to analyse the investment potential of the region, and apply the methodology of investment project development, but during their activities, they still require the constant management and control from the lecturer.
High level: At the reporting level of training of future tourism specialists for realization of the investment projects, there is observed the high degree of formation of the readiness of students for the investment project development.
Those students who reached the reporting level, are characterized with the extensive awareness of the significance of the ability to design the investment objects, they show the wide range of interests in the problem, the desire to acquire new knowledge and practical skills of the investment project development for their further application during the training process.
The students had the solid systemic knowledge concerning the investment resources of the studied issue and the procedure of investment project development, were fluent in the research methodology for estimating the investment potential of the region, and specified the perspective directions of investment attracting; the abilities and skills of such students to create investment projects were formed at the high level; they always found the imaginative way to the process of new projects development, and made free use of the knowledge acquired during training through the organizational, technical and work experience practices.
Business representatives noted that during solution of various professional tasks, the students sometimes do not have the sufficient level of "creative thinking", they often "do not have the desire to look at the problem from a new perspective", they are not able to develop the optimum patterns of the technological processes of project development, specify the potential investment risks, apply the system of economic indicators for the characteristics of the investment process at the enterprise, etc. Skilled workers of the tourism business advice to start preparing students for work in the actual conditions of the region while studying at their higher education institute, and for example, for that purpose one should realize various competitions for the best student investment projects.
Therefore, the results of the provided questionnaire and polling allowed us to draw certain conclusions: in particular, the training of specialists in the sphere of tourism in regional conditions is largely influenced by the possibility of application of the tourist resources of the region in the process of such training, the level of development of the tourist infrastructure of the certain territory, the direction of the tourist business of the region, as well as public opinion.
Within frames of the study, we specified the following teaching conditions: actualization and development of the positive professional motivation among students towards training of the investment activities; addition of information on investment in the tourism industry and the mechanism of investment project development to the content of educational subject; direction of the forms and methods of organization of the cognitive activity of students to awareness of the specifics of the future professional activity.
The effectiveness of the educational process in the system of higher education with the professional tourism training of future travel managers is realized through application of the interactive training methods, which significantly mainstream the motives of the professional engagement and enrich the experience of independent activity and the personal responsibility of students.
In order to estimate the readiness of students for realization of the investment projects, there were selected the motivational, cognitive (educational) and procedural (organizational) criteria, which were developed in accordance with the parameters of motivational and personalized, content-cognitive and activity-practical components respectively, of the readiness of future specialists in the sphere of tourism for the specified type of activity.
The study defined three levels of readiness of future specialists in the sphere of tourism for realization of the investment projects: high, medium and low ones. Also, the study includes the detailed criteria for each level. At the same time, it should be noted that the obtained conclusions and recommendations do not lay claim to become the final, comprehensive solution of the problem.
The prospects for further scientific research consist in the theoretical and methodological support of investment training in the sphere of tourism, as well as the extensive studying of the optimization of content and means of the professional training of future professionals in terms of the multi-level education.