Vocational tourism education at the secondary level in Türkiye and the competencies of trainee students from the perspective of tourism professionals

This study examines vocational tourism education at the secondary level in Türkiye by assessing trainee students’ core competencies from the perspectives of hotel department managers. Drawing on Bandura’s Social Learning Theory and organizational size theory, it investigates how organizational scale and trainee density influence student performance during work-integrated learning. Data were collected through a census of 190 department managers in hotels operating under an official ministerial protocol and analyzed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Findings indicate that students demonstrate significantly higher proficiency, cooperation, workplace harmony, and responsibility in smaller hotels (40 or fewer employees) and in settings with lower trainee density. However, notable weaknesses emerge in foreign-language proficiency and autonomous problem-solving. The study concludes that optimizing trainee density and learning environments, alongside curriculum redesign and stronger school–industry collaboration, can enhance the effectiveness of vocational tourism education.