CAREER INTENTIONS IN HOSPITALITY EDUCATION: A SYSTEMATIC SCOPING REVIEW

The hospitality industry continues to face difficulty attracting and retaining qualified talent despite sustained investment in hospitality education. This scoping review maps factors influencing career intentions across hospitality education and the transition into employment, with personal interest and intrinsic passion examined as part of a wider system of influences. The review followed the Arksey and O'Malley framework and was reported with reference to PRISMA-ScR. It was restricted to peer-reviewed, English-language empirical literature published from 2015 to 2025. Searches of Scopus, Consensus, and Google Scholar identified 515 records; 440 remained after deduplication, 29 full-text articles were assessed, and 20 studies were included. Thematic synthesis identified three interconnected themes: psychological and motivational drivers, industry and workplace perceptions, and educational and institutional influences. Passion and self-efficacy supported initial career attraction, but low starting salaries, irregular schedules, limited work-life balance, and uncertain progression often weakened longer-term intentions. Internship quality, curriculum relevance, and career support also shaped readiness and occupational expectations. The evidence base is international; Malaysia is used as a contextual lens for implications rather than as the empirical boundary of the review.