CONCEPTUAL AND THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF INTEGRATIVE PROFESSIONAL TRAINING OF STAFF FOR THE TOURISM SECTOR AT THE UNIVERSITY

Abstract

Amid the structural transformation of the global tourism industry, traditional disciplinary models of higher education are demonstrating an increasing inadequacy to the demands of the modern labor market. This article explores the development of conceptual and theoretical foundations for integrated professional training (IPT) at universities for tourism specialists. Based on a systemic synthesis of a competency-based approach, the theory of complex adaptive systems, and the triple/quadruple helix model, the author proposes a conceptual model of IPT that reveals mechanisms, principles, and levels of integration of educational, digital, research, industry-specific, personal development, and sociocultural components in the professional training of tourism professionals. The article substantiates the need to shift from fragmented disciplines to a transdisciplinary architecture of educational trajectories focused on developing sustainable integrative professional competencies, digital literacy, and environmental and ethical responsibility in graduates of universities specializing in tourism. The study of the conceptual and theoretical foundations of the tourism workforce development process was based on a comprehensive scientific and methodological framework combining general scientific approaches and specialized pedagogical modeling methods. The article proposes a theoretical framework for an “integrative core” of the professional educational process at a tourism-focused university as a response to the challenges of the uncertainties of the modern labor market. The article’s theoretical contribution lies in expanding the paradigm of modern professional education through the lens of an integrative-systemic “optics” (through the theory of integration and integration processes in higher education).