Organization of practice-oriented training for tourism and hospitality

The article deals with contemporary issues and experiences in practice-oriented training in higher education for tourism and hospitality. Among main problems marked are unwillingness of institutions of higher education to converse towards the new format of conducting educational activities; inconsistency on the part of business and tourist hotel industry, which voice dissatisfaction with the level of competency of graduates and at the same time actively remove themselves from real participation in the development and implementation of appropriate educational programs; lack of common terminology in the designation of positions and qualifications between scholars and tourist industry practitioners; lack of regulatory documentation support and coordination of competencies of graduates to the functional requirements of specific categories of personnel, and others. In the example of Russian State University of Tourism and Service for the integration of tourism education and tourism industry as a sphere of professional applications of graduates' competences proposed are approaches to change the format and theoretical training as well as educational and industrial practices for bachelors enrolled in the areas of Tourism and Hospitality. Also shown is the specifics corresponding to each direction of organizational and specific content, as well as the role of the simulation environment for high school students during the development of their practical skills. As a basic condition for the successful implementation of the proposed approach, the author identified the development and approval of professional standards for employees of the tourism industry; willingness of higher education institutions to abandon the usual principles and techniques of the educational process; active and effective business desire to engage in the training of qualified personnel for their own purposes.