Tourist-industry personnel training: an analysis of non-Russian training models

The article is a part of a summary of the author's comprehensive research into tourism-specific education in Russia and abroad. The article summarizes the methodological analysis and a comparison of different personnel training models. The author substantiates the conceptual approaches to the analysis in general and to systemically independent heuristic model development in particular. Systemically independent heuristic models serve the purposes of comparative studies of pedagogical systems on the basis of a compositional integral structure with invariant content components. The author defines the concept of "decomposition" of the system of education (hierarchical dependence in the system of education), introduces the concept of "a subsystem of industry regulation" in the sphere of tourist-industry-specific education, identifies the role and significance of supersystem and system restraints and regulators, and develops a methodology for analyzing the structure and content of the models employed for tourist-industry personnel training. The methodology proposed by the author allows to consistently analyze the level of institutional maturity of a system of industry-specific education, the system internal links of a model of education, the content, the structure, the resources, the goals and objectives of personnel training systems. The methodology also provides opportunities for a comparison of national systems of personnel training, identify common development factors, pedagogical conditions for quality education. The article is of value to researchers in pedagogical systems, educators, HE learning and teaching department personnel, and non-specialist audiences interested in the issued of professional education development.