NEW AND INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS FOR IMPROVING TOURISM EDUCATION AND RAISING SATISFACTION OF STUDENTS IN ARMENIA

The main aim of the research is to reveal gaps and problems of the tourism education, to evaluate the level of students' satisfaction with educational process results and technologies in Armenia. The methodical instruments of the study include statistic methods and SWOT-analysis. The research is formed by the following structural and logical scheme: the first part observes the investigation of the educational process organizational mechanism and analyzes educational programs in tourism industry at higher educational institutions and at the vocational educational institutions in Armenia, the second part demonstrates the results of the inquiry among students, graduates and workers of the tourism industry regarding their expectations and attitude to the study, the third part systematizes complaints and students' proposals, which can be considered in future with purpose to improve the educational process. The respondents' selection consists of 100 persons, 30% of which are graduates, 70% - students. 47% of participants mention that they do not work and 53% of respondents work. 55% of participants have an employment experience in the tourism industry, 45%- not in the tourism industry. During the study most participants (47%) evaluate the obtained knowledge as mostly theoretical with some little practical orientation, 27% - as theoretical, 19% point out that theoretical and practical parts are the same, but only 7% of respondents suppose that the obtained knowledge and skills are those, which are adapted to the practice. In order to evaluate the satisfaction level of the educational process results, the system of criteria is proposed in the article. They define the respondents' subjective acceptance regarding the efficiency of the obtained theoretical knowledge and practical skills to be competitive at the national and international markets, to find work, to claim for high salary etc. The cross table method defines the satisfaction level of the educational process by every factor, which determines it. The Pearson criterion calculation enables to confirm the statistic value of the obtained results. Next stage of the study is the respondents' inquiry regarding the significance level of the relevant disciplines for the professional identity in the tourism industry. The results of this study forms a base to correct the structure of the curriculums according to the labour market demands in the tourism industry. The carried out inquiry shows that tourism education in Armenia has many other problems: scientific investigations in this industry are mostly theoretical, a few number of trainings and individual lessons, inefficient organization of the practical training and internships, lack of lecturers-experts, absence of an ability to master modern specific software goods, which are used in the tourism industry etc. The study empirically confirms and theoretically proves that new methods of teaching in the tourism industry are obligatory requirements to satisfy the labour market needs, and students are primary consumers of the educational service, who aware their rights as consumers' rights and put higher demands to the education quality. The research shows that students highly evaluate and prefer the interactive methods of study. The results of the study may be useful for educational institutions (in the context of educational programs improvement), for representatives of tourism business (for the sake of cooperation development with educational institutions while specialists' training) and for students.