The Importance of Applied Vocational Education in Tourism Associate Degree Education in Terms of Human Capital Effectiveness

One of the main functions of the vocational education in tourism field in Turkey is to raise the intermediate staff that contain the knowledge and skills which the business world requires. Therefore, the existence of the skillful labor force, which will be created by giving quality to the students who study at these schools, will be the most important resource of the country. However, human resource with the required skills and education needs to be created first. This will be possible by enabling applied professional education in addition to the theoretical education, which is being held at Tourism Vocational Schools and other entities that give vocational education, in order to make the student resources more effective and efficient. In this direction, with the support that will be given to applied professional education, since these resources will gain more qualifications, it will be possible to meet business world’s quality intermediate staff need. With this study, it is aimed to determine the efficiency of the 3 + 1 application which deals with the future of the industry in terms of pre-license tourism students and employers. In this direction, it is aimed to give basic knowledge of the profession to the students who are studying tourism in associate's degree level and to teach the business by applying some professional knowledge and skills in business environment. In this respect, as in all vocational schools of Sakarya Applied Sciences University, as well as school education in tourism vocational college and tourism departments, qualitative characteristics are given to these human resources with a one term workplace education application (3+1). As a result of the 3+1 workplace training application, educated human resources are prevented from being idle and brought to the business world. For this reason, the relationship between these human resources and human capital is emphasized. In this direction, application is possible with the presence of skilled workplace-trained and skilled human resources so that human capital can be effective. The contribution of vocational education to economic development, which has an important role in gaining knowledge and skills in these human resources, is of utmost importance. In this context, questionnaires were applied to 80 students towards their knowledge and skill acquisition and behaviors with 3 + 1 model which is being applied at tourism associate’s degree level within Sakarya Applied Sciences University. Moreover, face to face surveys were applied to 30 business owners in order to see the effects of 3+1