Volunteering experience in professional training of travel and tourism labour force: current challenges and responses

V. Kiptenko, M. Rastvorova

The importance of volunteering is globally recognized by the UN. We speculate that the socially beneficial activity on a voluntary basis should be an important component of modern development strategies, for travel and tourism in particular. The process of training specialists in this sector has to follow the current trends, including the sustainability imperative. The volunteer experiences - as a way to preserve and strengthen universal human values manifested around the world - ground the eventual means of its practical implementation in the education and professional training of future travel and tourism proficient by the Department of Regional Studies and Tourism of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. The cooperation between the academia, stakeholders, public organizations, and the city of Kyiv administration (KCSA) within the framework of the Academy of Hospitality project of 2021 proves the feasibility of taking into account the new systems of productive interplay within the "teacher-student" format, the priorities of world and European experience in the process of training tourism managers and volunteers. Preservation of rights and responsibilities of tourism managers, personal growth and practical professional training put focuses on the awareness of the need for lifelong learning.