Development and testing of a model for fostering professional competencies in students in the 43.03.02 “Tourism” degree program during the study of the course “Transport Services in the Tourism Industry”

Introduction . Nowadays transport logistics largely determines the quality of the final product in the tourism sector. Traditional teaching approaches do not always provide students with a comprehensive understanding of real-world practical challenges. This creates an obvious disconnect: the market requires qualified personnel, yet graduate training does not fully align with these needs. The goal of the research was to develop an effective model for fostering professional competencies among university students regarding the organization of tourist transport services. The materials and methods. The research was conducted at the Kuban State University of Physical Culture, Sports, and Tourism over a two-year period (2024–2025). Participants included 56 fourth-year students, divided equally into control and experimental groups. Key methods employed included the analysis of academic and methodological literature, modeling, pedagogical experimentation, testing, case studies, and surveys. The research results . Based on the findings, a model was developed to foster professional compe tencies in students regarding tourist transport services. The model comprises functional blocks: goal-oriented, content-related, organizational-operational, and evaluative-result-oriented. In the experimental group, the proportion of students demonstrating a high level of competence increased by 14.3% in the cognitive component, 14.2% in the operational component, and 10.7% in the personal component; conversely, the proportion of students with a low level of competence decreased by 21.5%, 21.4%, and 24.9%, respectively. Discussion and Conclusion . The developed structural-functional model for fostering professional competencies in the field of tourist transport services proved effective: positive trends were observed in the experimental group – contrasted by a lack of change in the control group – confirming the model’s validity. The proposed tools can be applied in university-level training programs.