Tourism Guidance
I am Professor Burhanettin Zengin. I have been working at the university since 1984. I am the Head of Tourism Guidance Department and at the same time the Director of Sapanca Vocational School. The Department of Tourism Guidance was established in 2018 and is one of the distinguished departments of the Faculty of Tourism, which started its educational activities to provide undergraduate education. In our department, education and training activities are carried out with 4 faculty members including 1 professor, 1 associate professor, 2 lecturers and 2 research assistants. Since we aim to train staff who will perform the guiding profession in our department, the courses are dominantly in this direction. However, the tourist guiding profession law definitely takes the lead in determining our courses or course curricula. In addition to the vocational trainings mentioned there, different courses are also given. We have to provide a foreign language-based education because so that our students can speak at least one foreign language very well, and the second foreign language can make finding a job easier in this field. Our faculty has a fully equipped computer laboratory, and as the Department of Tourism Guidance, we make extensive use of this laboratory. The training of Amadeus, Galileo and Saber programs is provided by a team of experts, especially for our students to find jobs in the market more easily. We even do certification. We provide certification to our students to prove that they are competent to use these programs. Since our University of Applied Sciences is a university that provides education within the scope of 7+1, our faculty pursues its curriculum and training activities according to this education system. In the Tourism Guidance Department, our students have two different application internships. One of them is a 60-day summer internship that they do while transitioning from 2nd grade to 3rd grade or from 3rd grade to 4th grade. The other is the internship training they perform in the sector throughout the 8th semester within the scope of 7+1. As a result of this internship training, it is very easy for our students to find a job.
Our department is perhaps one of the departments that have made the most reforms within the scope of Erasmus abroad education, student and academic staff exchange program, which has been popular especially in recent years. We have provided both our teachers and our students with the opportunity to receive education in more than 10 European countries, both within the scope of the education and the internship. We currently have agreements with 14 universities in 10 countries. We can send students and lecturers to these universities for internships, sometimes for 1 semester, sometimes for 2 semesters, and sometimes for 4 months. In the context of international organization, 1 congress and 1 symposium are usually held every year. All departments, lecturers and research assistants of our faculty make an effort for these activities to be extremely successful. I can say that these are the conferences with extensive participation both from abroad and from within the country. Students of Tourism Guidance, provided that they fulfill the required conditions when they graduate from the Department, they can serve as a nationally licensed tour guide in Turkey. It is possible for them to act as a tourism guide independently or within a company. However, our graduates generally find a wide range of job opportunities in both domestic and foreign travel agencies and tour operators. In addition, they can find jobs in public sector such as Tourism Ministry and Tourism Ministry's provincial and district organizations, in TÜRSAB (Turkey Travel Agencies Union) and in other professional organizations. Tourism guidance is a privileged profession for me. The people who will perform the guiding profession should love their country, nation and state. Apart from that, they should know their own culture, nature, geography and people very well. Our aim is to graduate our students with these qualifications. Thus, as we equip them both with national and international information, all our efforts are for them to be tourist guides who can make the tourists happy while representing Turkey in the best we they can. Sakarya has a wide range of opportunities in terms of history, culture and coastal tourism due to its location. As a university that has adopted a student-oriented education approach, we strive to ensure that our students who will come here are continuously in touch with lecturers, officials and local administrators in order to be provided with a more comfortable education. A university environment that is very helpful in providing transportation, accommodation, dormitory and scholarship opportunities is waiting for you. The number of foreign students in the Tourism Faculty of our university has been increasing in recent years. In this context, when we include our students from Turkic republics, around 50 foreign students receive education in our Tourism Guidance Department. This tells us that we are a university preferred by both local and foreign students. Our quotas have never been empty. On the contrary, the number of students has been increased by providing additional quotas. We welcome all students who want to participate in educational activities in such an environment. We wish them success in the exams, too.
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Our department is perhaps one of the departments that have made the most reforms within the scope of Erasmus abroad education, student and academic staff exchange program, which has been popular especially in recent years. We have provided both our teachers and our students with the opportunity to receive education in more than 10 European countries, both within the scope of the education and the internship. We currently have agreements with 14 universities in 10 countries. We can send students and lecturers to these universities for internships, sometimes for 1 semester, sometimes for 2 semesters, and sometimes for 4 months. In the context of international organization, 1 congress and 1 symposium are usually held every year. All departments, lecturers and research assistants of our faculty make an effort for these activities to be extremely successful. I can say that these are the conferences with extensive participation both from abroad and from within the country. Students of Tourism Guidance, provided that they fulfill the required conditions when they graduate from the Department, they can serve as a nationally licensed tour guide in Turkey. It is possible for them to act as a tourism guide independently or within a company. However, our graduates generally find a wide range of job opportunities in both domestic and foreign travel agencies and tour operators. In addition, they can find jobs in public sector such as Tourism Ministry and Tourism Ministry's provincial and district organizations, in TÜRSAB (Turkey Travel Agencies Union) and in other professional organizations. Tourism guidance is a privileged profession for me. The people who will perform the guiding profession should love their country, nation and state. Apart from that, they should know their own culture, nature, geography and people very well. Our aim is to graduate our students with these qualifications. Thus, as we equip them both with national and international information, all our efforts are for them to be tourist guides who can make the tourists happy while representing Turkey in the best we they can. Sakarya has a wide range of opportunities in terms of history, culture and coastal tourism due to its location. As a university that has adopted a student-oriented education approach, we strive to ensure that our students who will come here are continuously in touch with lecturers, officials and local administrators in order to be provided with a more comfortable education. A university environment that is very helpful in providing transportation, accommodation, dormitory and scholarship opportunities is waiting for you. The number of foreign students in the Tourism Faculty of our university has been increasing in recent years. In this context, when we include our students from Turkic republics, around 50 foreign students receive education in our Tourism Guidance Department. This tells us that we are a university preferred by both local and foreign students. Our quotas have never been empty. On the contrary, the number of students has been increased by providing additional quotas. We welcome all students who want to participate in educational activities in such an environment. We wish them success in the exams, too.
