Work experience of tourism and recreation students and the level of social competence. Selected issues

The aim of this article is to present results of a study concerning the level of social competences displayed by students of tourism and recreation and how it relates to their work experience. The author hypothesized that the fact of being employed could help to differentiate between different levels of social competences in the student population. Factors such as the length of work experience, positions held, work abroad, internships, and voluntary work were analysed. The study was based on quantitative and qualitative data collected using such tools such as the Social Competence Questionnaire and the Questionnaire for Self-Assessment of Student’s Professional Achievements in order to identify forms of professional activity among the respondents. Full-time students of tourism and recreation were found to have an average level of social competences, and their work experience, considered as a form of social training, did not differentiate between different levels of social competence. No statistically significant correlations were found between the level of social competence and internships at secondary schools, internships at university, work experience in general and in tourism and recreation in particular, and voluntary work. Also, positions held did not differentiate the level of social competence. It could therefore be concluded that the respondents’ work experience was too short to have a measurable effect on the level of their social competences, which take much more time to develop and depend on personal and environmental factors.