Antecendents of culinary art career choice among vocational high school students: A case of TRNC

ABSTRACT: The aim of this study is to investigate the high school graduating students’ culinary art intentions by testing the effects of personality traits, socio – cultural background and culinary art intention on culinary art choice. Many high school graduating students have difficulties in finding and choosing the right career to enter. However no research has focused on the factors that influence students in choosing tourism and tourism – related departments in TRNC. Therefore, this study aims to be a first and contribute to existing literature on other fields by investigating the relationship between personal traits, socio-cultural background, culinary art intention and culinary art choice of final year high school students in vocational schools in North Cyprus. A total of 270 questionnaires were distributed to the students who were in their final year studying in vocational schools. Out of the 270 questionnaires, 215 were collected. The sampling technique used for this study was judgmental sampling. This study has revealed that personality traits, socio – cultural background and culinary art intention all have a significant and positive relationship with culinary art career choice. Furthermore, limitations and directions for future research are presented at the end of the thesis. Keywords: Personality Traits, Socio-Cultural Background, Intention, Culinary Arts, North Cyprus. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………