Abstract
The main purpose of the education given in the programs at the associate degree level of higher education is to train qualified intermediate staff for the relevant sectors. Therefore, the professional expectations of the students who receive education at the associate degree level may be higher than the education given at other education levels. For this reason, the aim of the research is to examine the professional expectations of the students who study cookery education at the associate degree level. In the research, the current situation was tried to be revealed and the applied of random sampling technique, in which a part of the universe was selected. The research data were obtained by applying a survey to 385 students studying in the cookery associate degree programs of different universities in Turkey. Students have positive thoughts towards the cookery occupation and the food and beverage industry. However, it is seen that the cookery occupation has an average level of thoughts on the level of social relations, working hours, gender discrimination, wages and additional wages, and the food and beverage sector workload, tiring compared to other sectors, and social security. In the analysis of the research data, the results of the t-test and ANOVA tests are included. In this direction, there is a significant difference between the professional expectations of cookery students and the variables of gender, age, class, doing internship and doing the cookery profession willingly. There was no significant difference between the variables of having type of high school graduated and previously studied cookery education. Within the scope of the research, it is recommended that cookery students' should be eliminate their feelings of anxiety, indecision, hopelessness and self-confident, determined, creative and innovative.