Broj 19, jun 2017 51

dr Dario Šimičević, dr Snežana Štetić

College of Tourism, Belgrade
UDK 338.486.41:005.962
005.42-024.61

THE ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF INTERNSHIP PROGRAMS

AS PART OF FORMAL EDUCATION: STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS -
THE CASE OF COLLEGE OF TOURISM

Abstract: As one of the fastest growing part of their formal education. Through anal-
industries tourism is in increasing need for ysis of the survey distributed among students
well educated and skillful employees on both of the College of Tourism it will be shown how
operational and managerial level. Institutions students perceive the internship programs and
of higher education are requested by tourism importance of these programs for their future
industry to produce quality human resourc- employment. Also, it will be shown the level
es able to respond immediately to their needs of their satisfaction with tourism companies
and to be involved in working processes as fast where they are performing internship pro-
as possible with low or without any addition- grams and the level of their satisfaction with
al costs for future employees’ initial job train- activities of the College of Tourism in com-
ing. With inclusion of training and internship munications during the internship, program
programs into, primarily vocational, but also, management and implementation of the in-
into bachelor studies students will be trained ternship programs.
for their future jobs through real business sit-
uations and environment. Key words: education, tourism, intern-
This paper focuses on students’ percep- ship programs, formal education, student ex-
tions of internship and training programs as perience

Introduction ism industry is globalized and operates on

international level, employees are facing to
Tourism industry offers great opportuni- work with people from all around the World
ties for employment of different profiles of and managerial skills, knowledge and en-
the workers. Tourism is “a labour-intensive vironment are influenced by tourism glo-
service industry, dependent for survival on balization. (Hjalager, 2003) Globalization of
the availability of good quality personnel tourism influences operational workers as
to deliver, operate, and manage the tourist well requesting from them to have vast op-
product” (Amoah and Baum, 1997) and it is erational, social and communicational skills.
expected that it will continue to be in future. In such environment employers are turning
The reason for this lies in fact that tourism to higher education institutions as a source
is based upon successful communication of quality, theoretically educated and skillful
between service providers and service us- in practical knowledge employees. (Spowart,
ers. (Štetić and Šimičević, 2013) Needs for 2011; Hjalager, 2003)
specific knowledge and skills of employees Human resources in tourism should
in tourism as respond to different requests be considered as multidimensional category.
and need of participant in various forms (Štetić and Šimičević, 2013) In regard to this,
of tourism are triggering development and Amoah and Baum (2003) are emphasizing
multiplication of educational programs the understanding of the image of employ-
worldwide, including Serbia. Also, tour- er, availability and quality of skilled workers,
52 Turističko poslovanje

reward system, production or creation of by Zopiatis where internship experience de-

new value by employees, working condi- scribes as “a structured and career-relevant
tions and working hours, engagement of the supervised professional work/learning expe-
workforce across national borders etc. In or- rience, paid or unpaid, within an approved
der to create a basis for a successful business hospitality agency/organization/corpora-
in tourism, bearing in mind the complexity tion, under the direct supervision of at least
and multidimensionality of human resourc- one practicing hospitality professional and
es in tourism, in addition to equipment and one faculty member, for which a hospitality
facilities (company hardware) it is necessary student can earn academic credit” (Zopiatis
to acknowledge employees, their attitudes, and Theocharous, 2013).
knowledge, abilities, skills and readiness to As one more comprehensive and simpler
act. (Lam, Xiao, 2000) Thurow emphasizes definition we could use this one where in-
that knowledge and skills of employees will ternship in tourism is paid or unpaid work in
be the key for competitive advantage in 21st one of tourism related companies where stu-
century (Juran, Godfrey and Blanton, 1999) dents are acquiring some professionally rele-
Need for new skills and knowledge in vant practical skills and applying previously
tourism have become a constant need as re- learned theoretical knowledge under profes-
sult of dynamic relations established on the sional supervision. As stated in definition it
tourist market and the tourism industry is is important to have professional supervi-
aware of these needs. (Štetić and Šimičević, sion over student’s work. This way intern-
2013) Numerous programs of education for ship has three parties or three stakeholders
tourism could be divided in two main cate- interested in internship programs: students,
gories: programs of formal education (pro- institutions and industry partners (Lam and
vided by institutions of higher education) Ching, 2007; Yafang and Gongyong, 2008;
and informal programs (provided by tourism Chen and Shen, 2012). Cooperation between
industry companies). However, we should stakeholders on every step of internship is
consider these programs integrally and it is required in order to achieve best possible re-
necessary to work on linking of educational sults for each of the stakeholders.
institutions and businesses in order to create
an integrated system of education which will Literature review
link formal and informal programs (Horng-
Huey and Mojdeh, 2014). Best ways for in- No matter which of the above terms we
tegration of formal and informal programs use to describe internship several important
of education for tourism are internship questions or aspects arises when we talk
programs emphasizing practical skills (Lam about the research of internship as part of
and Ching, 2007) necessary for employees in formal education. There are three groups or
tourism industry, on managerial and opera- stakeholders interested in internship pro-
tional level. Internship programs are referred grams and we must take in consideration
to as “short-term periods of practical work” tourism industry needs and expectations
(Zopiatis and Theocharous, 2013; Koc et al., (Zopiatis and Theocharous, 2013; Donina
2014), “work integrated learning model” (Ru- and Luka, 2014; Sevillia et al., 2014), higher
hanen, Robinson and Breakey, 2013) or WIL, education institutions’ views and goals (Lam
“on-the-job training” (Sevillia et al., 2014), and Ching, 2007; Ruhanen, Robinson and
“structured, supervised and well-timed ac- Breakey, 2013; Mekawy and Abu Bakr, 2014;
tivities and tourism workplace-based experi- Hjalager, 2003) and students perceptions
ences” (Mekawy and Abu Bakr, 2014), “expe- and motives when it comes to internship
riential exercises” (Horng-Huey and Mojdeh, programs (Koc et al., 2014; Hughes, Mylonas
2014) etc. One of commonly used and cited and Benckendorff, 2013; Pang, 2010; Yafang
definitions of internship in tourism is one and Gongyong, 2008).
 Broj 19, jun 2017 53
Three partite relations between tourism program and students’ perception of ade-
industry, institutions of higher education quate internship period. (Mekawy and Abu
and students are established in order to avoid Bakr, 2014)
or overcome possible gaps produced by dif- Most of the authors agree that intern-
ferent needs and expectations of each party ship represents a chance to minimize or
(Lam and Ching, 2007; Donina and Luka, totally remove the gap between theoreti-
2014). As a potential source of the gaps Dale cal knowledge and practice. (Zopiatis and
and Robinson (2001) are emphasizing the Theocharous, 2013; Yafang and Gongyong,
dilemma should tourism education insti- 2008; Mekawy and Abu Bakr, 2014; Pang,
tutions enable graduates to be perceived as 2010; Sevillia et al., 2014; Donina and Luka,
employable outside of the tourism industry 2014; Lam and Ching, 2007) Whether they
or producing highly-skilled graduates for (stakeholders included in internship pro-
specialist positions in the tourism indus- grams) will succeed in averting it depends
try. Another set of gaps could result from on the perceptions of students towards in-
misperception (pre-internship expectations) ternship. Several studies were conducted in
program (Zopiatis and Theocharous, 2013) of relation to students’ perception of intern-
students in relation to the tourism industry ship. One of the most interesting studies was
idealizing or misperceiving relations exist- one by Lam and Ching (2007) among 307
ing between employees and employers and students of tourism and hospitality schools
business models existing in tourism. (Pang, and colleges in Hong Kong. Depending on
2010) Internship programs should persuade institution their internship lasted from 3 to
students to stay in tourism industry and to over 12 months and majority of respondents
enable them easier employment after grad- were female students (63.8%). In this study
uation. (Chen and Shen, 2012) After the they measured students’ expectation prior
internship, students may create negative to internship and their perceptions after the
perception related to the tourism industry internship on 27 internship variables. Prob-
and to avoid further employment in tourism lem with this approach was in recollection
and hospitality industry, which is quite of- of students after the internship what they
ten case (Yafang and Gongyong, 2008; Lam expectations for each variable before intern-
and Ching, 2007; Chen and Shen, 2012) or ship were. This study showed that students’
to persevere in their desires and strive for perceptions about internship were lower
managerial positions. In order to overcome than their expectations before internship
this possible gap internship program plan- started. Similar study was conducted in Tur-
ning (Mekawy and Abu Bakr, 2014; Chen key by Koc et al. (2014) about expectations
and Shen, 2012) is of the crucial importance before and perceptions of the students after
for positive perceptions of the students the internship. This study was performed on
about internship and tourism and hospitali- 603 students who participated in 15 different
ty industry. In internship program planning internship programs. This study showed that
process tourism industry should be involved expectations and perceptions of the students
together with educational institutions and were incoherent and that approximately
internship performance should be evaluat- 18% of students do not wish to pursue their
ed from the perspective of each stakeholder career in tourism and hospitality industry
involved in internship execution. (Chen and after the internship experiences. Compre-
Shen, 2012) When it comes to inclusion of hensive study about students’ perceptions
students into internship programs planning about students’ readiness for internship, the
several problems are identified among two role of internship supervisor, gained benefits
emerges as most important: how to con- during the internship, internship perceived
ciliate role and responsibilities of a student success and future intention to pursue a
as a student and as a planner of internship hospitality career was conducted by Zopiatis
54 Turističko poslovanje

and Theocharous (2013). 166 students from nally, 11th attribute is about students’ overall
Cyprus who have participated in at least satisfaction with the internship.
one supervised internship experience were For the questionnaire is very im-
included in this study. The results of this portant to determine its reliability or inter-
study shows strong correlation between nal consistency. Reliability test determines
perception of perceived benefits during the the consistencies of the results obtained
internship and level of positive students’ ex- through the test and ensure that the use of
periences and overall satisfaction with the different items in the measurement of vari-
internship. One more study was by Yafang ous constructions delivers consistent results.
and Gongyong (2008) measuring students’ In theory, more than one method is used
satisfaction towards their internship experi- for determining the reliability of test such
ence conducted among 124 students of tour- as re-testing when the test is repeated after
ism and hospitality schools in Hangzhou in a certain time and its results are compared
China. The study involved 24 internship var- with the results of the first test, then the
iables covering perceptions or satisfaction of methods of parallel test forms and methods
students related to “job itself ”, “supervisor”, of internal consistency. For the purpose of
“training and development”, “pay and wel- this research was used method of internal
fare” and “peer relationship”. consistency within which we used different
techniques among which the most used are
split-half Reliability Coefficient, Kuder-Rich-
Research metodology ardson Formula, and Cronbach Coefficient
Alpha. Kuder-Richardson formula is used
For research purposes a questionnaire for the tests containing questions with two
was created and distributed among students possible answers, while split-half Reliability
of the final year of the College of Tourism. Coefficient is conducted by treating a test as
As explained earlier, several models of stu- two tests dividing the issues into two sub-
dents’ perception of the importance and sets.1
performances of internship programs dur- However, one of the most popular sta-
ing education for tourism industry were cre- tistical techniques in determining the re-
ated, but we produced for this research new, liability of the test is Cronbach Coefficient
adjusted model. This model takes in consid- Alpha which determines internal consist-
eration students’ perspectives about value ency or average correlation of items in the
and performances of internship programs survey in order to assess reliability. It is used
they have attended during their education in for surveys with questions with two possi-
College of Tourism. ble answers and for tests with value-answers
The questionnaire created for this re- (using Likert scale with common values ​​of
search consists of two parts. The first part scale from 1 to 5). The value of the Cronbach
of the questionnaire relates to the socio-de- Coefficient Alpha is in the range 0 to 1 and
mographic profile and socio-demographic the higher the obtained value is the test is
characteristics of respondents. The second more reliable. Generally accepted reliability
part has 11 variables or determinants of limit of the test is ≥0,70, but in some cases
which 4 are related to students’ perception lower values ​​of Cronbach Alpha were ac-
of necessity and professional advantages of cepted (≥0,50 or ≥0,60). (Reynaldo, Santos,
internship programs, another 4 are related
to process if internship and cooperation be-
tween students and employers, 2 attributes 1 More about mentioned methods you can
are related to communication between stu- find at www.experiment-resources.com/
dents and College and coherence between internal-consistency-reliability.html and www.
theoretical knowledge and practical skills creative-wisdom.com/teaching/assessment/
they have learned during internship. And fi- alpha.html.
 Broj 19, jun 2017 55
1999; Qu et al., 2000; www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/ account only those completely filled. This
spss/faq/alpha.html) way we achieved response rate of 78% and
In this research for the assessment of approximately 25% of all students of the fi-
attributes was used Likert scale with values nal year participated in this survey. Thus, the
from 1 to 5 for each attribute in form of con- sample size is quite satisfactory and we can
firmative statement.2 This is why we used say that the sample is representative.
Cronbach Coefficient Alpha for determin-
ing the reliability of the questionnaire which
was confirmed since Cronbach Coefficient Characteristics of respondents
Alpha has value of .809.
The questionnaire was distributed di- When it comes to characteristics of re-
rectly to the students and on this occasion spondents into consideration were taken fol-
100 questionnaires were distributed. Of this lowing characteristics: gender, occupation
number, 83 questionnaires were returned (place of employment) and type of company
filled with 78 questionnaires filled in com- or organization where students had intern-
pletely and for the processing we took into ship.

Table 1. Characteristics of respondents

Absolute frequen-
Characteristics %
cies
Gender
Male 16 20.51
Female 54 69.23
Unanswered 8 10.26
Occupation
Unemployed 64 82.05
Employed in companies and organizations related to
5 6.41
tourism
Employed in company unrelated to tourism 8 10.26
Employed in public sector 1 1.28
Company or organization of internship
Travel agency/tour operator 37 47.44
Hotel 12 15.38
DMO or Convention bureau 4 5.13
More than one type of company or organization 23 29.49
Other 2 2.56
Source: Data analysis

2 Value 1=strong disagreement with the

statement, Value 2=partial disagreement
with the statement, Value 3=neutral
attitude, Value 4=partial agreement with the
statement and Value 5=strong agreement
with the statement.
56 Turističko poslovanje

As it can be seen in Table 1, eight of measures describe phenomena, i.e. ways in

the respondents didn’t stated their gender which the values ​​of respondents on variables
but their answers were taken into account are grouped around the average and scatter
because it can not affect final results con- around. As the name suggests, the aim is to
sidering students’ perception of internship determine the center of the basic set.
they attended to. Majority or almost 70% of The arithmetic mean is the most com-
respondents were females and it is in coher- monly used measure of central tendency
ence with the gender structure of the stu- and represents the average of all the results
dent population at the College of Tourism. or the number which expresses the value
Students are mainly unemployed (82.05%) around which values ​​of all respondents in
and only 5 respondents are employed within one variable are grouped. Often, it is referred
tourism industry. Taking this fact in consid- to as average or mean value. This measure is
eration, student internship program is of the obtained by the aggregate value and divided
most importance for the students as a way to by the number of values. It is calculated us-
learn and acquire skills requested for their ing the formula:
future jobs. M=∑x/N
When it comes to company or organi- where M is the arithmetic mean, ∑x rep-
zation where internship programs were un- resents the sum of the individual values ​​of
dertaken majority of respondents had their x (the sum of the results) and N is the total
internship in travel agencies/tour operators number of results.
and hotels, 49 respondents or 62.82% and Standard deviation is not central
another 23 respondents (29.49%) had their tendencies measure but measure of vari-
internship in more than one type of com- ations or deviations. It tells us how much
pany or organization (travel agencies, tour the average set of elements deviate from the
operators, hotels and DMO and convention arithmetic mean of the sample, in another
bureaus etc.). words the standard deviation of the sample
tells us average deviation of sample elements
from the arithmetic mean of the sample. The
Descriptive statistics greater value of standard deviation is the de-
viation is higher, and vice versa. It is calcu-
For the purpose of this paper with de- lated by the following formula:
scriptive statistical analysis will be covered
the arithmetic mean and standard devia-
tion. Usually mode and median are standard
parts of descriptive statistics but there is no
need to show them regarding this research. where is the standard deviation, Σ repre-
The arithmetic mean belongs to central sents the sum, x is the deviation of each in-
tendency measures used to display the re- dividual results from the mean and N is the
sults in factorial designs. Central tendency total number of measurements or subjects.
 Broj 19, jun 2017 57
Table 2. Mean and standard deviation for analyzed variables
Std. Devia-
Variables N Mean
tion
I think that the internship program is an essential part of the
78 4.92 .268
learning process
During the studies I was interested in internship program 78 4.53 .716
Performing internship influenced the improvement of my ré-
78 4.09 1.130
sumé/biography
Performing internship influenced the acquisition of new knowl-
78 4.22 1.124
edge and practical skills in the area I am studying for
Cooperation with the employer during internship has been
78 3.94 1.121
satisfactory
After completion of internship I remained in contact with the
78 3.04 1.490
employer for possible future employment
The duration of internship is long enough to acquire necessary
78 3.53 1.102
knowledge and skills
I felt as a team member during internship 78 3.62 1.176
Internship is in line with the theoretical knowledge acquired
78 3.36 1.057
during studies
Communication with the College concerning the internship was
78 3.53 1.016
at satisfactory level.
Internship completely fulfilled my expectations 78 3.56 1.305
Valid N (listwise) 78
Source: Data analysis

As shown in Table 2 mean values for variables, therefore students have positive
all 11 variables are in range from 3.04 for perception about the role and importance of
“staying in contact with an employer after internship program as part of formal educa-
internship was finished” to 4.92 for “stu- tion.
dents’ perception of necessity of internship When it comes to standard deviations
as integral part of learning process”. Also, there is strong agreement among students
students’ “interest in internship” (4.53), “ac- about “necessity of internship program as
quiring of knew knowledge and practical integral part of their formal education” and
skills through internship” (4.22) and “influ- their “interest in internship”, since these
ence of internship on improvement of stu- two variables have lowest standard devia-
dents’ biographies” (4.09) are variables with tions. Highest values of standard deviation
very high mean values. Beside “contact with have “contact with an employer after intern-
an employer after internship” lowest mean ship” and “overall satisfaction of students
values of 3.36 has “students’ perception of with expectations considering internship”,
coherence between theoretical knowledge thus there is medium to high disagreement
acquired during studies and internship”. All among students about these two variables.
other variables have mean value over 3.50 In order to check if there were any dis-
which could be considered as satisfactory or crepancies between students based on their
very satisfactory. Overall “satisfaction of stu- sex or place of internship, independent
dents with expectations considering intern- samples T-test was conducted. Independent
ship” is 3.56. All variables with mean values samples T-test compares the differences be-
over 3 are considered as positively rated tween the means of two unrelated groups of
58 Turističko poslovanje

respondents on the same dependant varia- nants according to the sex of respondents
ble. So it will be determined whether there and place of internship.
are differences between means of determi-

Table 3. Independent samples T-test based on gender of respondents

Determinant Sex M σ t Sig
The role and importance of internship Male 3.7557 .60043
-.497 .765
as part of formal education Female 3.8771 .54479
M=Mean, σ=Standard deviation, t=t statistic, Sig= significance value of the statistic
Confidence interval=95%
Source: Data analysis

Based on data from independent sam- among the students of different sex in the
ples T-test based on gender of respondents, evaluation of the role and importance of
which are shown in Table 3, the assump- internship as part of formal education has
tion that there are no significant differences been confirmed.

Table 4. Independent samples T-test based on place of internship

Place of
Determinant M σ t Sig
internship
Travel agency/
The role and importance of intern- 3.8182 .48485
tour operator -.645 .138
ship as part of formal education
Hotel 3.9790 .66980
M=Mean, σ=Standard deviation, t=t statistic, Sig= significance value of the statistic
Confidence interval=95%
Source: Data analysis

Also, as shown in Table 4, when it comes nessing frequent and increasingly massive
to place of internship there are no signifi- involvement of inadequate human resources
cant differences between respondents and in tourism as part of pursuit for profit which
in this case the assumption is confirmed too. can result in dissatisfaction of guests in the
For the purposes of this paper, difference already tense economic situation which cur-
of mean values between students who had rently exists in the world economy and some
their internship in travel agencies/tour op- tourist destinations.
erators and those in hotels was tested since Adequate theoretical knowledge provid-
these two groups of students were the ma- ed by higher education institutions in the
jority of the respondents. world and Serbia represent only one part of
overall knowledge and skills necessary for
students to find a job after studies. Apart
Conclusion from theoretical knowledge practical skills
and abilities are required in order to meet
Quality human resources are the basis demands of tourism industry and tourists.
of future development of service industries, Tourism industry is looking for employees
including tourism. The need of the tour- prepared to immediately engage and become
ist industry for quality human resources is a part of service process, all that to prevent
indisputable, especially because we are wit- additional costs of training and employment
 Broj 19, jun 2017 59
of new workers and to reduce overall oper- tourism and during internship they were
ating costs. This problem was recognized by mainly engaged in operational activities.
higher education institutions and, in their Operative skills acquired during internship
teaching curriculum, has involved practical are significant addition to theoretical knowl-
training or internship programs conducted edge and vice versa, and that will allow stu-
by tourism enterprises under the supervi- dents a comprehensive understanding of
sion of tourism professionals and lecturers business in tourism and adequately prepare
in charge of their internship. By including them for possible managerial positions.
practical training or internship, particular- However, because determining the cause of
ly in vocational studies, students are offered disagreements in the perception of the stu-
assurance that they will poses all necessary dents considering this particular problem
knowledge and practical skills and abilities was not specific subject of this research it
for employment at operational and manage- would be needed to conduct more detailed
rial positions in tourism industry. research in the future. It can be concluded
In this paper, a research was carried that overall research results are in line with
about perception of students of the Col- similar surveys conducted in World about
lege of tourism in relation to the role and students’ perceptions of internship and its
importance of internship as part of formal role during education for tourism.
education. Based on the results of the re-
search it is possible to draw some important
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