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Does Accounting Internship Affect Students’ Knowledge, Soft Skills and

Personal Quality?

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DOI: 10.1166/asl.2018.10928

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 RESEARCH ARTICLE XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Copyright © XXXX American Scientific Publishers Advanced Science Letters

All rights reserved Vol. XXXXXXXXX
Printed in the United States of America

Does Accounting Internship Affect Students’

Knowledge, Soft Skills and Personal Quality?
Bedah Ahmad1, Mohamad Ridhuan Mat Dangi,2, Nurul Huda Abd Rahman3,
Nur Adura Ahmad Noruddin@ Nordin4, Mohd Afiq Azero5
1–5
Faculty of Accountancy, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Puncak Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

This study sought to discover the impact of internships, particularly to the accounting students in terms of their knowledge,
soft skills and personal quality. The data collection and analysis were based on the mixed method approach combining a
qualitative and quantitative analysis. For quantitative approach, a total of 212 questionnaires were distributed to the semester
seven accounting students from the selected university who have completed their internship. 177 questionnaires were
completed and usable for the data analysis. The qualitative part used a purposive sampling technique in which four lecturers
teaching final semester students were interviewed. Descriptive statistic and paired sample t-Test analysis were employed for
the quantitative data analysis, and supported by the qualitative findings. The results revealed that students who participated in
the internship program have gained broader knowledge, soft skills and personal quality. This was also supported by the
overall qualitative findings. All of the lecturers in this study agreed that there is a difference in the students’ knowledge, soft
skills and personal quality after internship. Apart from these findings, the limitation and future research were also discussed.

Keywords: Accounting, Internship, Knowledge, Soft Skills, Personal Quality

1. INTRODUCTION real world9.

*
Email Address: [email protected]
The internship program is often described as a In Malaysia, internship is usually undertaken by the
temporary work experience in a selected organization final year students in most universities, offered by certain
with dual purpose that is learning while working2. It courses as part of the requirements for the academic
integrates career-related experience of the undergraduate degree, and provide a smooth transition from the
students to experience in a planned, supervised work in academic world to the work environment13. Internship
the real world6. Internships offer many benefits to program was also highlighted in the Malaysian National
university students’ development in the aspect of Development Plan 2015 – 2025, with the introduction of
knowledge transfer where they can expand their 2U2I (2 years in university and 2 years in the industry)
knowledge and skills3, gain experience, obtain career- and 3U1I (3 years in university and 1 year in the industry)
related direction and forge networking with the personnel programs projected by the Ministry of Higher Education
or other students from various institutions that provide as an effort to support the flexible education in the future.
internships in the host organization1. Some earlier studies This effort has also engaged collaboration between the
have also found that internship can help students to make industry and university in designing the curriculum to
good career choices4 and the opportunity to learn any job- ensure that it is of relevance and meets the industry
related skills that are not taught in the class5. Internship is, requirement, and later increase the graduate
therefore, crucial when the classroom environment is employability.
never able to offer students with the complexities, Usually, the employer or the industry, demands for
problem analysis and problem solving experienced in the
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Adv. Sci. Lett. X, XXX–XXX, 201X RESEARCH ARTICLE

university students who are workplace-ready when the accounting profession, skills like analytical or
entering the job market. This is generally true, not only problem solving; real life experience; and basic
because the job market is becoming more competitive, accounting skills are among the top three skills expected
but also to reduce the work apprehension and decrease the by most employers, together with the job generic skills
likelihood of the company having to provide trainings for such as written skills, communication skills, teamwork
its new members7. Nowadays, the accounting profession and professional skills15. In this current study, there are
is perceived as to becoming more complex in facing the three main attributes worth to be studied to find out
global challenges as compared to the last decades. whether there are differences in the acquisition of
Accounting profession plays a very important role in the knowledge, soft skills and personal quality of the
development of a nation in the aspect of micro and students, before and after participating in the internship
macro-economic activities. In fact, accounting profession program.
nowadays is no more viewed as merely of the stereotype
bookkeepers or the person who only deals with numbers, 2.1 Accounting internship and knowledge acquisition
but as someone who are expected to bring value to the
organization and who are qualified for broader tasks such Internships can be a medium for the students to test
as in the decision making, strategic planning, knowledge out the theories and methods learned in their courses6.
management expert and able to offer value added services Many of the early studies described internship as a
to the clients8. Thus, in order to project a positive image platform to provide valuable experiences that bridged
of the accounting profession, accounting students are not theory to practice through the job experiences which
only expected to achieve an outstanding academic allow interns to construct their own perspectives and
achievement, but to also possess various skills such as understandings16. Previous empirical studies recorded that
leadership, communication and intra-personal skills for students do not always come with sufficient knowledge to
them to be competent and competitive12. In light of that, fulfill the assigned tasks during the early phase of
internship can lead to the development of knowledge, internship. The internship program allows the transfer and
skills and abilities needed for such profession11. sharing of knowledge within the organization, and this
Even though many researches agreed that the provides the interns the opportunity to develop their
internship is able to offer a diversity of benefits to the personal or professional abilities through such practical
student intern1, many of the accounting internships or training17.
work experience opportunities only gave focus on the A preliminary investigation of previous studies
development of competencies, interns’ perspective, revealed that accounting students who went through an
appreciation of lecturers’ experience and also short-term internship program as to have advanced in their learning
professional incentives10. The knowledge gained by with regard to the workplace preparedness, generic skills
students before, during and after the internship training enhancement, understanding and application of
need to be researched thoroughly and discussed accounting principles, and consolidation of accounting as
academically13. For that reason, this paper has taken its their chosen professional career in the near future18. In
step to explore this extent to discover what the students this sense, it is expected that students’ knowledge could
have in mind before and after the internship. Particularly, be broadened as they undergo internship program.
this study has assessed the acquisition of knowledge, Therefore, the following hypothesis was tested:
personal quality and the soft skills of the accounting
students before and after the internship. By studying the H1: There is a significant difference in accounting
students’ internship experiences, it is expected that the students’ knowledge acquisition before and after the
faculty, in general, or university, at large, can enhance the internship
internship program in line with the ever changing
Malaysian education landscape to equip students with 2.2 Accounting internship and soft skills enhancement
theoretical knowledge and practical skills.
Soft skills can be described as personality traits and
2. LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES habits (e.g. interpersonal and intrapersonal
DEVELOPMENT communication); engagement with others (e.g.
teamwork); analytical skills (e.g. the ability to develop
The common objective of any internship programs is solutions to problems and take initiative)31, learning and
to offer students an extra knowledge related to their area innovation skills; life and career skills; critical thinking,
of studies. It includes developing and improving the problem solving, communication and collaboration;
essential skills for effective interpersonal and group work information, media and technology skills28.
relations, maturity, personnel growth and independence14. Prior research identified the skills required by
Another primary objective is to give students an exposure employers. Interestingly, majority of the skills expected
to the real work environment. It is also as a process to by employers were of the soft skills rather than hard
obtain their feedback and then justify the relevancy of the skills12,26. In fact, in some previous researches, it is stated
curriculum content as to suit with the current employment soft skills are better gained through the internship
needs25. There are several studies that identified the program since it can boost the students' understanding of
necessary skills and characteristics that accounting issues related to a particular work13, 28. Normally, during
students must have from the perspective of employers. In the internship, students are expected to be involved with
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 RESEARCH ARTICLE XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

the work or project that relates to their majoring, work in perceptions on the students’ differences in knowledge
a team, solve problems professionally, deliver effective acquisition, soft skills and personal quality after the
interaction and communication, and present excellent internship program. The face-to-face semi–structured in-
ethics and integrity in their work setting27. In addition, depth interviews with the respondents took approximately
soft skills are able to enhance the development and between 45 minutes to one hour for each session, which
maintenance of relationships among assorted groups of was conducted between the months of December 2016
people19, 20,29. until February 2017 at the lecturers’ respective offices. In
A study investigating accounting graduates in one of order to yield more information from the respondents’
the public universities in Malaysia revealed that students opinion and perceptions, a set of possible probing
developed their soft skills such as oral communication, questions were employed during the interview to ensure a
time management, and working in groups, during complete coverage of the scope of the study.
internship19, 30. Likewise, this current study determined to Whereas, in the quantitative approach, the population
search on the significant difference of the soft skills, sample was the semester seven accounting students from
knowledge of students before and after the internship. the selected university. The course structure in this
Therefore, the following hypothesis was outlined: university requires students to do their internship during
semester seven and they would return to register for their
H2: There is a significant difference in accounting final semester upon completion of the 6 months of
students’ soft skills enhancement before and after the internship. This enables them to apply and share their
internship. acquisition of knowledge and experience in the classroom
with others. A structured questionnaire was developed. It
2.3 Accounting internship and personal quality consists of four sections. Section A was meant to gather
development demographic profile. Section B, C and D used Likert
scale questions with the responses range from “five”
Internship program does not only provide the (representing excellence); “four” (representing good);
opportunity for students to gain the professional industry “three” (representing moderate); two (representing
experience, but it also reflects their personal learning satisfactory) to “one” (representing poor). The questions
journey. It is a requisite for students to possess the were designed for the pre-test (before) and post-test
necessary personal or business values in order to face the (after), the same subject yielded two data in two different
real life challenges because the success of an internship situations which analyze sets of repeated-measures data.
itself is influenced by their personality traits21,24. Section B contains four sub-sections to gather
Consequently, a study discovered that internships can be information on students’ acquisition of knowledge related
the effective means to assist students to improve not just to accounting such as financial accounting and reporting,
their personal values but also the business values. audit, taxation and company secretarial, each with
Moghaddam24 who evaluated ten categories of values, multiple items. These four areas were selected since
namely honesty, respect; integrity, and ethics; prelims studies showed that most students were involved
accountability, reliability, punctuality, and dependability; in these particular tasks during their internships. Section
environment, and community; cooperation and supports; C asked about the acquisition of soft skills while Section
concern for customer, employee empowerment and well- D addressed the personal quality. Both elements consist
being; customer satisfaction/delight; workforce diversity; of 15 items. A total of 212 questionnaires were distributed
high quality process, product, and service; and and 177 were completed and usable for data analysis.
productivity. These values were found to have positive This sample size is considered adequate to represent the
correlations with the students' personality traits in terms population in this study. The data was analyzed using
of their need for achievement, need for affiliations, and SPSS version 22 to get the descriptive statistic and paired
goal orientation24. Another study found that sample t-Test analysis.
students who undergone internship experience
demonstrate high personal benefits which are valuable to 4. RESULTS AND FINDINGS
enhance their performance in the future23. Hence, the
following hypothesis was constructed: The paired t-Test was used to compare the means of
two sets of observations from the same individuals. All
H3: There is a significant difference in accounting assumptions were satisfied - the scales of measurements
students’ personal quality development before and after were of interval data and the sampling was randomly
the internship sampled from the populations of interest. The sample
size was not too small (170+). Analysis on the normality
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY was conducted and the results of Kolmogorov-Smirnova
(K-S) test for all items were significant (p < 0.05) which
This study used the mixed method approach indicates a deviation from normality. To have more power
combining the qualitative and quantitative analysis. For in detecting differences from normality, the Shapiro-Wilk
the qualitative approach, a purposive sampling technique result also indicated p < 0.05.
was used. Four lecturers who were teaching final
semester students were chosen as the respondents to
support the statistical results of their opinions and
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Adv. Sci. Lett. X, XXX–XXX, 201X RESEARCH ARTICLE

4.1 Demographic analysis * FAR: Financial Accounting & Reporting, AUD: Auditing, TAX:
Taxation, CS: Company Secretarial
The sample of this study was the degree students who
have undergone the internship program. The information From Table 3, it shows that all the pairs are positively
on the characteristics of respondents is presented in Table correlated and significant (p < 0.05) between before and
1. Majority of the respondents were female (79.1%). Most after except for the pair 2. In Table 4, the significant value
of the students entered the Bachelor in Accountancy (Sig.) is smaller than .05 (p < 0.05) for all the pairs (FAR,
program with the qualification from Matriculation AUD, TAX, CS, Soft Skills and Personal Quality). The
(50.8%) and Diploma in Accountancy (46.3%). In order paired-samples t-Test table shows that the research results
to obtain pure knowledge in accounting related job, most are significantly based on the calculated t-value. Thus, all
of the respondents chose to do their internship at the hypotheses are accepted with a significant difference
Audit/Accounting firms (76.8%) while 23.2% between before and after the internship, which are also
respondents opted to attend their internship in Non-audit / parallel with previous studies27,28,30,32. Specifically, these
Non-accounting firms yet related to their accounting results again suggest that when students participate in the
major such as Government Linked Companies (GLCs), internship program, it would enhance their knowledge,
private companies and related government agencies. soft skills and personal quality.
Table.1. Demographic Profile of Respondents Table.3. Paired-samples Correlations
Item Description Percentage Particular N Correlation Sig.
Male 20.9 Pair 1 FAR Before & FAR After 177 .361 .000
Gender
Female 79.1
Pair 2 AUD Before & AUD After 177 .071 .348
Diploma in Accountancy 46.3
Pair 3 TAX Before & TAX After 177 .394 .000
Diploma in Accounting 2.3
Entry track program Information System Pair 4 CS Before & CS After 177 .377 .000
Matriculation 50.8 Soft Skills Before & Soft Skills
Pair 5 177 .349 .000
STPM 0.6 After
< 2.00 1.1 Personal Quality Before &
Pair 6 177 .353 .000
2.00 - 2.50 5.1 Personal Quality After
Entry CGPA for
2.51 - 3.00 30.5
internship
3.01 - 3.5 56.5 Table.4. Paired-samples t-Test
> 3.5 6.8 Paired Differences t df Sig. (2-
Audit/Accounting firm 76.8 Mean S.D. S. E. 95% Confidence tailed)
Type of Host Company
Non-Audit/Non-Accounting firm 23.2 Mean Interval of the
Difference
4.2 Paired-samples t-Test Lower Upper
FAR B –
P.1 -1.238 .648 .048 -1.335 -1.142 -25.414 176 .000
FAR A
Table 2 shows the Mean score of the two situations- AUD B –
before and after the internship, on the acquisition of P.2 -1.667 1.055 .079 -1.826 -1.513 -21.052 176 .000
AUD A
knowledge (FAR Before: 2.56, FAR After: 3.80; AUD P.3
TAX B –
-1.120 .824 .061 -1.242 -.998 -18.083 176 .000
Before: 1.98, AUD After: 3.65; TAX Before: 2.28, TAX TAX A
CS B –
After: 3.40; CS Before: 1.96, CS After: 3.20); soft skills P.4
CS A
-1.244 .892 .067 -1.377 -1.112 -18.562 176 .000
enhancement (Soft Skills Before: 2.47, Soft Skills After: Soft
3.98) and personal quality development (Personal Quality P.5
Skills B
-1.506 .709 .053 -1.612 -1.401 -28.275 176 .000
Before: 2.80, Personal Quality After: 4.12). These results – Soft
Skills A
show that internship affects the respondents’ performance
Personal
in terms of their knowledge, soft skills and personal Quality B
P.6 -1.339 .746 .056 -1.450 -1.229 -23.903 176 .000
quality. – Personal
Quality A
Table.2. Paired Samples Statistic * P.1 – P. 6: Pair 1 until Pair 6
Particular Mean N Std. Deviation Std. Error
Mean 4.3 The impact of internship on students: Perceptions
FAR Before 2.56 177 .632 .047 of the lecturers teaching
Pair 1
FAR After 3.80 177 .498 .037
AUD Before 1.98 177 .714 .054
Pair 2
AUD After 3.65 177 .829 .062 Findings from the statistical results were verified with
TAX Before 2.28 177 .707 .053 the data gathered from the interview sessions with the
Pair 3
TAX After 3.40 177 .786 .059 lecturers teaching the semester eight students. For the
Pair 4
CS Before 1.96 177 .742 .056 knowledge acquisition, students who have undergone the
CS After 3.20 177 .848 .064 internship program showed an improvement in terms of
Soft Skills Before 2.47 177 .714 .054 their participative action, responses, interest and
Pair 5
Soft Skills After 3.98 177 .484 .036
Personal Quality
knowledge level in the classroom. This was certified by
Before
2.80 177 .762 .057 the following responses:
Pair 6
Personal Quality
4.12 177 .487 .037
After “… I can say there is a big difference as compared to the
4
 RESEARCH ARTICLE XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

time before they went for their internship. They students’ knowledge, soft skills and personal quality that
participate well during lecture, give responses upon would later benefit them as they enter the career world in
questions asked and showed their interest to provide the future.
answers.” – [Lecturer 1]
5. CONCLUSIONS
“They will give the respectable response, means that they
have good acquisition of knowledge, increase of This study indicated that there are differences in terms
knowledge” – [Lecturer 2] of knowledge acquisition, soft skills enhancement and
personal quality between before and after the internship
“When I went to visit the interns, the students and programs among the accounting students. This was
employers give positive feedback and the employers can represented by the significant difference of the Mean
see the progress at the end of the internship period scores between the pairs of groups identified in this study,
compared to the earlier time…” – [Lecturer 3] indicating students have further developed and enhanced
their knowledge, soft skills and personal quality after the
Students also showed an improvement in their soft
skills after the internship as compared to the time before internships. The result confirmed the government
the internship period. Most lecturers noticed that students initiative - the Malaysian National Development Plan
are more independent in solving problems, more (2015 – 2025), which outlined the internship program as
confident and matured, have a more improved teamwork the medium to offer a flexible education, and reduce the
and leadership skills, more responsible and have better gap of theory and practice between the academic world
critical thinking. These are resembled in some of the and work environment through the university-industry
interview responses: collaboration and the students as the primary stakeholders
in higher education. The internship program is thus,
“Most students in my class after internship, they are more students’ first exposure before they enter the employment
confident when they conduct their presentation. Their phase, which allow them to see the real picture of their
presentation is also good, their slides are interesting, and future career expectation.
you can clearly see their efforts and teamwork through This study was also subjected to several limitations.
that” – [Lecturer 1] First, the sample population used is from the accounting
students of selected university, and is thus insufficient to
“We can see the enhancement in their leadership skills generalize the findings to other courses, faculties or
and interpersonal skills” – [Lecturer 2] overall higher education. Furthermore, this study only
used one semester group of students that may not be
“I taught part 8 last semesters, so very different you know
enough to comprehend the difference before and after the
they are able to talk vocally, public speaking is better”. –
[Lecturer 3] internship thoroughly.
This study suggested that future research focus on the
Lectures interviewed in this study also agreed that impact of internship on the students’ educational
internship has a positive impact on the students’ personal performance, for instance through the assessment and
quality. For instance, students were seen as improving in final examination results. Additionally, gender and
terms of their discipline, responsibility, and also act academic performance can also be included as another
professionally. The following responses suggested the element to study the impact of the internship. It is also
difference in students’ personal quality before and after hoped that this study could be extended to a wider scope
the internship: of sample. A wider-scope version of perspective
involving the employers is likely to be another fruitful
“I can see the difference… Maybe they have become area for future research.
accustomed to the working culture to come early to the
class…” – [Lecturer 2] ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
“Internship also can be a factor to shape the personal Special thanks goes to the Faculty of Accountancy
quality, especially among the male students. I can see and Research Management Centre (RMC) of Universiti
rather substantial difference among the male students, Teknologi MARA for their trust and continuous support.
especially their sense of responsibility” – [Lecturer 3] This project was supported by the ARAS grant 600-
IRMI/DANA 5/3/ARAS (0157/2016) from Universiti
“I can see that the students after undertaking an
internship acts professionally in terms of their outfit, Teknologi MARA.
handling problems and much more responsible…” –
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