A CONTRIBUTION OF INTERNSHIP IN HIGHER EDUCATION TO THE FUTURE

EMPLOYMENT OF STUDENTS

dr.sc. PETRA POPEK BIŠKUPEC,

University of Applied Science Baltazar Zaprešić,
E-mail: [email protected]

SUZANA HERMAN, mag. oec.,

University of Applied Science Baltazar Zaprešić
E-mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT
In a turbulent business environment, it is extremely important to provide the adequate
qualifications for students who will have the knowledge and skills after finishing their studies
to fit into the working environment. Rapid adaptation to the working environment is equally
important to a student, who has greater confidence in the new environment, as well as an
employer, who does not suffer any major losses due to being introduced new employee into the
business process. Different forms of internship programmes in higher education endeavour to
increase employability of students after graduation. This paper analyses the contribution of
internship in higher education to the better employment possibilities for students. The factor
analysis is made according to the survey on employability of students after their graduation.
The main thesis was that internship contributes to easier employment after graduation. After
the conducted research, we find that the internship programs contribute to linkage of theoretical
knowledge with practical work and increase students` awareness of the profession. Also, the
most of the students remained working with the same employer after completing their internship
programs, what confirms the thesis that internship programs have impact on the future
employment.
INTRODUCTION
The form and scope of internships in Croatia varies between different institutions within higher
education. Besides the specialities and needs of study programs, the internship varies between
the different institution that provide same study programs. (Botrić, 2017) Also, the perception
of significance of internships by students and employers is different among different study
fields (Botrić, 2017), but mostly there is still insufficiently developed awareness about the
importance of internships for the future employment.
Profit-oriented society has less and less understanding for workers with a higher education
degree without working experience. This opens up a huge gap between employers and young
people without experience. The reason for this gap lies in the problem where employers require
professional experience as a precondition for job application, while people with just completed
studies usually do not have the required professional experience. Also, fast development and
changes in business process decrease the effectiveness of teaching and study programs.
On the other hand, students often perceive internship as additional obligation that deprives their
time and has no special importance for their education.
The gap between employers and people after completing their formal education could be solved
by strengthening student’s internship program. Students internship is first formal working
experience and should be part of teaching process. In general, developed economies realized
that there are many benefits of coupling higher educational system and real sector. In that way
the educational system is becoming working-based learning system. Improving the internship
program is crucial among the students because it enriches their experiences, knowledge and
skills. In that way, the students increase their level of confidence which is very important for
their future job opportunities (Jaradat, 2017). There are many benefits for students that
participate actively in internship programs; a) job-related benefits (acquiring professional skills
and work experience), b) career-related benefits (career development support, social support
and role modelling) c) and networking/job market benefits (creating links and network with
other people in the business world) (Maertz et al., 2014, Kohlmeyer et al., 2017). The surge in
popularity of internships in higher education is not only a consequence of someone’s individual
choices; it is also the result of universities which emphasizing the importance of internships as
part of the broader educational experience on one side and students with greater chances of
getting a job after college cause of the internship. A central objective of higher education all
over Europe becomes employable of graduates especially after Bologna Reform was accepted
(Teichler, 2011).
The aim of this paper is to confirm the importance of internship in higher education to the future
employment of students. The main thesis is that internship program brings benefits to the
students and increases the employment opportunities.
The methodology involves the use of a questionnaire with 12 question survey to disclose the
importance of students’ internship programs for their future employment. The survey was
conducted in the period of June 2019 till August 2019. The findings confirm the main thesis of
this paper and evidence of huge importance of students’ internship program in higher education
system. This paper is divided in three main parts. The first part is about introduction and
literature review, the second part is about survey analysis, and the last part is about main
conclusions.
LITERATURE REVIEW
In the fast developing environment, the significance of student internship becomes more and
more important. Today the educational system encourages working-based learning and the
curriculum include internship in much wider volume. There is numerous analysis that confirm
the benefits of internship programs and that the internships are necessary to increase
undergraduates’ employability after their graduation. (Binder et al., 2015, Lian et al., 2018)
Internship is a form of interactions that students can use to acquire empirical knowledge that
could help them to the faster transition to their future workplaces. Internships and mentoring
programs provide several benefits for students. After experiencing working in real sector,
students are becoming organizationally dedicated and have more self-confidence. (D´Abate,
2010)
Sanahuja Vélez and Ribes Giner (2015) provided a systematic review of the impact of
internships completed by university students. The findings of this study confirm the positive
effects of business internships for all participants of internship programs; students, employers,
and higher education institutions.
Internships as work-based learning enable students to participate in skills competition, co-
operative education and job shadowing. (Nicholas et al., 2015) Students who attended actively
internship programs are able to apply basic academic skills and know the professional skills
that are expected by employers. In the same time, these students have positive attitude toward
work and they are more willing to take responsibility for the job done. (Kapereliotis et al., 2019)
The new graduates’ success in the workplace does not depends only on their theoretical
knowledge gained through formal educational process, but also on specific competencies that
students could gain through working-based learning. There are five highest-ranking
competencies (soft skills) that are necessary for success in business environment; a) ability and
willingness to learn, b) teamwork and cooperation, c) hardworking and willingness to take on
extra work, d) self-control and e) analytical thinking. These competencies could be developed
only if universities work together with real sector to develop workplace-oriented programmes.
(Pang, et al., 2018). When students experience the theoretical knowledge in real working
system, they realize the real benefit of learning process and the applicability of teaching
materials. In the end, students assess the learning through practical experience very positively.
(Renganathan et al., 2012) During the internship program, students develop a comprehensive
understanding of how to apply theoretical knowledge to solve practical problems. (Breum
Ramsgaard, Juul Ostergaard, 2017)
Weible and McClure (2014) confirmed that internship programs improved class-room
discussions, increased enrolment, and enhanced department reputation. Also, students who
participated in internship programs were hired sooner by the best organizations into better
positions with higher salaries relative to students without internships.

DATA AND METHODOLOGY

The survey was conducted in the period of June 2019 till August 2019 on 300 respondent. We
received 60 valid answers after which we made analysis using various statistical methods such
as the factor analysis presented in this paper. The enumerated subjects were students from
Applied University Baltazar. The questionnaire of the study consists of two sections. The first
section (Table 1) consists of demographical information of the participants (gender, age, study
programmes and their working status) and descriptive statistic analysis (Table 2). The second
section consists present the items used for the factor analysis which are formulated in a five-
point Likert scale. Likert scale is the most frequently used scale in surveys. It assesses the
degree respondent opinion and position as follows: 5- strongly agree; 4- agree; 3- neither agree
nor disagree; 2- disagree; 1- strongly disagree. Factor analysis was used to evaluate the
contribution of student internships. Factor analysis according to Tabachnick and Fidell (2001)
is technique that requires a large sample size and it is based on the correlation matrix of the
variable involved, and correlations usually need a large sample (Comrey and Lee, 1992) size
before they stabilize. As a rule of thumb, a bare minimum is 10 observations per variable is
necessary to avoid computational difficulties. In our paper we have 60 participations for 1
variable, what means that the necessary condition is met. Using factor analysis we quantify the
contribution of each item to each of the resulting factors. This is possible due to means of the
factor loading.
Table 1. Demographic students’ profile
Percentage %
Gender
Male 50%
Female 50%
Age Distribution
18-25 3,3%
26-35 65%
35-50 26,7%
Over 50 5%
Study Programmes
Undergraduate study of Business Economics and Finance 18,3%
 Undergraduate study of Office Management 5%
Undergraduate study of Cultural Management 13,3%
Graduate study of Financial Management 8,3%
Graduate study of Communications Management 10%
Graduate study of Project Management 40%
Graduate study of Public Sector Management 5%
After internship I stay work at the same employer
Yes 41,7%
No 58,3%
Source: Authors calculations based on the result of Frequencies in SPSS program
According to the data, the overwhelming majority of the participating students (65%) are
between 26 and 35 years and the remaining 35% belong to the following categories: 26,7% are
between 35 and 50 years old, 5% over 50 years old and 3,3% are between 18 and 25 years old.
63,3% of the total number of students finished some of the Graduate Program, while 36,7%
finished Undergraduate program. 41,7% students stayed working with the same employer after
finishing the internship program. This result confirms that internship programs lead to better
future employment.
Descriptive statistical analysis was applied throughout the whole sample. The arithmetic mean
and the standard deviation for each statement were calculated in order to determine the
homogeneity/heterogeneity of the students’ attitudes. The obtained results of descriptive
statistical analysis are presented in Table 2.
Table 2. Descriptive Statistics
N Mean Std. Deviation
Experience of internship give me the knowledge to get 60 3,1167 1,54142
me a better job after collage
Program of internship prepared me to be a better 60 3,2333 1,49991
employee
Experience of internship helped me connecting 60 3,2833 1,4623
theoretical knowledge with practical
Experience of internship increase my knowledge about 60 3,3167 1,50132
profession
Experience of internship helped me to network with 60 3,2667 1,65567
professionals
Internship gives me a relative knowledge and practical 60 3,4167 1,39359
experience for my future business environment
Source: Authors calculations based on Descriptive Statistics in SPSS program
The most acceptable statements were that "Internship gives me a relative knowledge and
practical experience for my future business environment" where the highest value of the
arithmetic means (3,41). The statement "Experience of internship increase my knowledge about
the profession" was also high with arithmetic mean of 3,31.
The highest heterogeneity of respondents was obtained with the statements that "Experience of
internship helped me to network with professionals which means that the highest degree or
disagreement among respondents is because of the standard deviation of 1,65567. The lowest
value of the standard deviation (1,39359) was obtained from statement that "Internship gives
me a relative knowledge and practical experience for my future business environment" which
is the most common answer among students at the same time.
First step in our second part of research was reliability test. In reliability statistics, results of
Cronbach`s Alpha that we were looking for had to be higher than 0,7. Reliability Statistics in
our case is 0,969 which means that there is high degree of reliability between all of the item.
Table 3. Reliability Statistics

Cronbach´s Alpha
.969

Source: Author´s calculation based on the result of Reliability Statistics in SPSS programme
Table 4. Reliability Statistics for each item

Cronbach´s Alpha if item Deleted

Q1 .961
Q2 .957
Q3 .965
Q4 .964
Q5 .961
Q6 .966
Source: Author´s calculation based on the result of Reliability Statistics in SPSS programme

A Cronbach´s analysis was conducted on the item "Q1 - experience of internship gives me the
knowledge to get a better job after college, Q2 - program of internship prepared me to be a
better employee, Q3 - experience of internship helped me connecting theoretical knowledge
with practical, Q4 - experience of internship increased my knowledge about profession, Q5 -
experience of internship helped me to network with professionals and Q6 – internship provides
a knowledge of practical experience for my future business environment.” It was found that the
subscale´s alpha level was 0,96, which indicates that the subscale has an adequate level of inter-
item reliability.
When it comes to the justification tests for the use of factor analysis satisfactory, according to
the results the justification for the implementation of this method is achieved.
Table 5. KMO and Bartlett´s Test
Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy ,873
Bartlett´s Test of Sphericity Approx.Chi-Square 488,251
df. 36
Sig. ,000
Source: Authors calculations based on the result of Factor Analysis in SPSS program
The Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin Mesure of Sampling Adequacy [Tabachnick, Fidell (2007.), Hair at
all. (2006.)] measure varies between 0 and 1, and values closer to 1 are better. Suggested
minimum is 0,6, and in our example it is 0,873. Since the factor analysis uses correlations
between the variable, it is necessary to conduct Bartlett´s test. Bartlett´s test tests the null
hypothesis that the correlation matrix is an identity matrix. Results of Barletts test (Table 5)
show that there is a statistical significance p < 0,001. Image 1 presents our results of the total
variance in which is visible that the first two components have eigenvalues larger than 1 (first
component 58,954% and the second one 16,821 %). These components explain a total of
75,77% variance which is in line with other researches in the field of social sciences (Kurnoga-
Živković, 2004).
Image 1. Total variance explained - Initial Eigenvalues (% of Variance)

Source: Authors calculations based on the result of Total Variance Explained in Factor
analysis in SPSS program
Further, the Component Matrix contains factor loads that represent coefficients of correlation
between executed factors and variables. The load factor indicates the importance of each
variable for each factor (Kurnoga-Živković, 2004).

In the results of these research, the initial matrix has no characteristic of a simple structure
because the firs item has a large number, and the individual variables are correlated with two
components. Therefore, after the first extraction, a factor rotation was performed that changed
the relationship between variables and factors. The basic aim of rotation is to provide a simple
interpretation of the factors. The rotation was performed by an orthogonal method that includes
uncorrelated factors. The Virmax method has been applied, which in comparison with the others
is most successful in achieving the principle of a simple structure. Only those factor weights
greater than 0.5 will be taken into account.

Table 6. Rotated Component Matrix

Component
1 2
Experience of internship give me the knowledge to get me a better job after
,964
collage
Program of internship prepared me to be a better employee
.944
Experience of internship helped me connecting theoretical knowledge with
,937
practical
Experience of internship increase my knowledge about profession
,919
Experience of internship helped me to network with professionals
,911
Internship gives me a relative knowledge and practical experience for my
,903
future business environment
After graduating you stay working at the same employee
,853
After the end of the program internship I stay work with the same employee
,822
Study Program
-,356
Authors calculations based on the result of Factor analysis in SPSS program
After the factor rotation, a matrix is presented in Table 7, where for each factor can be clearly
distinguished high values of factor weight. Thus, they are in the first factor explaining all the
variance of the associated constraints with factor weights higher than 0.55. The two-
dimensional solution explained a total of 58.954% of variance, with the contribution of the first
factor, while the 16.821% contribution of the second factor.
Contribution of internships to future student recruitment, while another factor will be called the
impact of study orientation on future employment.

The results of the conducted factor analysis show that in this study there is no confirmation of
the existence of all six dimensions affecting the student's employability increase while the factor
analysis of the perception scale confirmed the two-dimensional structure. Rotated solution
revealed the existence of a simple structure.
This means that by applying factor analysis, as a method of multivariate analysis, it can
successfully identify the impact of internships on increasing students' employment and as such
they can be considered relevant for further analysis and research.

CONCLUSION
The main findings of this paper are: a) the confirmation of importance of internship programs
both for students and for employers and b) students benefit form internship programs by having
working experience. Most of the respondents remained working with the same employer after
completing their internship programs. Also, the experience of internship program provided
students with the opportunity for networking with industry and business environment
colleagues. The internship program increased the students` awareness of the profession and
helped them to combine theoretical knowledge with practical work. The results of factor
analysis are in accordance with other empirical studies. Hynie et al. (2011) also confirmed that
students acquire research and professional skills and new understanding of theoretical
knowledge.

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