南台科技大學
一〇一學年度畢業專題成果報告(精簡版)
專題名稱: 從學生觀點探討影響科技大學應英系學生校外
實習成效之研究
A Study of the Effectiveness of Internship Program for
Undergraduates of University of Technology: The Viewpoints
of Students
系 所：應用英語系
指導老師：聶澎齡 副教授
專題學生： 497C0095 林千慈
498C0056
徐婉瑜
498C0059
何嘉蓉
498C0099
黃于庭
498C0100
吳怡萱
中 華 民 國 一〇二 年 六 月
1
A Study of the Effectiveness of Internship
Program for Undergraduates of University
of Technology: The Viewpoints of Students
專題學生：林千慈、徐婉瑜、何嘉蓉、
黃于庭、吳怡萱
指導老師：聶澎齡副教授
南臺科技大學 應用英語系
internships. Especially, they thought the
internship made them learn more about
social experience, enhanced their
ability to overcome pressure, made
their English more proficient, and
helped them built a positive working
attitude. However, the quantitative
analysis also found that the interns’
computer knowledge and skills were
not as good as expected.
3. The student interns with or without
Abstract
The main purpose of this study is to
explore the major factors associating with
a successful off-campus internship
program for students of the applied
English departments of technological and
vocational universities from the student
interns’ perspectives. In total, 33
English-major undergraduate interns in
the technological and vocational
universities were selected to take part in
the study, including seven boys and
twenty-six girls, who had their
off-campus internships in the different
prior work experience had similar
satisfaction on working environment
and school coursework and teachers’
counseling and guidance, whereas there
was a significant difference between
the two groups of student interns on the
individual factors. In other words,
student interns with prior work
experience had much more satisfaction
than those who did not have prior work
employers such as, cram schools, hotels
or restaurants, non-profit organizations,
and trading companies. A questionnaire
constructed by the researchers was
employed and the data was tabulated by
the SPSS statistical package19.0, using
mean scores and t-test.
The results of the study showed that:
1. Working environment and conditions,
school’s course design and teachers’
experience.
4. In terms of the satisfaction of working
environment and school coursework and
counseling and guidance, there was no
significant difference between the student
interns with high and high-intermediate
levels of English proficiency. That is, the
student interns with different levels of
English proficiency had similar responses
on the internships. The main reason was
probably that those English-major
undergraduates who were selected to take
the off-campus internship courses were
mostly qualified in the level of English
proficiency, and those who were
comparatively poor in English
proficiency were screened out in advance.
assistance associating with the
internships were helpful for the student
interns. And most student interns had
very positive attitude toward the
internship course and got full support
of their family.
2. Nearly all student interns agreed that
they got a lot of benefits through the
2
Introduction
Technological and vocational
schools are characterized by “learning by
doing”. That is, students have to increase
learning results and accumulate
experience through educational theory
and practice, which are what
technological and vocational education
(TVE) emphasizes. Though students at
technological and vocational universities
are considered to be not as good in the
training curriculum.
school grade point average as those at
comprehensive universities, they have
more space and opportunities.
However, in the viewpoints of
English-major interns of technological
and vocational universities, we heard of a
In terms of increasing student
competitiveness in the job market in the
future, the Ministry of Education (MOE)
has implemented the Plan for Technical
and Vocational Institute Student
Off-Campus Fieldwork Courses since
2009 (M.O.E., 2009). Accordingly, many
few different opinions from our
classmates. Some interns do not like the
internships because of poor pay, bad work
conditions, and low achievement.
Moreover, some interns think they will
only do odds and ends so that they cannot
put professional skills into practice, while
universities of technology set up required
and elective courses in order to
substantively promote the internship
curriculum, which is designed to allow
undergraduate and graduate students
experience the diversity and scope of
career opportunities available in the
workplace. The students would earn pay
for receiving hands-on experience and
others consider the internship can be good
for their career development and help
them accumulate experiences. That is, to
what extent can the off-campus internship
program help English-major students
effectively? What are the major factors
associating with a successful off-campus
internship program? Whether can students
get benefits from the internship program
share experiences with other students
during their college career that has the
possibility of an offer for full-time
employment upon graduation. The
curricula of the off-campus internship
program include summer short curriculum,
semester curriculum, academic year
curriculum, and overseas practical
or not and what are the major problems
they may encounter? Does the off-campus
internship program need to be improved?
These are some important issues which
are worthy of studying.
Based on the overall introduction
above, to further understand the effects of
off-campus internship program, the
Wu (2011) pointed out that if the
majority of students have valuable
internship experiences, they will be
welcomed in the Taiwanese business
community. Therefore, from above points,
we can approximately realize that both
technological and vocational universities
and the government do their utmost to
make students be competent in the
workplace.
3
purpose of this study is to explore the
By analyzing and discussing whether
major factors associating with a
successful off-campus internship program
for students of the applied English
departments of technological and
vocational universities from the student
interns’ perspectives. Besides that, this
study aims to investigate the difficulties
that English-major student interns may
face in the workplace.
Therefore, there are a few research
or not an off-campus internship program
could be adapted to English-major
students, the researchers hope that the
results of the study can help students find
what kinds of factors will affect the
program and equip themselves well
before taking part in the internship. In
addition, there was an expectation that the
results of the study could be as a reference
for technological and vocational
questions that deserve detailed, systematic,
and thorough investigations. Those
questions are as follows.
universities or MOE to improve the
implementation of the off-campus
internship program. More importantly, a
1. What are the difficulties the
English-major student interns encounter
in the workplace associating with the
working environment and conditions,
school coursework and counseling and
guidance, and interns’ individual
factors?
successful off-campus internship program
may increase the employment rate for the
youth progressively. Finally, doing this
study from the perspectives of a
university student makes this research
more significant.
2. Whether can the English-major student
interns get benefits from the internship
program or not?
3. Is there any significant difference in the
working environment, school
coursework and counseling and
guidance, and interns’ individual factors
between interns with high English
proficiency and those with low English
Literature Review
TVE and Off-Campus Internship
Program
The fundamental philosophy of TVE
is practical teaching and applicable
knowledge, and programs are designed to
encourage students with advanced
technical skills. The curricula in TVE are
designed to emphasize projects and
proficiency?
4. Is there any significant difference in the
working environment, school
coursework and counseling and
guidance, and interns’ individual factors
between interns with prior work
experience and those without prior work
experience?
learning by doing, and students are
strongly encouraged to obtain essential
professional certifications.
Therefore, for the TVE, internship
teaching is a very important segment. An
off-campus internship can be the perfect
opportunity for students to find
professional application for the concepts
4
and principles they learn in school.
internships are one of the best ways to
Internships offer learning experiences
outside of the classroom. They enhance
their academic and career goals. It can
help students make early career planning
and employment preparation so that
students can understand the application
and combine theory and practice. An
internship can help students "test drive"
possible career paths. An internship is the
perfect way to connect their academic
truly learn about students’ field from a
real-world perspective. Next, they can
apply knowledge learned in the classroom.
Interning for an organization helps
students learn how their classroom
knowledge applies to real situations and
reinforces concepts taught in classes.
Third, they can gain valuable work
experience. In most fields, no longer can a
college graduate land an entry-level job
experience with the professional work
world. It allows them to gain valuable
exposure to the workplace, provides the
with merely a bachelor’s degree and no
prior work experience. Internships help
students get this real-world experience
opportunity for skill development, and
gives them a competitive edge in the job
search (Wu, 2011).
In addition, internships give a
competitive edge in employment after
graduation. It helps in career
decision-making and facility networking
while still in school.
Fourth, they can decide if this is the
right path for them. Working for a
company in their industry can give them
valuable insight into whether or not the
industry is the right choice for them,
potentially avoiding the costs of obtaining
contacts. It may provide financial
assistance, may allow students to receive
academic credit, and may help with
effective job search, resume writing and
interviewing techniques. These are
generally short-term, voluntary or paid,
and hands-on learning experiences.
Therefore, internships have always been
and will always be necessary on the road
a degree in a field they’re not interested in.
Fifth, they can develop and build upon
skills. Learning new skills in an internship
can help students in future employment
opportunities and might give them a leg
up on your competition in future
application processes.
Sixth, internship experiences provide
a valuable opportunity to share their skills
to students’ future career life.
Huhman (2010) stated that the
benefits of internships for college students
(and even recent graduates) include the
following:
First of all, they can learn more
about your field or industry. Along with
job shadows and informational interviews,
with a prospective employer long before
the hiring process for an entry-level job
occurs. When, in the future, an opening
does occur, they’ll probably be on the list
of top candidates for the job. That is, new
graduates who took part in an internship
program are more likely to have received
a job offer than those who didn’t have an
5
internship experience. Seventh, they can
employer-supervisor. He or she will earn
gain valuable networking contacts.
Another benefit to completing an
internship is the contacts students make.
Networking is often one of the best ways
to land a new job and a primary way to
learn about unadvertised job
opportunities.
Eighth, they can obtain references
for future job opportunities. The
internship supervisor has had a chance to
thirteen credit hours for the one-semester
or twenty-six for two-semester internships
and may be paid a stipend.
see students’ skills in action at the
company and is an ideal reference for
future job opportunities. Ninth, they can
They tried to find out the influential
factors of the students' satisfaction with
the internship. Some experts expressed
learn about the world of work. Although
students have probably had a job before
or during college, they probably don’t
know what the day-to-day experience of
working in their field will be like until
their first internship experience. When
they choose to intern at a company,
their quite different viewpoints. Uen and
Chang (2007) pointed out that there was a
positive relationship between students'
professional commitment and the
internship circumstance, internship's
experience satisfaction, and self-efficacy.
The internship experience satisfaction and
they’ll experience first-hand what it’s like
to work in an office, interact with
supervisors and coworkers, and handle
customers or clients. Finally, they can
meet peers with similar interests.
At present, MOE in Taiwan
encouraged each academic department to
offer student internships as part of its
approved course offerings. These
self-efficacy had a mediating effect on the
relationship between the internship
circumstances and students' professional
commitment. Besides, the study proved
the importance of internship experience
satisfaction in enhancing students'
professional commitment. Uen and Chang
suggested that the international hotels
could enhance students' internship
internships provide qualified students the
opportunity to earn academic credit
through field experiences related to their
majors that include an academic
component such as written papers,
journals, portfolios, etc. In our department,
as an intern, the student would work on a
specific project under the direction of an
experiences by improving the internship
circumstances, such as job redesign and
supportive supervisors. On the other hand,
the schools could help students increase
their internship satisfaction and
self-efficacy by providing internship
orientations, sufficient supports, and
assistance before and during the
Related Studies about Off-Campus
Internship Course
In Taiwan, many scholars have
conducted a lot of research on the
off-campus internship program for the
technological and vocational schools.
6
internship period.
skills, and time management ability. Most
Liu, Yeh, Yang and Cheng (2010)
investigated the internship satisfaction of
students of the department of hospitality
management, Toko University, after they
practiced in hospitality industry for 6
months. The results showed that the
interns thought that they did not get any
benefit from the school courses of school
arranged for their internship. Chiu (2012)
analyzed whether the off-campus
of them agreed that off-campus
internships can enhance their
employability. Because of the internships,
student interns are more positive for
school learning, and have more
self-confidence.
Methodology
Research Design
A questionnaire survey was
employed to investigate the major factors
associating with a successful off-campus
internship program for interns of the
internships can help students achieve the
purpose of off-campus internship training,
which were considered to be able to
enhance the employability and
competitiveness. She found that
off-campus internship training can
enhance students’ employability.
Lin (2010) examined the
development of internship course for
technical and vocational institutes. The
applied English departments of
technological and vocational universities.
In addition, statistic methods were used to
further analyze the data.
Subjects
In total, 33 English-major
undergraduate interns in the four-year
program of technological and vocational
universities were selected to take part in
the study. They were not chosen
completely randomly; in fact, they were
chosen according to the access possibility
because the internship course is not
required for most of the technological and
vocational universities now so that it is
result of empirical study indicated that the
top five design operations for internship
courses development are: performance
evaluation of intern students, performance
evaluation of school assignments,
planning of internship course,
performance evaluation of internship
organization, and scoring of internship
courses.
In conclusion, the above research
showed that the students who joined the
internship generally agreed that
off-campus internships are positive they
can improve the core employability and
the specialized technical ability. The
student interns can learn how to deal with
others, learn the interpersonal relationship
difficult to select more interns from
different universities.
These participants were seven boys
and twenty-six girls, and twenty-two of
them had prior work experience, while
eleven did not. In addition, twenty-four of
them had their off-campus internship in
cram schools, four in the hotels or
7
restaurants, three in non-profit
thirty-seven items in two parts was
organizations, and two in trading
companies. Besides that, sixteen
participants took some English
proficiency tests and got certificates of
TOECI 600, GEPT High-Intermediate
levels, IELTS 5.5 or above. Their
demographic features are presented in
Table 1.
conducted by the researchers themselves
and reviewed by their advisor. All
question items indicated levels of
disagreement or agreement on Likert
5-point scale, in which 1 represents the
lowest and most negative impression on
the scale and 5 represents the highest and
most positive impression.
The first part of the questionnaire
included eight items concerning personal
Table 1
Demographic Features of Subjects in the
Samples
Variable
Gender
Internship
Employer
6-month Work
Experience or
above
English
Proficiency
Certificate
N =33
Level
Male
Female
Cram School
Hotel or
Restaurant
Nonprofit
Organization
Business Company
Yes
No
Yes
No
n
7
26
24
4
%
21.2
78.8
72.7
12.1
3
9.1
2
6.1
22
11
66.7
33.3
16
17
background, including school, gender,
internship employer, employer’s name,
reasons to choose the employer, work
experience, interns’ school GPA, and their
English proficiency levels. The second
part comprised of twenty-eight various
statements concerning if interns got
benefits from the internship program or
not and possible difficulties they
encountered about working environment
and conditions, school coursework and
counseling and guidance, and interns’
individual factors.
48.5
51.5
Procedures and Data Analyses
To carry out the research, the
researchers set the researching range and
reviewed related literature and designed
the questionnaire survey. Next, according
Instruments
In order to further understand the effects
of the off-campus internship program, a
to the sampling methods described above,
the researchers chose 35 English major
interns of technological and vocational
universities as participants and designed
the questionnaire. After the questionnaire
survey was administered, 33 valid
questionnaires were adopted for
tabulation and the SPSS for Windows
questionnaire was designed to investigate
the major factors associating with a
successful off-campus internship program
for English-major interns of technological
and vocational universities and the
difficulties that they may encounter in
workplace.
The questionnaire including
8
version 19.0 was employed to analyze the
is necessary to offer internship courses in
data. The quantitative statistical tabulation
included frequencies and proportions and
Independent-Samples t-test. Last but not
least, by integrating all related
information and figures, the conclusions
and suggestions were provided.
To have an overview of the
procedures of the research, a flowchart of
the research design is given as follows as
shown in Figure 1, which illustrates the
the applied English department (M=4.12)
and a number of student interns computer
learning courses offered by the applied
English department seems not meet the
requirement of the off-campus internship
(M=3.06). Apparently, a number of
students thought that computer courses
offered by school could not equip them
with good skills to meet the need of the
internship.
procedures from the questionnaire design,
sampling, the questionnaire administering,
data analyses, and findings and
In terms of working environment and
conditions, the findings indicate that
nearly the majority of student interns had
discussion.
the positive attitude toward the
off-campus internship and they were
satisfied with the working environment
and conditions. Especially, most student
interns were self-confident in the
competence needed for the internship
(M=4.27), and a lot of interns thought
Review Related Literature
Choose Appropriate Subjects
Design the Questionnaire Survey
they could meet the requirements of the
internship employer (M=4.18). However,
a number of student interns reported that
the internship employer should offer the
proper training system before the
internship working hours and institution
of vocations, most students considered
they are good and reasonable, while the
fewest students (3.39%) considered they
Administer the Questionnaire Survey
Collect, Compute, and Analyze Data
Discuss Findings
Figure 1. A flowchart of the research design.
did not receive full training before doing
the internship.
The findings indicate that, in terms
of interns’ individual factor for the
off-campus internship, most of the student
interns agreed that they had positive
attitude toward the internship and they got
along very well with their co-workers.
Results and Discussion
Difficulties in the Workplace
The results show that the majority of
student interns agreed that school
coursework and counseling and guidance
provided by the applied English
departments of their individual
universities. Most of them thought that it
9
Above all, nearly all student interns never
they agreed that the internship made their
had sexual harassment from their
supervisor or coworkers (M=4.64). It
seems that the workplace for the
internships is very safe in sex equality.
Meanwhile, most student interns got total
support from their family. Comparatively,
it appears that some student interns
reported that they once wanted to quit the
internship course because they felt
unhappy during the internship (M=3.48).
English more proficient (M=4.33) and
made them to build a positive working
attitude (M=4.24). However, the results
also clearly showed that some student
interns thought the internship could not
reduce family financial burden. In short,
in terms of the effects of the internship,
nearly all student interns agreed that they
got a lot of benefits through the
internship.
In general, the students of Applied
English Department seldom gave up due
to the individual factors.
Effects of English proficiency on the
internship
In order to investigate whether or not
the prior work experience could have an
effect on the internship, the participants
were divided into two groups, with prior
work experience or not. An independent
samples t-test was run to examine the
student interns’ satisfaction of working
In sum, the findings indicate that
working environment and conditions,
school’s course design and teachers’
assistance for the internship program are
helpful for the student interns. As for the
interns’ individual factors, most student
interns have very positive attitude toward
the internship course and get full support
of their family.
Benefits from the internship program
In order to investigate whether the
English-major student interns can get
benefits from the internship program or
not, the results show that obviously
almost all student interns agreed that it is
environment, school coursework and
counseling and guidance, and interns’
individual factors across these both
groups. Consequently, the levels of
significance were individually .479, 2.056,
and 2.193. That is, in terms of the
satisfaction of working environment and
school coursework and counseling and
guidance, there was no significant
beneficial for them to take the off-campus
internship courses. They learned very
much and got a lot of benefits from the
internship course. Particularly, they
thought the off-campus internship made
them learn more about social experience
(M=4.45) and enhanced their ability to
overcome pressure (M=4.36). Besides,
difference between the two groups with
prior work experience or not. However,
there was a significant difference between
the two groups on interns’ individual
factors. In other words, student interns
with prior work experience (M=4.2208)
were significantly satisfied with the
internships in terms of individual factors.
10
Furthermore, in order to explore
Implications and Pedagogical
whether or not the English proficiency
could have an effect on the internships,
the participants were divided into two
groups, high level of English proficiency
and high-intermediate level. An
independent samples t-test was employed
to examine the student interns’
satisfaction of working environment,
school coursework and counseling and
guidance, and interns’ individual factors
Suggestions
In order to help improve the
off-campus internship program of
technological and vocational universities,
several theoretical and practical
implications arise from these findings.
First of all, interns should follow the
regulations and guidance of internship
employers, tutoring teachers should guide
and assist interns and contact with those
across all participants in both groups.
According to the t-test, the levels of
significance were individually 1.156, .315,
internship employers; meanwhile,
internship employers should provide
proper working environment for student
and -.353. There was no significant
difference between these two groups by
high and high-intermediate levels of
English proficiency. That is, no matter
whether the student interns were high or
high-intermediate levels of English
proficiency, they had similar viewpoints
interns to learn effectively.
Second, because the applied English
departments lack sufficient recourses, it is
very difficult to find proper internship
employers for student interns. Therefore,
except for helping find more and proper
opportunities of the off-campus internship
on the internships.
for students, universities should
encourage the applied English
departments to assess the needs of
cooperative organizations, establish
relationships with cooperative employers,
and provide temptation of teachers’
participation.
Third, the applied English
departments of the technological and
Conclusions and Implications
This research explored what the
problems the student interns of the
applied English department of
technological and vocational universities
would meet when they participated in the
internships from the student interns’
vocational universities have to enhance
students’ practical experiences or
employment chance, emphasize on
practical learning of departments,
establishing internship system.
Fourth, the business employers could
offer more opportunities for student
internships, find the proper way to intern
perspectives. Besides that, the study
aimed to understand if prior work
experience and English proficiency had
effects on the internships and discussed if
student interns would get benefits from
the internships.
11
students, and get benefits from the
University. Journal of Toko
internship program.
Finally, the results of this research
could encourage the technological and
vocational universities to consider the
benefits of off-campus internship program.
Furthermore, when they are about to
cooperate with internship employers, they
could take the study as a model and adopt
some needed adjustments.
University, 4(2), 143-161.
M. O. E. (2009). Technological and
Vocational Education Reform Project
- Expertise Training. Retrieved
October 15, 2012 from
http://english.moe.gov.tw/ct.asp?xIte
m=11137&ctNode=504&mp=1
Uen, J. F., & Chang, H. C. (2007). The
Impacts of Internship Circumstance
in Sandwich Curriculum on Students'
Professional Commitment: The Case
of Taiwan's International Hotels.
Journal of Human Resource
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