Research on Correlations Between Off-School Internship Systems and Work Performances in Hospitality and Tourism Education

Abstract

ABSTRACT The development of hospitality and tourism education in Taiwan in the past two decades brought forth various off-school internship systems to meet the needs of educational and business fields. This paper, with methods of literature review, interview, and pragmatic investigation, researched tourism-related students' work performances under different off-school internship systems. The data gathered and analyzed came from interviews and questionnaires with directors of Personnel, Room Service, and Food and Beverage Departments from select international tourist hotels with tourism-related off-school intern programs in Taiwan. The results showed, in correlated recognition of hospitality and tourism education and off-school internship, no matter what the degree of emphasis or satisfaction was, business directors placed higher appraisals on off-school internship systems of Employment Link Intern Program, Old Sandwich Intern Program, and New Sandwich Intern Program. In regard to work performances, interns did better in aspects of interpersonal relationship, work adjustment, service concepts, and interest for learning, while worse in aspects of foreign language proficiency and customer complaint management. In regard to off-school internship systems, interns of Sandwich Intern Programs (both Old and New) performed better than those of other systems. To be specific, interns of New Sandwich Intern Program fared the best, with those of Old Sandwich Intern Program being second, and those of Vocational Intern Program the third.