Work Performance, Habits, and Personality of Hospitality and Tourism Management Student Interns of a Philippine State College: An Industry Perspective

Abstract

Amidst changing landscape and fast-evolving hospitality and tourism sectors, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) mandates academic institutions to implement student internship programs and establish linkages with businesses and industries to capacitate students with actual workplace knowledge, skills, and attitude. However, it is unclear whether the student-interns are responsive to the actual needs of these industries. Thus, there is a need to constantly retool internship programs to respond to these changes and demands. Hence, this paper assessed the work performance, work habits, and work personality of hospitality and tourism management (HTM) student-interns of a public higher education institution from an industry perspective which can be used as a basis for crafting a responsive internship program. Employing a quantitative descriptive research method, this assessed HTM student interns of a state college in Northern Philippines across three areas of assessment, namely work performance, work habits, and work personality. A modified assessment form was used to gather data from the managers of 21 partner establishments which accommodated 144 HTM student interns for the period of 2014-2019. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Generally, as perceived by managers of partner establishments, the student-interns have performed ‘good’ in their work (M=3.2). Separately, they have performed ‘good’ in work performance in terms of quality (M=3.09), quantity (M=3.1), and knowledge (M=3.05). Additionally, they have performed ‘very good’ in terms of work habits (M=3.33) and work personality (M=3.32). This concluded that there is imbalance in the focus of student development the HTM students have fared better on personal-related development (work habits and work personality) as compared to professional-related development (work performance). Meanwhile, this recommends a review of the curriculum and instruction processes and other supplemental skills enhancement training for the students. Further studies are recommended to include perspectives of the students and the academe itself as well as internship experiences of students from other programs.