The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher 20:1 (2011), pp.

73-92

The influence of internship experiences

on the behavioral intentions of college students
in Taiwan
Chin-Tsu Chen
National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
Vanung University, Taiwan
cathy80249@hotmail.com

Chun-Fu Chen
Nanya Institute of Technology, Taiwan
mark0617@ms7.hinet.net

This study investigates the effect of internship experience on behavioral intention of college students in Taiwan.
The results of empirical study suggest that internship experiences can be divided into positive experiences and
negative experiences, each containing five major aspects: sensory experiences, affective experiences, creative
cognitive experiences, physical experiences, and relational experiences. Each aspect has different effects on
satisfaction with experiences, willingness to return to the original units, willingness to work, willingness to
recommend, unit transition, thoughts of suspending schooling, career transition, internal complaints, and
external complaints. Moreover, different personal traits have significant differences on the students’ behavioral
intentions of internship.

Keywords: college students, internship, experience, behavioral intention

The present educational system of Taiwan includes
six years of elementary school education, three years
of junior high school education, and three years of
senior secondary school education. The educational
system beyond the junior high school level includes
two types, senior high school and vocational
high school, which are both three-year systems.
Vocational high schools offer courses in areas
such as leisure and tourism, food and beverage,
agriculture, business management, nursing, drama,
and art. The pre-admission educational background
in this study refers to the major of the students in
senior high schools or vocational high school before
entering universities. After graduating from senior
high school or vocational high school, students have
to take the entrance exams to enter general universities
or universities of technology. Accordingly, they must
choose their major based on their exam scores and
interests. The higher educational system includes four
years of general university or university of technology,
and then one to four years of master’s program, and
two to seven years of doctoral program, as shown in
Figure 1.
In Taiwan, higher education is provided by a total
of 164 universities, which can be divided into two
systems: universities of technology, and general
colleges/universities. The objective of general
universities is to cultivate excellent management
personnel, while that of universities of technology
is to cultivate professional and technical

Copyright © 2011 De La Salle University, Philippines

74 THE ASIA-PACIFIC EDUCATION RESEARCHER
Senior High
School
Junior High
Elementary School
School
Vocational
High School
Ages 6 12 15
Figure 1. Educational system in Taiwan
personnel. The difference between them leads
to the difference in curriculum development and
planning.
As of 2009, relevant courses of leisure education
have been offered at approximately 80 universities.
The course contents include different aspects such
as leisure and recreation, hospitality management,
sports and leisure, and leisure management (Ministry
of Education of Taiwan website, http:/ http://www.
edu.tw/statistics/index.aspx). The universities
may freely arrange the courses for students in the
leisure management department according to the
characteristics of their departmental objectives.
Internship courses are not required to be included
into the curriculum. If a school includes an internship
course into the curriculum, the duration of internship
is stipulated, generally either three months or a half
year.
In recent years, the leisure service industry has
been growing vigorously in Taiwan, which in turn,
promotes the development of leisure education,
and reveals a strong demand for a specialized work
force and management. At present, departments
and graduate schools of leisure services education
have been successively established in colleges and
universities of Taiwan, which aggressively cultivate
leisure professionals. The number of students in
leisure-related departments and graduate schools
substantially increased from 9,083 in 1993 to 64,190
in 2007, accounting for 4.89% of the total college
student population in Taiwan in 2007. The total
number of graduates was 12,484 in 2006, accounting
for 3.85% of the college graduates (National Policy
Foundation, 2010). As seen, the cultivation of leisure
professionals by the higher education system in Taiwan
is of considerable scale.
VOL. 20 NO. 1
General College/ University
_ Graduate School
(Master/
Doctoral program)
_ University of Technology
18 22 Up
The main objective of higher education is to
cultivate students’ ability to prepare for employment
(Santiago, 2009). Traditional college education places
particular stress on the impartation of theoretical
knowledge. However, industrial circles attach
importance to the application of practical techniques,
which leads students to feel that it is impossible to
put their knowledge into practice after graduating
from school and entering the job market. Therefore,
in recent years, college education has aggressively
promoted off-campus internship programs in the hope
that theories can be combined with practice. As the job
market demands for practical capabilities, in order to
assist college students to learn to apply their knowledge
in workplace, the design of leisure education courses
includes internship programs within the students’
chosen industries. Therefore, students can acquire
a smooth transition into the job market, and avoid
feelings of futility when applying their knowledge in
the workplace. The field of leisure education in Taiwan
has actively promoted internship programs in order
to reduce the gap between education and workplace
demand, and enable students to acquire professional
and practical skills to further reduce the phenomenon
of “graduation means unemployment.” Based on
such an idea, to realize the objective of studying for
the purpose of application, many schools in Taiwan
have included internship programs in the leisure
professional courses. In addition to learning specialty
courses at school, students also have an opportunity to
intern for hundreds of hours, or half a year, in order to
acquire practical experience in the job market, as well
as increasing professional knowledge and skills, and
cultivating technological competence.
The difference between the peak season and the
slack season of the leisure industry is obvious, and in
influence of internship experiences on the behavioral
response to labor demands and cost considerations,
the operators of leisure industries hire a large number
of interns. Universities also actively cooperate
with the operators in order to provide students
with practical training and opportunities to apply
their knowledge in the workplace. The interns are
an important source of manpower for the industry.
Therefore, the interns’ willingness to participate in
job markets, opinions on internships, workplace
experiences, expectations in working environments
and conditions, and attitudes towards employer-
employee relationships would influence their personal
career choices and career developments in the future,
and also have a far-reaching effect on the development
of the industries.
In terms of short-term career development, college
students are in a stage of career preparation, and
only by gaining precise cognition of their workplace
capabilities can they have precise career planning
and choices. Ambiguous or wrong workplace values
tend to lead to unfortunate predicaments of career
development. In addition, as students’ behavioral
intentions, attitudes, and values may be changed
due to the influences of college education, college
is an important stage of inspiration and establishing
correct values (Huang, 1993). The practical experience
gained through internship programs can facilitate
college students’ attempts to explore career choices.
Understanding the internship experiences and
behavioral intentions of their students is an important
issue for schools in assisting students in establishing
correct workplace attitudes and laying a foundation
for future career choices.
Past studies indicate that the numbers of graduates
cultivated by higher education were few, and most
were not able to immediately work in their professional
capacities in the workplace, as they failed to bear
workplace stress, had unrealistic expectations of
career developments, and could not tolerate the long-
term workplace atmosphere (Wang, 2002). West and
Jameson (1990) point out that when students have less
internship experiences, they have lower commitments
to professional workplaces. Fox (2001) indicates that
bad internship experiences could increase the pace of
young people leaving the industries of the internships.
Waryszak (1999) suggests that once an internship
program fails to meet the expectations of students,
they would feel frustrated and abandon their intentions
to continue working in relevant fields. In the field
of leisure industries, many students have expressed
CHEN, C-T & CHEN, C-F 75
unwillingness, during the internship, to pursue future
engagements in the leisure-related industries or
returning to schools when the internship was over.
Although the causes of such opinions have been
the topic of many studies, there is no relevant study
regarding the cause of such problems in the leisure
industry. Therefore, to gain an in-depth understanding
of the psychological feelings of students majoring in
leisure management during internships, this study
investigates, from the perspective of students, actual
internship experiences, and uses a quantitative
approach to analyze the influence on behavioral
intentions.
Limitations and objectives of the study
The participants are college students from the
departments of leisure management in Taiwan,
enrolled in schools that included internship courses
in the curriculum. During the investigation period,
all the students had completed the requirements of
the internship programs, returned to their schools, and
enrolled in other courses of study.
Students’ feelings of internship experiences play an
important role in their future career developments. Past
studies on leisure management have not investigated
the effect of students’ internship experiences on their
behavioral intentions. Therefore, this study aims to
probe into the situation of internship experiences from
the perspective of students’ self-experiences. The
participants are college students majoring in leisure
management in Taiwan, and the effect of internship
experiences on their behavioral intentions is studied
and analyzed. There are four major objectives in this
study:
H.1: Positive internship experiences have
a significant influence on behavioral
intentions.
H.2: Negative internship experiences have
a significant influence on behavioral
intentions.
H.3: Students’ different personality traits have
significant differences in positive behavioral
intentions.
H.4: Students’ different personality traits have
significant differences in negative behavioral
intentions.
Contemporary higher education in Taiwan
emphasizes the importance of practical training
76 THE ASIA-PACIFIC EDUCATION RESEARCHER
courses that offer developmental internship programs
for students. The internship programs of leisure
departments enable students to obtain fundamental
theoretically knowledge, specialized skills, and
experience in the field. In general, the internship
meets the needs of the three parties involved, namely,
students, schools, and industry. There are many
positive effects in the formation of such a triangular
relationship among these parties. For students, early
exposure to the industry during the study period helps
to prepare them for careers, provide inspiration, and
facilitate a base for career selection. For schools and
industries, the design of internship programs can
increase industry-university cooperative opportunities,
and promote resource exchanges between academia
and industry.
Internship
Internship is an integral part of a student’s
career development. A good internship program
can prepare students for successful and fulfilling
careers. Therefore, internship carries a number of
meanings (Ching & Lam, 2007). Davies (1990)
indicates that internship is an experiential learning
process by which students take the opportunity to
apply learned theories from schools to the real work
situation. According to Beggs, Ross, and Goodwin
(2008), internship course provides the opportunity
and the learning landscape for undergraduates to
experience professional practices and activities
which directly relate to the application of knowledge.
Educators believe that for college students, the real
life experience and professional development are
among the most beneficial aspects of an internship
program. Fox (2001) states that internship is an
opportunity to close the gap between college-learnt
theory and practical reality. Study by Mihail (2006)
points out that while students are still at university,
internship can help them in developing the core of
global market skills that are now considered crucial,
such as communication and time management skills,
better self-confidence and better self-motivation. The
internship experience offers a means for students to
learn about real world environment.
Internship experience in higher education
In higher education, internships provide a short-
term practical experience for students. Based on
the study by Cheung (2007), learning is no longer
confined to school courses or limited to classrooms’
VOL. 20 NO. 1
participation. The experience gained in an internship is
one of the most important components of professional
preparation leading to employment in future careers.
While students are attending college or university,
the experience gained from an internship can help
them develop the core skills and proficiencies in their
respective professional fields (Gill & Lashine, 2003).
In fact, internship experience is the way through which
cooperative programs provide practical experience
for students transitioning from the academic world
to the career world (Collin & Tynjalla, 2003). Part of
the value of an internship comes from the opportunity
for experiential learning. The best internships allow
students to learn by doing, helping them to focus their
career goals. In general, prior research has viewed
internships as a positive experience for college
students having found linkages with great outcomes.
For example, completion of internship and cooperative
education have been found to improve individual
career decision making, vocational self-concept, and
allow for the acquisition of relevant working skills
(Garavan & Murphy, 2001). That is based on the
belief that the experience gained in an internship helps
students in the process of conducting self and career
exploration, and that allows for greater awareness for
future career decision making upon graduation.
Among the previous literature, none has empirically
investigated the effects of internship experiences on
behavioral intentions of students majoring in leisure
related field. Therefore, the purpose of this study is
to investigate the viewpoints of students who had
completed internship program to understand how
the internships may affect their career choices in the
future.
Experience
Schmitt (1999) suggests that experiences are
individual incidents in response to the occurrence of
certain stimuli, which include the entire nature of life and
are usually caused by direct observations of incidents
or participation, regardless whether the incident is real
or virtual. Experiences are usually not spontaneous,
but induced, and are viewed as complicated matters,
suggesting that there are no two identical experiences,
as they are originated from personal participation and
experience. Experience refers to perceived, sensory,
or psychological emotions generated toward certain
targets. In addition, learning-related theories could
be divided into experientialism and rationalism. Kolb
(1984) suggests that experientialism defines learning
influence of internship experiences on the behavioral
as the process of creating knowledge through the
transformation of experiences; and learning experience
is learning through activities. However, scholars that
support the viewpoint of experiences emphasize that
experientialism is to learn through experience, and
an individual could learn from sensory experiences.
Gorden and Morris (1996) suggest that rationalism
emphasize inducing personal potential, and stress
inspired learning for motivating hidden personal
intrinsic abilities.
Holbrook (2000) indicates that personal experiences
are composed of symbols, hedonism, and the
standard of aesthetics. He further investigates the
novelty, feelings, and fun generated by consuming
experiences, and argues that consuming experiences
involves the time engaged in such activities. Relevant
literature of consuming experiences generalizes
the four essential factors of experiences, which
are experience, entertainment, exhibition, and
evangelizing. Experiences are divided into four fields,
in accordance with these aspects: entertainment,
education, escapism, and estheticism, which are
compatible with one another and form a unique
personal context.
Schmitt (1999) integrates and proposes the
conceptual framework of experiential marketing,
based on the psychological theories of individual
consumers, which includes five experiences, as
follows: (1) sensory experiences; (2) affective
experiences; (3) creative cognitive experiences; (4)
physical experiences; and (5) relational experiences.
Sensory experiences create a sense of perceptual
experiences, and perceptual stimuli are formed by the
senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell in order
to offer aesthetical pleasure, excitement, beauty, and
satisfaction. The model of sensory impact is the pattern
of stimuli, processes, and consequences.
Affective experiences are mainly the feelings and
emotions that touch the inward portion of an individual,
and the objective is to create affective experiences.
Affective experiences can include positive, negative,
or strong emotions.
Creative cognitive experiences appeal to the
use of creative and cognitive approaches to induce
personal thoughts, involvements, and participation,
and lead consumers to create cognitive experiences
and experiences for solving problems. Amazement
is used to arouse the interested, concentrated, and
dispersed thoughts of an individual, and the objective
is to encourage the individual to engage in more
CHEN, C-T & CHEN, C-F 77
complicated and creative thinking, allowing celestially
re-evaluation of personal behavior.
Physical experiences surpass the scope of feelings,
emotions, and cognition. These are relevant to physical
experiences, long-term behavioral patterns, and
lifestyles, which include the experiences generated by
interactions with others. These may sometimes occur
in private; however, many physical experiences are
caused by public interactions.
Relational experiences are declared and announced
from the perspective of peers and the influence
potential of peers, including the aspects of sense, feel,
think, and act. However, relational experiences surpass
personal traits and private emotions, and thus, relate
an individual to the ideal ego, other people, or cultures
through the addition of personal experiences. Their
appeal is the personal desire for self-improvement,
and appeal to the generation of favorable impressions
from other people, which relate students to more
comprehensive industrial systems.
In sum, this study refers to the concept of the five
experiences proposed by Schmitt (1999) to develop
the scale for evaluating internship experiences. The
original meanings are extended in the scale, which is
reformed from interviews with the students who had
completed internship programs. It is hoped that the
scale could be applied appropriately to the study and
analysis of internship experiences.
Theory of reasoned actions and behavioral
intentions
Ajzen (1988) indicates that most past studies
emphasized influences among attitudes, personalities,
and past behaviors. However, these factors cannot
be used to effectively predict behaviors. Fishbein
and Ajzen (1975) propose the Theory of Reasoned
Action to predict individual behavioral intentions. Its
theoretical basis originates from social psychology,
and the complete framework is constructed upon
constant development of empirical studies and
proposed subjective norms. The theory suggests that
behavioral intention is influenced by “attitudes” and
“subjective norms.” The most direct determinant
for personal behavior is behavioral intentions, and
possible influences to behaviors are caused by indirect
influences. Therefore, the more positive the personal
attitude towards behavior is, the higher the behavioral
intention will be. In contrast, the more negative the
personal attitude towards behavior is, the lower
the behavioral intention. In addition, when direct
78 THE ASIA-PACIFIC EDUCATION RESEARCHER
experiences and attitudes co-exist, then attitudes and
tension among behaviors will be directly influenced.
As a result, personal attitudes and behaviors in
response to incidents or conditions would constitute
personal experiences.
Behavioral intention refers to the inclination to
take action in the future based on personal subjective
judgments, which can be used to predict the behaviors
of an individual. When an individual intends to engage
in certain behaviors, the individual will transform the
intention into action at the opportune time. In general,
the stronger the behavioral intention is, the higher the
possibility will be that the individual engages in such
behavior. According to the Theory of Reasoned Action,
behavioral intention is composed of two determinants:
personal factors and social influences. Personal factors
refer to the attitudes towards behaviors. However, the
attitude does not refer to the attitude towards general
things, but the evaluation of an individual on positive
and negative engagements in certain behaviors. The
second determinant is whether an individual receives
social stress and engages in a certain behavior, which
is called the “subjective norm.” When an individual
evaluates certain behavior as positive, and believes that
other people should engage in it as well, the willingness
to engage in such behavior will be generated (Fishbein
& Ajzen, 1975). Blackwell, Miniard, and Engel
(2001) suggested that although behavioral intention is
changeable, and it is impossible to control behavior by
following the intention, the emulation of behavioral
intention is still important. To predict the behavior
of an individual, behavioral intention is a reliable
measured variable. Baker and Crompton (2000) also
suggests that behavior can be predicted by behavioral
intentions, as the information acquired by the
appropriate measurement of behavioral intentions will
be very close to the actual behavior (Blackwell et al.,
2001; Zeithaml, Berry & Parasuraman, 1996).
Zeithaml et al. (1996) suggest that behavioral
intention can be divided into positive aspects and
negative aspects. Positive behavioral intentions
include loyalty and willingness to devote more.
Negative behavior intentions include transition,
internal response, and external response. The
behavioral intention in this study refers to the extent
of the possibility of interns to engage in leisure-related
careers after completing the required internship
experiences during the study period.
In sum, both positive and negative aspects are used
to evaluate the behavioral intentions of students upon
VOL. 20 NO. 1
completing the internship programs. In addition, the
effect of students’ internship experiences on behavioral
intentions is studied by investigating the internship
experiences of the students who had completed the
internship program.
Method
Based on the interview, the factors relevant
to students’ internship experiences are divided
into factors of positive experiences and negative
experiences. The structure of the questionnaire content
is shown in Table 1.
The data are collected through questionnaire
survey. The participants are registered college students
majoring in leisure management in 2009 who have
completed an internship program. They are from
three universities/colleges in northern, central and
southern Taiwan, respectively. The questionnaire
survey is conducted in October 2009. A total of 500
questionnaires are distributed, and 490 are returned,
which makes the return rate 98%. After eliminating
40 invalid questionnaires, which are incompletely
answered, there are a total of 450 valid questionnaires
for analysis. The statistical software SPSS12.0 is used
to analyze the data.
Descriptive statistics, such as frequency distribution,
percentage, mean, and standard deviation are used to
find out the distribution of valid samples for each
variable. In addition, principal components analysis
and varimax are used to analyze the factors relevant
to each aspect of both positive and negative internship
experiences. Common factors are appropriately
extracted to achieve the purpose of simplifying
the variables. Regression analysis is conducted
for empirical analysis to verify the hypotheses of
this study, and further understand the effects of the
independent variables on the dependent variables.
Based on correlation analysis, the coefficients of
regression analysis are compared with those of the
simple correlation analysis in order to verify the
correlation among variables. Regression analysis
is also used to verify whether the hypotheses are
valid, and test the effect of each aspect of the factors
of positive and negative experiences on behavioral
intentions. One-way ANOVA is applied to test whether
different personal traits result different “satisfactions
with experiences,” “willingness to return to the
original unit,” “willingness to work,” “willingness
influence of internship experiences on the behavioral CHEN, C-T & CHEN, C-F 79

Table 1
Table of questionnaire structure

Scale Aspects No. of items Measuring scale

Sensory experiences 6
Affective experiences 5
Positive
experiences Cognitive experiences 5
Physical experiences 5
Relational experiences 3
Sensory experiences 12 Likert 5-point scale
Affective experiences 4
Negative Cognitive experiences 2
experiences Physical experiences 5
Relational experiences 2
Positive behavioral intention 4
Behavioral
intention Negative behavioral intention 5
1. School system
2. Year level during internship
3. Gender
4. Age
5. Pre-admission educational background
6. Relevant working experiences in leisure
Personal industry prior to internship 10 Nominal scale
information 7. Location of internship
8. Types of internship units
9. Duration of internship
10.Types of jobs

to recommend,” “unit transition,” “thought of (52%), followed by graduates from leisure-related

suspension of schooling,” “career transition,” “internal
complaints,” and “external complaints.”
Results and discussion
Sample analysis
Regarding the valid returned samples, the
frequency distributions and percentages of the
data of students’ personal traits are analyzed.
For the school system as a whole, most of the
participants are students of universities of technology
(83.6%), and the remaining are students of general
colleges(16.4%). As for gender, 54.7% are female
and 45.3% are male. As for age, most are 21 years
old (46.2%), followed by 22 years old (33.8%). As
for pre-admission educational background, most
are graduates from non-leisure-related majors
majors (30.7%). As for working experiences in
leisure industries before the internship, most
do not have relevant experiences (44.0%). As for
location of the internship, most of the locations are
in southern Taiwan (43.1%), followed by northern
Taiwan (39.6%). As for types of internship units,
most are food and beverage industry-related units
(28.9%), followed by leisure clubs (20.7%). As for
the duration of internship, the duration for most is 6
months (52%). As for types of jobs, most are fixed
jobs (62.2%), followed by rotational jobs (36%).
Analysis on reliability and validity of the scale for
evaluating positive and negative experiences
Factor analysis is performed on the 24 items of
the scale for evaluating students’ positive internship
experiences. Principal components analysis is used to
select the factors. To maximize the difference of each
80 THE ASIA-PACIFIC EDUCATION RESEARCHER
common factor after rotation, orthogonal varimax
rotation is used. According to Kaiser’s eigenvalue-
greater-than-one rule, each factor is named and
five aspects, namely, affective experiences, sensory
experiences, physical experiences, relational
experiences, and creative cognitive experiences
are obtained. Their cumulative explained variance
is 57.56%, and Cronbach’s α coefficients are 0.89,
0.82, 0.75, 0.80, and 0.78, respectively, which meet
the criteria for reliability and validity. Based on
the methods above, factor analysis is performed
on the 25 items of the scale for evaluating
students’ negative internship experiences, and five
aspects, namely, sensory experiences, physical
experiences, affective experiences, creative
cognitive experiences, and relational experiences
are obtained. The cumulative explained variance
of the five aspects is 63.39%, and their Cronbach’s
α coefficients are 0.92, 0.81, 0.75, 0.78, and 0.82,
respectively, which also meets the criteria for
reliability and validity.
Analysis on the extent of agreement on positive
and negative internship experiences
To understand the extent of agreement on each
factor of positive internship experiences, the analyses
of means and standard deviation are performed on the
24 items of the factors of positive experiences in order
to indicate the students’ extent of agreement on factors
of positive internship experiences. With the exception
of the five items, namely “The internship made me face
the reality of society (4.20),” “The internship increased
my social experiences (4.20),” “The affirmation of
customers from the internship made me feel a sense
of accomplishment (4.11),” “The internship enabled
me to make many friends, expanded my vision, and
made me feel that the effort was worth it (4.06),” and
“The internship increased my tolerance and patience
for the management of tasks and work (4.03),” of
which extent of agreement range between agree and
strongly agree, and the remaining items range between
neutral and agree, as shown in Table 2. The students
do not have a high extent of agreement on the 24
items of factors of positive experiences. The results
reveal that they have made many friends during the
internship, felt worthwhile with their efforts at work,
and gained a strong sense of accomplishment from the
affirmation of customers. Moreover, they suggest that
although internship increased their social experiences,
tolerance, and patience for the management of tasks
VOL. 20 NO. 1
and work, it made them face the reality of society as
well.
These results can be interpreted based on motivation
theory, suggesting that the interns were willing to try
their best to achieve the objectives of the internship
units under the premise of satisfying certain personal
needs. During the internship, students felt that their
efforts and hard work are worthy. Moreover, because
their performances are affirmed by customers, their
sense of accomplishment in the internship is also
increased (Robbins & Coulter, 2005). Therefore, it is
important for internship units to motivate students to
perform well, and further develop identification toward
the organizations.
As for the extent of agreement on the factors of
negative internship experiences, analyses on means
and standard deviation are performed on the 25
items of factors of negative experiences, as shown
in Table 3. The results indicate that, in addition to
“The internship changed my work values (3.50),”
“The internship made me feel that my work ability
failed to satisfy the demands of the industry (3.27),”
“The internship made me feel that I was low-cost
labor, which made me feel unpleasant (3.12),” “The
internship made me feel that I lacked the ability to
enter the workplace (3.12),” “The internship made
me disapprove of the payment and fringe benefits
of the leisure industry (3.07),” “The sense of being
ordered during the internship was unpleasant (3.06),”
the extent of agreement is between neutral and agree,
and the remaining items are between disagree and
neutral, as shown in Table 2. Most students did not
have a high extent of agreement on the factors of
negative experiences. In other words, they disapprove
of the factors of negative experiences. However,
some students feel unpleasant when they were given
orders or even treated like inferior labor during the
internship. This finding is consistent with Elkins
(2002), who indicates that a good internship can
provide actual work experiences and skills; however,
the effect will be considerably weakened if students
were assigned to do trivial and meaningless work.
The internship units should notice and consider the
reaction to such phenomenon. The results also indicate
that the students did not find their work ability unable
to meet the demands of the leisure industry, or that they
lacked the ability to enter the workplace. Therefore,
the professional competence of the students can
meet the demands of the workplace during the
internship.
influence of internship experiences on the behavioral CHEN, C-T & CHEN, C-F 81

Table 2
Analysis on the extent of agreement on factors of positive experiences

Aspects of factors of positive experiences Mean SD

Factor 1: Affective experiences
- The internship enabled me to make many friends, expanded my vision, and made
4.06 0.81
me feel that the effort was worth it.
- The memories that the internship gave me made me feel that the hard work was
3.95 0.80
worth it.
- The results of the internship made me feel that it was worth it to spend time
3.80 0.84
and effort.
- As a whole, I was interested in the internship. 3.78 0.82
- As a whole, the internship made me feel happy. 3.75 0.79
Factor 2: Sensory experiences
- The affirmation of customers from the internship made me feel a strong sense
4.11 0.77
of accomplishment.
- The internship cultivated my spirit of service for the leisure industry. 3.87 0.71
- The internship made me feel satisfied because I could apply what I had learnt. 3.75 0.85
- I believe that the internship could help me obtain employment. 3.74 0.80
- The internship aroused my interest in the expertise of the leisure industry. 3.60 0.80
- The internship enabled me to apply the theories that I had learnt at school. 3.42 0.87
Factor 3: Physical experiences
- The internship made me face the reality of society. 4.20 0.75
- The internship increased my social experiences. 4.20 0.77
- The internship increased my tolerance and patience for the management of tasks
4.03 0.74
and work.
- The internship helped me improve my personal words and deeds. 3.78 0.75
- The internship changed my original living habits. 3.60 0.87
Factor 4: Relational experiences
- The internship gave me the desire to influence the people around me to improve
3.61 0.77
their level of understanding of the leisure culture.
- The internship gave me the desire to change the viewpoints of those who had a
3.57 0.82
negative opinion of the leisure industry.
- The internship gave me the desire to think like the employers in the leisure
3.56 0.74
industry regarding how to improve the overall quality of the leisure industry.
Factor 5: Creative cognitive experiences
- The internship helped me to reflect on my career planning. 3.94 0.78
- The internship inspired me to strengthen my own abilities and improve my own
3.90 0.76
values.
- The internship aroused my intention to live a better life. 3.88 0.79
- The internship made me think whether I should continue staying in leisure
3.69 0.82
industry to obtain employment.
- The internship aroused my ambition to gain an in-depth understanding of
3.51 0.82
knowledge relevant to the leisure industry.
82 THE ASIA-PACIFIC EDUCATION RESEARCHER VOL. 20 NO. 1

Table 3
Analysis on the extent of agreement on the factors of negative experiences

Aspects of factors of negative experiences Mean SD

Factor 1: Sensory experiences
- The internship made me feel that I was low-cost labor, which made me feel
3.12 1.02
unpleasant.
- I felt unpleasant because my position as an intern made it possible to be
3.06 0.95
ordered around by others.
- I felt unpleasant because my position as an intern made it possible to be
2.96 0.94
treated unequally.
- The job content of the internship failed to make me learn more. 2.59 0.96
- I could not adapt to the environment of the internship. 2.55 0.87
- I could not adapt to the life of the internship. 2.52 0.90
- I could not adapt to the work of the internship. 2.50 0.85
- I could not bear the workload of the internship. 2.48 0.89
- The internship made me feel that it was simply work, and I could not learn
2.48 0.95
knowledge or skills from it.
- The internship made me have a negative opinion on the leisure industry. 2.44 0.96
- To me, participating in the internship was simply for obtaining credits and
2.38 1.02
meeting the requirements of the school.
- The internship made me feel that it was a waste of time. 2.33 0.95
Factor 2: Physical experiences
- The internship changed my work values. 3.50 0.86
- The internship made me disapprove of the payment and fringe benefits of the
3.07 0.98
leisure industry.
- The internship made me disapprove of the vacation system of the leisure
2.92 0.88
industry.
- The internship made me disapprove of the frequent overtime work of the
2.91 0.91
leisure industry.
- The internship made me disapprove of the work environments of the leisure
2.70 0.84
industry.
Factor 3: Affective experiences
- As a whole, the internship made me feel nervous. 2.79 1.02
- The internship made me feel stressed. 2.59 0.99
- As a whole, the internship made me feel frustrated. 2.53 0.94
- As a whole, the internship made me feel miserable. 2.49 1.00
Factor 4: Creative cognitive experiences
- The internship made me feel that my work ability could not meet the needs of
3.27 0.97
the leisure industry.
- The internship made me feel that I still lacked the ability to enter the
3.12 1.00
workplace.
Factor 5: Relational experiences
- The internship made me learn the inveteracy of society. 2.52 1.02
- The internship made me feel that I was not socialized for early exposure to
2.38 0.93
society.
influence of internship experiences on the behavioral CHEN, C-T & CHEN, C-F 83

Basically, schools are organizations that provide
education and endow students with core competence,
while internship is a kind of training process that
enables students to experience the required professional
competence in workplace. Spencer and Spencer (1993)
suggest that professional competence refers to the
inherent and underlying traits of individuals, and these
traits are not only related to work and positions but can
also be used to predict, reflect, or affect their behavior
and performance. Freud’s “iceberg principle,” (Spencer
& Spencer, 1993) describes knowledge and skills as
the significantly visible parts above the sea level,
which can be enriched and changed by individuals,
while self-concept is that which is below sea level
and which is hard to discover and change. Knowledge
and skills are external traits of individuals that can
be easily enhanced by enterprises and organizations
through training and development to meet the needs
of work. However, the results indicate that the interns
did not suggest that they lacked working ability or
competence. Therefore, they apparently possess the
traits of self-concept, knowledge, and skills. However,
internship units have to explicitly define work
competence to find interns with qualified personality
traits and work motivation, and then make up their
deficiency through workplace experiences to reduce
the gap between school education and internship
requirements, and to further increase the effects of
internship units and internship.
Analysis on the extent of agreement on each
behavioral intention
To understand students’ behavioral intention
after experiencing internship, analysis is performed
on the means and standard deviations of questions
on behavioral intentions, as shown in Table 4. After
experiencing the internship, students’ extent of
agreement to behavioral intentions do not significantly
change. Most of the students choose to stay in the
original unit to complete the internship program,
and do not choose to suspend schooling for the
internship.
Analysis on the effect of factors of internship
experiences on behavioral intentions
To analyze the effect of each factor of positive
experiences on behavioral intention, the nine factors
are regressed against the five experiences, as shown in

Table 4
Analysis on the extent of agreement on behavioral intention

Aspects of behavioral intention Mean SD

1. I was satisfied with the overall internship experience. 3.54 0.86
2. After experiencing the internship, I am still willing to return to the
3.30 1.00
original internship unit for employment if there is an opportunity.
3. After experiencing the internship, I am still willing to engage in the
3.52 0.85
leisure industry.
4. After experiencing the internship, I will recommend other people to
3.42 0.80
engage in the leisure industry.
5. After experiencing the internship, my internship unit caused me to
3.85 1.15
have thoughts of changing my internship unit.
6. After experiencing the internship, I had thoughts of suspension
2.90 1.12
school.
7. After experiencing the off-campus experiences, I would like to
have a career transition (e.g. pursuing further education, switching 2.89 1.01
my career to work as teaching staff, etc.)
8. When I faced a problem during the internship, I would complain to
3.19 0.99
the supervisor or my colleagues.
9. When I faced a problem during the internship, I would complain to
3.35 0.97
people other than those at the internship unit.
84 THE ASIA-PACIFIC EDUCATION RESEARCHER VOL. 20 NO. 1

Table 5. The questionnaire survey finds that “sensory
experiences” have a significant positive influence
on “satisfaction with experiences,” “willingness
to return to the original unit,” and “willingness to
work.” However, they have a significant negative
influence on “unit transition.” The internship does
not only help students to cultivate a professional
spirit of service, but also assists them in obtaining
employment at the workplace in the future, and arouse
their interest in expertise in the leisure industry. In
addition, customers’ affirmation for students during
the internship further makes them feel a sense of
accomplishment. The opportunity of internships also
enables the students to apply theories learnt at school
to practices and thus students feel delight, which will
increase their extent of satisfaction with the internship
experience, make them willing to return to the original
unit for employment, or willing to continue engaging
in leisure-related occupations if given an opportunity
in the future.
“Affective experiences” have a significant negative
influence on “unit transition,” suggesting that whether
the students felt happy, obtained benefits, or felt the
time and effort spent were worthy during the internship
will influence their extent of satisfaction with the
overall internship experience and process. In other
words, if the effects, memories, and opportunities
to make friends and expand the vision during the
internship can make them feel worthwhile of their
time, effort, and hard work, they will approve the
internship institutes and leisure industry, choose to
obtain employment in the leisure industry, and not
have thoughts of unit transition.
“Creative cognitive experiences” have a significant
negative influence on “thoughts of suspension of
schooling” and “career transition.” The internship
helps students ponder on whether to continue in the
leisure industry for employment, have a desire for
living a better life, and the career planning in the future.
The students interact with more people and handles
more tasks during the internship than in school life.
After the internship, their ambition to have an in-
depth understanding of the professional knowledge
and skills will be aroused. Although students learnt
to have deeper thoughts through the internship, they
will not have thoughts of suspending schooling or
career transitions, and will still choose to complete
their education.

Table 5
Regression analysis of the effect of factors of positive experiences on behavioral intentions

Aspects of
Creative
experiences Sensory Affective Physical Relational 2
cognitive R
experiences experiences experiences experiences
experiences
Behavioral
intention
Satisfaction with
0.55** 0.20 0.05 0.17 -0.18 0.28
experiences
Willingness to
return to the 0.68** 0.09 -0.06 0.33** -0.16 0.29
original unit
Willingness to work 0.23* -0.07 -0.16 -0.44 0.24 0.24
Willingness to
0.18 0.09 -0.25 0.36** 0.15 0.19
recommend
Unit transition -0.53** -0.02** -0.09 -0.04 -0.43* 0.06
Thought of
suspension of -0.03 0.01 -0.40* 0.24 -0.04 0.04
schooling
Career transition -0.19 0.01 -0.45* -0.02 -0.46* 0.05
Internal complaint -0.11 -0.26 0.35 -0.10 0.29 0.05
External complaint -0.21 -0.11 0.06 -0.30* -0.64** 0.08
*: p<0.05; **: p<0.01
influence of internship experiences on the behavioral CHEN, C-T & CHEN, C-F 85

“Physical experiences” have a significant positive
influence on “willingness to return to the original
unit” and “willingness to recommend”, while a
significant negative influence on “external complaint.”
Students can increase their social experiences and
understanding of social reality, as well as change their
living habits, and improve personal deeds through
an internship. During the internship, the students’
ability to tolerate the management of tasks and work
increases due to practical experience. The students will
recommend others to engage in leisure industries after
the experiences of an internship. Likewise, they will
not complain to anyone other than to those within the
internship unit about problems during the internship.
“Relational experiences” have a significant negative
influence on “unit transition,” “career transition,” and
“external complaint.” After the internship experience,
students still enjoy the leisure industry; moreover, they
intend to improve the level of leisure culture available,
and change the viewpoints of those with negative
opinions of the leisure industry. They will consider
how to improve the overall industry quality with
people of like mind, and will not consider changing
their internship unit. After experiencing the internship,
they will not have thoughts of career transitions.
Likewise, they will not complain to others about the
problems they faced during the internship.
Based on the above, the effect of each factor of
positive internship experiences on the behavioral
intention of H.1 is partially supported.
To understand the influences of each factor of
negative experiences on the behavioral intentions, the
nine factors are regressed against the five experiences,
as shown in Table 6. The results indicate that
among the factors of students’ negative internship
experiences, “sensory experiences” have a significant
positive influence on “career transition.” During the
internship, students are treated unequally and they
receive orders due to their position as interns, which
made them feel that they were low-cost labor, and thus,

Table 6
Regression analysis of the effect of factors of negative experiences on behavioral intentions

Aspects of
experiences Creative
Sensory Affective Physical Relational 2
cognitive R
experiences experiences experiences experiences
Behavioral experiences
intention

Satisfaction -0.06 -0.69** 0.03 -0.01 0.16** 0.22

with experiences
Willingness to
return to the -0.07 -0.58** -0.04 0.24* 0.14 0.12
original unit
Willingness to -0.04 -0.33* -0.02 0.04 0.02 0.07
work
Willingness to -0.11 -0.20 -0.10 0.13 -0.03 0.06
recommend
Unit transition 0.05 0.60** 0.10 0.18 -0.02 0.23
Thought of
suspension of 0.14 0.20 -0.17 0.49** 0.04 0.24
schooling
Career transition 0.36** -0.02 0.36* -0.07 -0.04 0.19
Internal 0.21 -0.09 0.35 0.01 -0.02 0.11
complaint
External 0.08 0.09 0.29* -0.01 0.07 0.11
complaint
*: p<0.05; **: p<0.01
86 THE ASIA-PACIFIC EDUCATION RESEARCHER
found they could not adapt to the work environment
and the life of an internship, which in turn, fostered a
negative opinion of the leisure industry. In addition,
the students also express that the job contents exceeded
the workload they felt they could bear, and they simply
worked without learning any additional knowledge
or skills. They suggest that the work was a waste of
time and they felt extremely dissatisfied with such
internship experiences. Therefore, they consider
changing careers, pursuing further education, jobs
in other industries or as teaching staff rather than
continuing in the leisure industry.
“Affective experiences” have a significant positive
influence on “unit transition”, while a significant
negative influence on “satisfaction with experiences,”
“willingness to return to the original unit,” and
“willingness to work.” According to the results, if the
internship led the students to feel frustration, misery,
nervousness, or stressed, they will be more likely to
change their internship unit. If they felt dissatisfaction
with the overall internship experiences, they will be
less likely to return to the original internship unit for
employment, and their overall willingness to work in
the leisure industry will be reduced.
“Creative cognitive experiences” have a significant
positive influence on “career transition” and “external
complaint.” The results suggest that, students would
discover that they lacked the ability to enter the
workplace through the internship practical experience.
They also perceive that their work ability did not
satisfy the demands of the leisure industry. Perhaps
the students are aware of their insufficient capacities,
and even consider a career transition in the future.
They will complain to people other than those at
the internship unit when facing problems during the
internship.
“Physical experiences” have a significant positive
influence on both the “willingness to return to
the original unit” and “the thought of suspension
of schooling.” After the internship, the students
disapprove of the work environment, frequent
overtime work, vacation system, payment, and fringe
benefits of the leisure industry, which further alter their
work values, cause them to feel extremely dissatisfied
with the internship experiences, be unwilling to return
to the original unit for employment, and even have
thoughts of suspension of their schooling.
“Relational experiences” have a significant
positive influence on “satisfaction with experiences,”
suggesting that after the internship, the students felt
VOL. 20 NO. 1
that they had learnt the inveteracy of society, and even
felt they were exposure to the society too early. These
are all important factors that influence satisfaction
with their experiences. In other words, the lower the
overall relational experiences are, the lower the extent
of satisfaction with the experiences will be.
Based on the previous discussion, the effect of
each factor of negative off-campus experiences on the
behavioral intention of H.2 is partially supported.
Analysis on the effect of differences in students’
personal traits on differences in behavioral
intentions
To understand whether the differences in
students’ personal traits have significant influence
on the differences in positive behavioral intentions,
“satisfaction with experiences,” “willingness to return
to the original unit,” “willingness to work,” and
“willingness to recommend” are used as dependent
variables; and students’ school system, year level,
gender, age, pre-admission educational background,
working experiences before the internship, location
of the internship, types of the internship unit, system
of internship, and types of jobs are used as factors to
perform t-tests and one-way ANOVA, as shown in
Table 7.
According to analysis on the effect of differences
in students’ personal traits on the differences in
positive behavioral intentions, the differences in
the “year levels of the internship” and “types of the
internship units” have significant influence on the
differences in students’ degree of “satisfaction with
experiences.” Based on the comparison of means,
junior students’ satisfaction with experiences is higher
than that of other grades, mainly because of the effect
of studying for the purpose of application is achieved,
and students’ professional skills can be improved
upon the completion of the professional courses and
acquired professional knowledge. Therefore, junior
students are more likely to feel satisfied with the
internship program. The results of this study indicate
that, students who interned in the hotel industry
had a higher degree of satisfaction with internship
experiences than those who engaged in other types
of internships. Because the hotel industry is more
diversified, institutionalized, of a larger scale, and has
more consumers, students can learn more and achieve
a higher degree of satisfaction.
The differences in school systems, ages, and
locations of the internships have significant influences
influence of internship experiences on the behavioral CHEN, C-T & CHEN, C-F 87

Table 7
Analysis of the effect of differences in students’ personal traits on the differences in positive behavioral intentions

Satisfaction Willingness to
Willingness Willingness to
Traits Items with return to the
to work recommend
experiences original unit
University of technology 3.49 3.28 3.43 3.34
General college 3.78 3.43 3.97 3.84
School system
t value -1.89 -0.87 -3.68 -3.57
Significance 0.06 0.39 0.00** 0.00**
Junior 3.64 3.34 3.51 3.44
Year level during Senior 3.41 3.23 3.50 3.37
the internship F value 4.83 2.03 1.41 2.22
Significance 0.01* 0.13 0.25 0.11
Male 3.63 3.47 3.47 3.35
Female 3.47 3.16 3.55 3.47
Gender
t value 1.36 2.33 -0.72 -1.08
Significance 0.17 0.02* 0.47 0.28
20 years old 3.73 3.47 3.53 3.47
21 years old 3.45 3.23 3.54 3.37
22 years old 3.57 3.33 3.53 3.49
Age 23 years old 3.83 3.58 3.71 3.58
Over 24 3.20 2.40 2.20 2.60
F value 1.19 1.51 3.47 1.52
Significance 0.31 0.19 0.00** 0.18
Graduates from department of leisure management 3.59 3.28 3.62 3.43
Graduates from department of hospitality
Pre-admission 3.38 3.21 3.49 3.54
management
educational Graduates from non-leisure-related departments 3.56 3.35 3.46 3.37
background F value 0.83 0.34 0.81 0.68
Significance 0.44 0.71 0.45 0.51
None 3.60 3.20 3.40 3.32
Less than three months 3.38 3.28 3.41 3.34
Working experi- More than three months and less than six months 3.38 3.33 3.67 3.54
ences before the More than six months and less than one year 3.53 3.39 3.50 3.39
internship More than one year 3.65 3.49 3.81 3.68
F value 0.73 0.64 1.86 1.52
Significance 0.57 0.64 0.12 0.20
Northern Taiwan 3.61 3.25 3.34 3.31
Location of the Central Taiwan 3.67 3.23 3.87 3.69
internship Southern Taiwan 3.41 3.36 3.49 3.38
F value 1.72 0.93 4.37 2.76
Significance 0.15 0.45 0.00** 0.03*
Hotel industry 3.90 3.41 3.72 3.54
F&B industry 3.63 3.45 3.48 3.43
Travel agency 3.57 3.36 3.43 3.14
Types of the Leisure club 3.09 3.20 3.54 3.48
internship unit Leisure farm 3.64 3.00 3.64 3.09
Theme park 3.44 2.67 2.67 2.67
F value 3.17 1.20 1.84 2.19
Significance 0.00** 0.30 0.08 0.04*
Three months 3.62 3.36 3.60 3.51
Duration of the Six months 3.47 3.25 3.44 3.33
internship t value 1.32 0.85 1.47 1.65
Significance 0.19 0.40 0.14 0.10
Rotational job 3.43 3.31 3.33 3.22
Fixed job 3.61 3.29 3.62 3.54
Types of jobs
Others 3.50 3.75 3.50 3.25
F value 1.08 0.42 2.99 4.10
Significance 0.34 0.66 0.05 0.02*
*: p<0.05; **: p<0.01
88 THE ASIA-PACIFIC EDUCATION RESEARCHER
on the differences in students’ “willingness to work.”
According to the comparison of means, the willingness
to work of general college students is higher than that
of the students of occupational school systems, and that
of students aged 23 is especially higher than that of
different ages. As for location of the internship, most
are in central Taiwan. The students in central Taiwan
learn more professional skills, and thus, have relatively
higher degrees of satisfaction. The scale and system of
the leisure industry in northern and southern Taiwan
are relatively less, and factors, such as the overall
economic depression, cause students to experience
limited learning.
The differences in “school systems,” “locations
of the internships,” “types of the internship units”
and “types of jobs” have significant influence on the
differences in students’ “willingness to recommend.”
Based on a comparison of means, general college
students are satisfied with the leisure industry, and
approve of the internship experiences. Therefore,
these students will recommend to others to intern
in the leisure industry. Among these students, those
who interned in central Taiwan are the most willing
to recommend the industry to others. As for the
types of internship units, the students who interned
in leisure clubs are the most willing recommend the
industry to others. As for types of jobs, the pattern of
a single, fixed job allows students to learn additional
professional knowledge, enriches experiences, and
forms interpersonal relationships. On the contrary,
the pattern of rotational jobs allows students to learn
limited practical skills due to the limited duration of
the internship. To summarize, the analytical results of
different students’ personal traits result in differences
in positive behavioral intentions, thus, H.3 is partially
supported.
To understand whether the differences in students’
personal traits has a significant influence on negative
behavioral intentions, “unit transition,” “thoughts
of suspension of schooling,” “career transition,”
“internal complaint,” and “external complaint” are
used as dependent variables; and students’ school
system, year level, gender, age, pre-admission
educational background, working experiences before
the internship, location of the internship, types of the
internship, system of the internship, and types of jobs
are used as factors to perform t-tests and one-way
ANOVA, as shown in Table 8.
Analysis on the effect of differences in students’
personal traits on the differences in negative behavioral
VOL. 20 NO. 1
intentions indicates that, the difference in “unit
transition” has no significant influence on negative
behavioral intentions. However, the differences in
“pre-admission educational background,” “working
experiences before the internship,” “location of the
internship,” and “system of the internship” have
significant influence on the differences in “thoughts of
suspension of schooling.” Based on the comparison of
means, with regard to the pre-admission educational
background, college students who majored in leisure
management in senior high school will harbor stronger
suspension of schooling thoughts than those from
other educational backgrounds, if they found that they
could not adapt to the working environment of the
leisure industry. The students whose work experiences,
through internships in leisure-related industries, of
more than six months and less than one year have
the strongest thoughts of suspension of schooling.
Analysis of the location of the internship reveals that
the interns in northern Taiwan had stronger thoughts
of suspension of schooling. In terms of the systems of
the internships, the six-month interns are more likely
to have thoughts of suspension of schooling, as the
duration of internship was longer.
The differences in students’ “age,” “location of
the internship,” and “types of internship units” have
a significant influence on the differences in “career
transition.” Based on the comparison of means, older
students will consider choosing other occupations
if they cannot accept the environment because
their thoughts are more mature. As for location of
the internship, the stress of the market competition
in northern Taiwan is stronger, which could cause
students to disapprove of the values of the leisure
industry because they could not accept the market
environment. As for the types of the internship units,
because the personnel systems of hotels were stricter,
the students can feel that their works during the
internship were heavy and trivial, and have a further
understanding of industrial reality. As a result, the
student can harbor thoughts of career transition after
the internship.
The differences in students’ “location of the
internship,” “types of internship units,” and “duration
of the internship” have significant influence on the
differences in “internal complaint” and “external
complaint.” Based on the comparison of means,
students who interned in northern Taiwan, especially
those who engaged in six-month internships in hotels,
will directly tell their supervisor or colleagues, and
influence of internship experiences on the behavioral CHEN, C-T & CHEN, C-F 89

Table 8
Analysis of the effect of differences in students’ personal traits on the differences in negative behavioral intentions

The thought
Unit Career Internal External
Traits Items of suspension
transition transition complaint complaint
of schooling
University of technology 2.87 2.22 2.88 3.23 3.38
General college 2.76 2.05 2.95 2.95 3.19
School system
t value 0.63 0.82 -0.38 1.62 0.96
Significance 0.60 0.41 0.71 0.11 0.34
Junior 2.92 2.36 3.03 3.31 3.44
Year level of Senior 2.80 2.02 2.76 3.06 3.27
the internship F value 1.92 3.01 3.10 1.88 1.57
Significance 0.15 0.05 0.05 0.15 0.21
Male 2.82 2.33 2.78 3.19 3.37
Female 2.87 2.07 2.98 3.19 3.33
Gender
t value -0.30 1.72 -1.42 -0.01 0.30
Significance 0.76 0.09 0.16 1.00 0.76
20 years old 2.47 2.20 2.87 3.13 3.00
21 years old 2.92 2.33 3.02 3.31 3.38
22 years old 2.87 2.05 2.82 3.01 3.33
Age 23 years old 2.63 2.13 2.50 3.13 3.25
Over 24 3.00 1.80 3.60 3.80 4.20
F value 0.82 0.68 2.41 1.20 1.85
Significance 0.54 0.64 0.04* 0.31 0.10
Graduates from department of leisure management 2.88 2.36 3.00 3.20 3.29
Pre-admission Graduates from department of hospitality management 3.15 2.87 3.10 3.36 3.54
educational Graduates from non-leisure-related departments 2.73 1.86 2.75 3.12 3.32
background F value 2.08 14.73 2.40 0.86 0.91
Significance 0.13 0.00** 0.09 0.42 0.41
None 2.66 1.92 2.86 3.01 3.22
Less than 3 months 3.00 2.34 3.03 3.17 3.34
Working More than 3 months and less than six months 3.08 2.42 2.54 3.21 3.29
experiences More than 6 months and less than 1 year 3.14 2.67 3.25 3.53 3.56
before the More than one year 2.81 2.19 2.73 3.32 3.54
internship F value 1.67 3.65 2.32 2.07 1.21
Significance 0.16 0.01* 0.06 0.09 0.31
Northern Taiwan 3.02 2.47 3.13 3.44 3.55
Central Taiwan 2.74 1.97 2.85 3.08 3.23
Location of
Southern Taiwan 2.72 2.03 2.71 2.99 3.19
the internship
F value 1.91 2.74 2.95 3.45 3.36
Significance 0.11 0.03* 0.02* 0.01* 0.01*
Hotel industry 2.90 2.21 2.79 3.36 3.46
F &B industry 2.98 2.46 3.14 3.42 3.54
Travel agency 3.00 2.14 3.29 3.50 3.79
Types of Leisure club 2.80 2.09 2.70 2.91 3.11
internship Leisure farm 2.82 2.09 2.64 3.27 3.64
units Theme park 1.89 1.67 2.11 3.00 2.78
F value 1.11 1.28 2.22 2.10 2.22
Significance 0.36 0.26 0.03* 0.04* 0.03*
3 months 2.73 2.01 2.75 3.03 3.19
Duration of 6 months 2.96 2.36 3.02 3.33 3.50
the internship t value -1.47 -2.40 -2.00 -2.35 -2.35
Significance 0.14 0.02* 0.05 0.02* 0.02*
Rotational job 2.75 2.02 2.93 3.16 3.26
Fixed job 2.90 2.28 2.86 3.19 3.39
Types of jobs Others 3.00 2.50 3.25 3.50 3.75
F value 0.45 1.49 0.38 0.23 0.83
Significance 0.64 0.23 0.69 0.80 0.44
*: p<0.05; **: p<0.01
90 THE ASIA-PACIFIC EDUCATION RESEARCHER
even adopt external complaints when facing problems
during practical experience because of the longer
duration of their internship. It indicates that, co-
workers in long-term environments, spend more time
getting along with supervisor and colleagues, allowing
a method to relieve pressure. For those who undergo
three-month internships, they will not complain to
other, either inside or outside of the company, because
the duration of the internship was shorter, and thus,
they seldom faced severe problems and would not
complain.
To summarize, the analytical result of the influences
of the differences in students’ personal traits on the
differences in negative behavioral intentions has H.4
partially supported.
Conclusions
The findings of this study indicate that even
though the students’ extent of agreement regarding
the factors of positive internship experiences is not
high, they agree that the internship programs enabled
them to make many friends, increased their skills
of interpersonal interactions, and expanded their
visions. They even felt that the effort made during the
internship is worthy. As for sensory experiences, the
affirmation and support of customers in the workplace
cause the students to feel a sense of accomplishment.
In addition, the students suggest that the internship
made them face the reality of society, increased their
social experiences, and improved their tolerance
for the management of tasks and work. Therefore,
this study concludes that positive experiences can
help the students to understand their workplace and
employment in the future.
When investigating the factors of negative internship
experiences, most students disapprove of the factors of
negative experiences. However, some students suggest
that the internship experiences changed their original
work values, mainly because the leisure industry is a
labor-intensive and comprehensive service industry.
Many students have unrealistic expectations of the
practical operations of the industries; therefore, for
planning courses in the leisure field, in addition
to the instruction of professional knowledge and
techniques, students should be assisted to establish
correct workplace values and expectations. The
schools should arrange time for students to observe
through tours of the industry in order to absorb new
VOL. 20 NO. 1
knowledge of the actual situation, be exposed to the
correct professional knowledge and skills, and narrow
the gap between theory and practice. In addition, some
students suggest that they were treated as low-cost
labor during their internship, which caused them to
feel unpleasant. Therefore, the internship institutes
should provide a proper work atmosphere, treat the
students equally, view them as ordinary professional
employees, provide the same job content, provide them
with the same welfare, and construct a good channel of
communication, thus, reducing the gap between role
expectations of both internship units and interns.
The findings indicate that students’ extent
of agreement on the behavioral intention after
experiencing internship is not significantly high. They
seldom intend to change internship units, complete the
internship program at the original units, not choose
to suspend schooling. Their major objective is to
complete the education. Therefore, their persistent
interest in the leisure industry does exist. In terms
of sensory experiences of internship experiences,
the findings indicate that it is positively correlated
with the satisfaction with experiences, willingness to
return to the original unit, and willingness to work in
behavioral intention. Therefore, the arrangement of
an internship program not only cultivates students’
professional and practical training, but also arouses
their interest in working in a leisure workplace, which
makes them still willing to return to the original units
for future employment if given an opportunity. It can
be inferred that as for students’ behavioral intention
for employment after experiencing internship, most
of them still prefer to work in the leisure industry that
they are familiar with.
The investigation on the influence of students’
personality traits on their behavioral intentions find that,
as for positive behavioral intention, junior students’
extent of satisfaction is higher than that of senior
students. In addition, it also finds that the students
experiencing internship program in hotels can learn
more professional competency owing to the diversified
environment, and thus, their extent of satisfaction is
higher than interns in other internship units. Once
the students’ extent of satisfaction is high, they will
identify with the industry and even recommend other
people to engage in it. As for negative behavioral
intention, the interns will possibly change their minds
and even consider career transition, and thus the extent
of devotion to the leisure industry will be reduced. This
is based on experiences of interns in travel agencies
influence of internship experiences on the behavioral
in Taiwan, usually small-scale enterprises in Taiwan
which suffer from greater competitive pressure for
survival, in which they encounter heavy work load.
The empirical results indicate that the influence of
internship experiences on behavioral intention might
vary. If interns’ internship experiences are more
positive, their behavior intentions will naturally
identify with the leisure industry and they will choose
to engage in its development in their future work and
vice versa.
The students note that they had enriched experiences
and acquired professional knowledge during the
internship that had not been acquired at school.
Therefore, the schools should form a close interactive
relationship with the industries, instead of simply
maintaining the internship cooperation. The schools
should adopt short-duration and long-term off-campus
teaching activities to reduce the gap between school
education and the needs of the industries, providing
opportunities to combine theory with practice.
According to the findings of this study, the physical
experiences of the internships have the greatest
influence on students’ behavioral intentions. Therefore,
future studies can probe into students’ internship
physical experiences, and empirical studies can be
conducted to compare the differences of internship
experiences in terms of different departments, in
order to investigate how to plan internship programs
that can best suit the development of internship
experiences, and facilitate the future employment of
college students.
References
Ajzen, I. (1988). Attitude, personality, and behavior.
Chicago, IL: Dorsey Press.
Baker, D. A., & Crompton, J. L. (2000). Quality, satisfaction,
behavior intentions. Annals of Tourism Research, 27(3),
785-804.
Beggs, B., Ross, C. M., & Goodwin, B. (2008). A
comparison of student and practitioner perspectives of
the travel and tourism internship. Journal of Hospitality,
Leisure, Sport, and Tourism Education, 7(1), 31-39.
Blackwell, R. D., Miniard, P. W., & Engel, J. F. (2001).
Consumer behavior (9th ed.). Mason, OH : Thomson
Learning.
Cheung, C. K. (2007). The teaching of moral education
through media education. The Asia Pacific Education
Researcher, 16(1), 61-72.
Ching, L., & Lam, T. (2007). The exploratory study of an
internship program: The case of Hong Kong students.
CHEN, C-T & CHEN, C-F 91
International Journal of Hospitality Management, 26,
336-351.
Collin, K., & Tynjalla, P. (2003). Integrating theory and
practical? Employees’ and students’ experiences of
learning at work. Journal of Workplace Learning, 15,
338-44.
Davies, L. (1990). Experience-based learning within the
curriculum. A Synthesis Study. Sheffield: Athenaeum
Press.
Elkins, T. J. (2002). Academic internship with the equal
employment opportunity commission: An experiential
approach to teaching human resource management.
S.A.M. Advanced Management Journal, 67(3), 40-47.
Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention
and behavior: An introduction to theory and research.
Amherst, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Fox, T. (2001). A sense of place. Caterer and Hotelkeeper,
189(12), 4160.
Garavan, T. N., & Murphy, C. (2001). The co-operative
education process and organizational socialization:
A qualitative study of student perceptions of its
effectiveness. Education and Training, 43, 281-302.
Gill, A., & Lashine, S. (2003). Business educational: A
strategic market-oriented focus. The International
Journal of Education Management, 17(50), 188-94.
Gorden, B., & Morris, K. J. (1996). Descartes dualism.
London, UK: Routledge.
Holbrook, M. B. (2000). The millennial consumer in the
texts of our times: Experience and entertainment.
Journal of Macromarketing, 20(2), 178-192.
Huang, G.G. (1993). The values of teens. Test and
Counseling, 119, 2422-2430.
Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as
the source of learning and development. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Mihail, D. M. (2006). Internship at Greek universities:
An exploratory study. Journal of Workplace Learning,
18(1), 28-41.
Ministry of Education of Taiwan. (2010). Department of
statistics. Retrieved January 18, 2010, from the World
Wide Web:http://www.edu.tw/statistics/index.aspx
National Policy Foundation. (2010). Development of
professional talents for Taiwan’s leisure industry.
Retrieved January 18, 2010, from the World Wide Web:
http://www.npf.org.tw/post/2/4339
Robbins, S. P., & Coulter, M. (2005). Management (8th ed.).
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Santiago, A. (2009). Impact of sandwich course design
on first job experience. The Asia-Pacific Education
Researcher, 18(2), 205-217.
Schmitt, B. H. (1999). Experiential marketing. Journal of
Marketing Management, 15(1), 53-67.
Spencer, L. M., & Spencer, S. M. (1993). Competence at
work: Models for superior performance. New York:
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
92 THE ASIA-PACIFIC EDUCATION RESEARCHER
Wang, Y. F. (2002). Evolution of higher education in
hospitality in Taiwan. Journal of Human Ecology and
Technology, 3(4), 453-464.
Waryszak, R. Z. (1999). Students’ expectations from their
cooperative education placement in the hospitality
industry: An international perspective. Education and
Training, 41(1), 33-40.
VOL. 20 NO. 1
West A. J., & Jameson, S. M. (1990). Supervised work
experience in graduate employment. International
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management,
2(2), 29-32.
Zeithaml, V. A., Berry, L. L., & Parasuraman, A. (1996).
The behavioral consequences of service quality. Journal
of Marketing, 60(2), 31-46.