Article Review: Internship Satisfaction Determinants Among Undergraduates in the Service Industry

An internship program is integrated into higher learning institutions curriculum. It is aimed to cultivate students ability in applying knowledge from classrooms to practices. Internship satisfaction is identified as one of the focal points to assess the effectiveness of an internship program. Nonetheless, only little studies reviewed the determinants of internship satisfaction, particularly within the service-oriented industry. Thus, the main objective of this study was to review factors that influence internship satisfaction in the service industry, particularly the hospitality industry. Besides, the importance of internship in developing self-competencies among students is also discussed. A number of articles were obtained from two different databases, using keywords related to the topic. The articles were carefully examined, derived from relevant disciplines in the service industry: hospitality and tourism, business, sports management, education, and human resource. Main determinants of the internship satisfaction were clustered into five categories: individual factors, job characteristics, organisational environment, contextual factors, and career potential. Besides, the importance of internship experiences in fostering students self-competencies were discussed, including interpersonal skills, problem-solving, self-confidence, and knowledge about the job market. Findings on this paper are anticipated to extend the literature review on internship research and assist internship stakeholders in structuring a well-rounded internship program. As this paper is only based on traditional literature reviews, it has a limitation in its methodology. Hence, future research is recommended to use a structured methodology such as systematic reviews or scoping reviews.