The importance of university internships in tourism studies

Today, tourism is one of the largest industries with the highest growth rates, serving as a key global driver of economic development. For this reason, studies in tourism make more and more sense in this globalized world.

The scientific article published by Raquel Ferreras Garcia, Jordi Sales Zaguirre and Enric Serradell López, all three members of the Management & eLearning (MeL) research group, in the journal Education + Training, deals precisely with the level of correspondence between the training received in tourism studies and the demands of the labor market.

Objectives and methodology

The aim of the study is to determine which are the most significant competencies that students should acquire through university internships in tourism studies, and whether these differ significantly according to the type of internship.

To evaluate the students’ internships, an extensive questionnaire was sent to the university’s Internship and Mobility Service to company managers to assess each student’s competencies at the end of the period. A total of 300 valid responses were obtained from the questionnaires.

Results and conclusions

The results show that the students obtained good results regarding the competences that all tourism graduates must acquire. The competences related to ethics and knowledge, intercultural awareness and organizational culture, which received the highest scores, stand out especially.

However, the need to strengthen students in the areas of entrepreneurship and operations was identified, that is, the need to reinforce aspects that lead to a better business, as well as better training in basic and specialized operating basic and specialized operating tools. of the sector.

The results show that the acquisition of competencies was very high, regardless of the department or category of the hotel. The department in which the internship took place did not affect the level of competency acquisition, except for the attitude competency related to flexibility and self-confidence. On the other hand, differences were identified in relation to the category of the hotel. Internships carried out in higher category hotels promoted a better development of most competencies.

In conclusion, the internship students develop the competencies to a good level and, therefore, it can be stated that the internships help the development of the students’ competencies. In addition, the companies in the sector perceive a significant development of most of the skills considered in this study.

Consult the study

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