An exploratory study on cognitive internship perception of tourism students

Tourism and hospitality education fills the need of skilled employees for tourism industry. Turkey has many vocational schools which provide the qualified personnel need. Students training in these institutions concerned carry out compulsory internships in tourism enterprises. Internship is a beneficial process that leads students the opportunity to transform their theoretical knowledge into practice. However, many problems exist during the internship. During this period, interns recognize both the sector and themselves further. Positive perceptions of internship period increase the willingness of students to work in the tourism industry after graduation. So defining the students’ perceptions and complaints during the internship and determining positive and negative aspects is of great importance. This study aims to determine the cognitive perceptions of students’ internship and whether different before and after this stage. Qualitative data which was collected by Word Association Test (WAT) analyzed with MAXQDA Software. According to the results, the perception of students completed compulsory internship is more negative than the others. The negative statements which express students’ problems, complaints and fears are work conditions, mobbing, social life, accommodation and nutrition issues. The positive perception of the students is on experience, development, and socialization matters.