The development of soft skills during internships: The hospitality student’s voice

Abstract

This paper considers the value of industrial placements in providing an opportunity for hospitality students to develop soft skills in the workplace in addition to the technical skills learned at their educational establishments. While there are concepts such as “problem-based learning” which help students to think across subject silos, this paper argues that internships offer a valuable opportunity for students to learn and for industry to promote their organisations to prospective employees. Using a year’s worth of student workplace diaries, the researchers identify that, in addition to hard skills, students learn communication skills, professionalism, teamwork and personal development. The paper concludes by suggesting that this exploratory analysis of student diaries demonstrates the importance of internships, but that more could be done to increase their value and to make the industry attractive to prospective employees. Opportunities for further research include more gathering and analysis of these documents which give voice to the lived experience of hospitality students on placement.

Keywords: international student, internship, New Zealand, placement, reflection, soft skills, work integrated learning