Hotel internships and student satisfaction as key determinant to career intention.

Abstract

The hotel internship experience can be viewed as the pivotal point where hospitality students decide whether to stay or leave the industry. This paper aims at presenting hospitality students’ satisfaction from internships and its impact on career intention. A survey of 172 students, both EU and Greeks, was conducted to investigate their internship satisfaction at 4 and 5 star hotels as a key determinant to career intention. The findings suggest that, the most important factors contributing to students’ satisfaction were the real working conditions and the learning experience. All participants acknowledged long working hours, poor pay, and lack of coordination as key challenges, however they all identified their internships as a valuable way to link their studies with real life practice. This study proposes that student satisfaction in hospitality internship programs can have a direct positive effect to the graduates’ career intention. It also suggests that educational institutions should maintain the practical/applied elements of hospitality management programs in order to develop qualified, knowledgeable graduates.