WORK INTEGRATED LEARNING PROGRAM OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE PJAEE, 17 (2) (2020)

WORK INTEGRATED LEARNING PROGRAM OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE

IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION MAJOR IN HUMAN RESOURCE
DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT

Joanne S. Concepcion

Faculty of College of Business, University of Rizal System

joanne.concepcion@urs.edu.ph

Joanne S. Concepcion. Work Integrated Learning Program of Bachelor of Science in Business Administration Major
in Human Resource Development Management. – PalArch’s Journal of Archaeology of Egypt/Egyptology 17(2),
518-527. ISSN 1567-214X

Keywords: Work integrated learning, Internship process, Bachelor of science in business administration, Human
resource management.

ABSTRACT
This study aims to examine the processes of Work Integrated Learning, the level of abilities and qualities of student-
trainees, the strengths and weaknesses of communicating with others the problems experienced in their internship,
and the recommendations of Practicum Supervisors to enhance student-trainee results further. The study used
descriptive analysis and evaluated the data obtained by frequency, percentage, rank, and weighted average. This
research concluded that the Work Integrated Learning program maintained an excellent procedure in the internship
conduct. It also reflects that the coordinators' business visits are limited because they have other subject loads and
assignments during the semester. In terms of their abilities and qualities, student trainees meet the standards of co-
operating organizations. Supervisors regarded the sense of duty, well dressed, very polite, and the ability to quickly
grasp a given assignment as student-trainee strengths. Low trust to communicate their ideas and logically, fluency in
using the English language, writing business correspondence, finding an internship location, and time management
are the common problems students face. Through training courses and workshops, Practicum Supervisors suggest
developing soft skills to prepare the students in their internship to directly develop their business writing skills, time
management, and self-confidence.

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INTRODUCTION
College education prepares students, especially in the entry-level job market, for a career
in their chosen field of specialization. The university is continually developing the
curriculum to improve education's importance and meet the industry's requirements. One
way to ensure that colleges and universities accomplish this goal is to offer students
opportunities to engage in internship/practicum according to their chosen collegiate
program and obtain credit.

The internship program aims to provide superior training and development to produce
highly skilled professionals and fill the gap between academic and professional
environments.

According to Carla Howery, internships' primary objective is to provide students with

attitudes towards specific content or career possibilities for the future, as Jackel (2011)
cited. Internships and cooperative education programs offer students the ability to adapt
learned ideological structures to future real-world job environments. Via networking and
developing productive working relationships with their employers, students who choose
to engage in experiential learning will expand their potential career opportunities. It is
impossible to build these relationships solely by taking college courses. They can still be
developed by integrating the information gained from these courses with practical
applications in a real-life environment.

Job Integrated Learning is a required internship prerequisite for all students with a
Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. It can be done in a partner business
institution or government department after 480 hours of actual training. It is planned to
incorporate all theoretical principles and ideas that have been explored as implemented in
a real business environment during class lectures. This internship program aims to
prepare students for the real business world and better understand the standards they are
expected to meet when they join a company of their choosing. Given the emergence of
technological advances that profoundly influence how work is performed, the program
also aims to align its work ethics with stringent and frequently stressful success metrics.

Universities and colleges offer internships as a prerequisite in every program to provide

students with the possibility of optimizing realistic classroom learning opportunities.
These interactions not only improve the academic learning of students but also strengthen
their abilities and skills. Three stakeholders - the university, students, and partner
organizations - are involved in the internship process.

Since the internship program has been considered a critical role in improving
undergraduates' readiness in the entry-level job market, this research examined the
integrated learning program for college work to ensure that the curriculum's learning
outcomes produce students' standards for the industry or the employer. The most popular
approach to gauge employer satisfaction with the internship program is to survey the
employer about the student interns' quality through their Practicum Supervisor. The
program's assessment by the managers can be used as part of the comprehensive
evaluation of the college internship program.

As the prime supervisor of the supervised training program of the BSBA, the URSB
College of Business aims to enhance its Work Integrated Learning by assessing realistic
supervisors on the internship phase and the skills and qualities of student-trainees and the
student-trainee problems experienced. In creating the College of Business Work
Integrated Learning Manual for Students, the study results will be used as feedback.

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Literature review

301 business leaders' research indicates that colleges find ways to measure students'
capacity to adapt college learning to real-world environments. The authors argue that
students' performance appraisal during internships is the nearest to examining actual
work performance among many business programs (AAC&U, 2008). When the student's
interests, the program, and the employer complement one another, the college/university
is more likely to have interns who fulfill the employer's needs. The institution typically
gets ideas for policy formulation and enhancement of its curriculum through input from
the students, thereby mutually benefiting them and the school. The findings indicate a
substantial increase in the variability of performance scores. The authors conclude, which
bodes well for studying academic factors that may well predict internships/job
performance. The research was conducted in the 2017 Revised Rules, Requirements, and
Guidelines for Bachelor of Science in Business Administration by the Commission on
Higher Education Memorandum Order No. 17 series. It enables students to apply theories
learned in school to real work experiences where, they conclude, they can find a cohesion
of learning between school and jobs.

Within the framework of internship programs, the value of outcome evaluation is

addressed. At the four Business Schools, employers had minimal comprehension of WIL
offerings. The research conducted by Velez and Giner (2015) presented a systematic
analysis of literature on the effect of university student internships. In a collegiate setting,
preparation is often necessary for an academically inclined person to be transmitted to a
more realistic environment through a process known as "internship" Internships to help
people integrate theory with practical work experience (Sapp and Zhang, 2009; Rothman,
2007; and Jackson 2017). According to Velez & Giner's report, the internship experience
was advantageous in Knouse and Fontenot (2008). Overall, the internship experience is
beneficial for teachers, employers, students, and higher education institutions. The results
of this review support the overall positive impact of business internships and affirm that
for the primary three stakeholders: students, employers, and education institutions, they
are a win-win situation. For a scholar to be transferred to a functional environment,
training is required.

Students enrolled in college will obtain practical learning experience through internships.
For the students working, the internship must have educational value. Potential
employers on your resume will be searching for relevant experience (Loreto, 2009). As
the job market becomes more competitive, internships have become more valuable-even
for job force veterans (Doran 2009). NACE (2011) concluded that both career services
professionals and employers should work together to ensure that any experiential learning
meets (McNamara 2013) and complies with a set of defined requirements so that an
internship can be reasonably considered (Smith et al., 2014). The experience in your
resume will lead to many other job opportunities, says Patel (2015). Patel writes many
colleges give students the ability to optimize their teaching in the classroom to real
experiences in real-world situations. To achieve overall academic program mastery,
classroom learning is articulated, he states. The application of theoretical and pedagogical
knowledge, analytical and practical skills, and affective disposition is reinforced and
validated by out-of-classroom learning.

It is expected that universities and colleges will build and sustain an internship process
that provides students with opportunities. As the nexus of combining classroom and
workplace learning, there is a growing emphasis on the student. Transformative learning
opportunities are student engagement in professional positions through workplace
learning experiences (Trede, 2012).

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Research objectives

The study's objective is to evaluate the Work Integrated Learning Program of Bachelor of
Science in Business Administration major in Human Resource Development
Management in URS Binangonan during the Academic Years 2016-2017, 2017-2018,
and 2018-2019.

Specifically, the study sought to answer the following questions:

1. What is the evaluation of the Cooperating Agencies’ Practicum Supervisors on the
Work-integrated learning (OJT) program process for BSBA major in Human
Resource Development Management?
2. What is the assessment of Practicum Supervisors on the quality of BSBA major in
Human Resource Development Management student-trainees in terms of skills and
qualities and strengths when interacting with others?
3. What are the problems encountered by the students in the conduct of their
internship?
4. What suggestions/recommendations of the Practicum Supervisors to further improve
the performance of the student-trainees?

Framework of the study

This research was anchored on the Internship: A Three-way Partnership Model, which
relates the link from work to the academic setting (Santa Monica College, 2009).

Figure 1: Internship: A Three-way Partnership Model

This model explains general data on employers, colleges, and students undertaking
internships. The key issue discussed in this model is the primary obligation of employers
who are called upon to provide the necessary supervision and support to ensure that the
interned students can gain the required educational value from the internship. The
employer will also be required, under this pre-established obligation, to work together
with the college and the students to prepare the goals that students will achieve during the
internship. The internship site will also be requested to monitor and process student
assessment to gauge the students' improvement points and professional progress in
achieving the learning goals and overall internship results. Finally, to check the internship
work hours, the university or college should also communicate with the employer.

Juliet Miller (1982) defined Experiential Education as all programs designed to expand
the meaning of learning experiences to occupational and community settings outside the
conventional school environment. These programs use planned experience to encourage
collaboration between traditional educational institutions and the business industry.

Typically, experience strengthens a student's connection between academic content and

applications in the real world. The need to apply expertise is illustrated by bridging the
distance between real-life scenarios and the classroom.

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The research was rooted in those hypotheses. It analyzed the BSBA major in Human
Resource Development Management's current job integrated learning program or
internship program, which offers real work opportunities outside the classroom setting by
assessing Practicum Supervisors as employer representatives.

Conceptual framework

To better understand the study, a framework was used to illustrate the conceptual model
that guided the researcher in this study's conduct.

Figure 2: Conceptual Model showing the Evaluation of Work Integrated Learning

Program of Bachelor of Science in Business Administration major in Human Resource
Development Management

The conceptual model of assessing the work-integrated learning program of the BSBA
major in Human Resource Development Management is shown in Figure 2. In three
different frames, the input, method, and output are displayed. Each frame shows that each
contributes significantly to the other, and in the arrows, the relationship between them is
seen. The outcome is measuring the student trainees' abilities and qualities and their
strengths in communicating with others.

METHODOLOGY
A mixture of quantitative and qualitative analysis methods was used with data collected
by an employer survey and focus group sessions for students. The study was carried out
in Rizal Province and nearby towns or cities where students were assigned to their
integrated learning program at work. The questionnaire was partly adapted from the
Verney et al. (2009) report on improving the reliability of assessments of internships.
During their internship, the problems were also calculated out of 160 (47, 62, and 51 out
of the three (3) school years) or 59 percent of the total 270 student-trainees.

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Assessment of practicum supervisors on the on-the-job training program process of bsba
major in human resource development management

Table 1: Assessment of Practicum Supervisors in the On-the-Job Training Program of

BSBA major in Human Resource Development Management
SY SY SY
Internship Process 2016- 2017- 2018- Overall VI Rank
2017 2018 2019
1. The manner of
application of student- 4.14 4.27 4.46 4.29 Outstanding 1
trainees in your agency
2. Students submission of 3.97 4.33 3.64 3.98 Very Good 6
requirements
3. Memorandum of
Agreement between 4.03 4.12 4.19 4.11 Very Good 4
URS and your
organization
4. Submission of Waiver 4.11 4.20 4.28 4.19 Very Good 3
to the cooperating
agency
5. The scheduled and
unscheduled visits of 3.26 2.43 3.44 3.04 Good 8
the OJT Coordinator
6. Institutional Partnership
between URS and the 3.88 3.39 3.83 3.7 Very Good 7
cooperating agency
7. Total OJT Hours and
schedule of reporting of 4.08 4.16 4.03 4.09 Very Good 5
student-trainees
8. Student-trainees are
required to wear their 4.24 4.35 4.17 4.25 Outstanding 2
prescribed OJT
Uniform
Average 3.96 3.90 4.0 3.95 Very Good

In general, BSBA's internship program in Human Resource Development Management

was given an overall rating of very good by the practice supervisors. The results suggest
that the On the Job Training Program has maintained a very successful internship
process, providing students with resources and partnering with their partner agencies. It
connotes that under the call for academic prerequisites, the program served its aim for
internship or OJT, which is intended to allow students to gain practical experience as part
of their academic program in a skilled work environment.

According to the Society for Human Resource Management, internships are frequently
viewed as independent research with very little oversight from the university or its
faculty affiliated with the program (SHRM, 2004). However, the results of the Smith
(2012) report suggested that the assessment of the interactions between students and their
academic supervisors was restricted to the availability or accessibility of supervisors and
the usefulness of their advice.

Level of skills and qualities of bsba major human resource development management
student-trainees as assessed by practicum supervisors

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Table 2: Level of Skills and Qualities of BSBA major in Human Resource Development
Management Student-trainees
SY SY SY Overall VI Rank
Student Trainees’ Skills and 2016- 2017- 2018- Mean
qualities 2017 2018 2019
Listening skills 4.23 4.19 4.38 4.26 Outstanding 3
Interpersonal skills 4.14 3.98 4.12 4.08 Very Good 9
Conflict Management skills 3.75 3.70 3.94 3.79 Very Good 15
Writing skills 3.98 3.92 3.81 3.90 Very Good 13
Speaking skills 4.08 3.90 3.82 3.93 Very Good 12
Persuasion skills 4.03 3.75 3.91 3.89 Very Good 14
Technical skills/job 3.95 3.96 3.91 3.94 Very Good 11
knowledge skills
Decision-making skills 3.7 3.79 3.79 3.76 Very Good 16
Quality of work 4.23 3.94 4.09 4.08 Very Good 9
Productivity/quantity of work 4.18 4.02 4.18 4.12 Very Good 6
Initiative 4.13 4.13 4.00 4.08 Very Good 9
Attendance and punctuality 4.08 4.23 4.03 4.11 Very Good 7
Ability to understand how the 4.25 4.04 4.21 4.16 Very Good 4
organization functions
Competency of the URS 4.26 4.06 4.12 4.14 Very Good 5
interns compared to the
interns from other schools
Sense of responsibility 4.63 4.37 3.88 4.29 Outstanding 2
Helpfulness 4.68 4.71 4.14 4.51 Outstanding 1
Average 4.14 4.04 4.02 4.06 Very good

The highest average values were obtained by helpfulness, sense of responsibility, and
listening skills. On average, the abilities and characteristics of student-trainees were very
good, the study found. To improve theoretical knowledge and analytical and practical
skills, the Patel (2015) institutions have internship programs in place for students to apply
classroom learning with practical experience. However, Patel (2015) found that writing
abilities and speaking abilities are among the last attributes. Sapp and Zhang's (2009)
research on the patterns in the reviews of industry supervisors on company
communication internships confirms the results. According to Patel and Zhang, student
interns tend to satisfy their superiors' requirements in many fields.

Table 3: Strengths of Student Trainees when Interacting with Others

Student Trainees’ strengths when SY SY SY
interacting with others 2016- Rank 2017- Rank 2018- Rank
2017 2018 2019
Ability to work well with others 28 1 38 1 26 1
Responsive to peoples’ feelings and 12 4 16 5 11 4
needs
Ability to treat everyone with fairness 12 4 23 2 12 3
Courtesy extended to superiors, 19 2 21 3 13 2
subordinates, clients, co-workers, etc.
Ability to establish rapport and 12 4 20 4 7 5
cooperation with others
Others: (strengths) Others: (weaknesses)
1. Responsible for their assigned task 1. communicating using the English language
2. Well-dressed always and very 2. a bit shy/less confidence
friendly towards co-workers 3. sometimes very active and noisy but not exceeding the limit
3. Ability to comprehend a given task 4. familiarity with processes if there is a long gap
fast and well 5. few technical and clerical works
know-how
6. need initiative daily

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Student-Trainees strengths when interacting with others

The results show that the ability to work well with others, extended courtesy to
supervisors, subordinates, customers, co-workers, and the ability to treat others equally
are the qualities considered by students when serving as interns. Supervisors also
demonstrated other interns' qualities, such as being accountable and well dressed for their
assigned assignments. However, the Supervisors also gave some characteristics regarded
as weaknesses as not confident in talking, a bit shyness trust.

From the results, it can be noted that learners who choose to engage in experiential
learning can extend their future career opportunities. It is not possible to establish these
relationships solely by taking college courses.

Problems encountered by the student-trainees during the conduct of their internship

Just 47 percent of internship sites have the requisite structure to help student interns,
according to the Infographic Internship Survey and the 2013 Internship Trends. Irregular
students had problems with the schedule of the internship schedule for their academic
subjects. To test whether there is a disjunction between theory and reality, he says, it is
essential to consider student expectations of their readiness for internships, according to
Patel (2015). The researcher interviewed student-trainees to determine what issues they
faced in the conduct of their apprenticeship. The problems included finding an internship
site or organization that would welcome them as trainees, not completing the total
required 480 hours for OJT, and not obtaining the signature of an approved representative
of the company to sign the MOA.

Suggestions and recommendations to further improve the interns’ performance

The Practicum Supervisors' suggestions and recommendations to further enhance student-

interns' performance in their OJT were summarized. When it comes to communicating
with administrators and visitors, students need to develop their communication skills
(English language), extend the number of hours of their internship, and improve their
confidence. The practice is the enhancement of student-trainees' soft skills, which are the
combination of their skills, social skills, and communication skills, character or
personality traits, attitudes, career attributes, social intelligence, work ethics, teamwork,
decision-making, time management, critical thinking, among others that will allow
trainees to work and perform well in their internship. Furthermore, some supervisors gave
the student trainees good comments, such as outstanding results and a job well done; just
keep up the good job, she is very effective and has the initiative to do a positive job. This
suggests that the Supervisors' recommendations and ideas improve their soft skills, such
as social skills, communication skills, and teamwork.

CONCLUSIONS
From the findings of the study, the following conclusions were drawn:
1. Under the call for an academic prerequisite, the Work Integrated Learning Program
served its function as an internship, which is intended to enable students to obtain
practical experience as part of their academic program in a skilled work environment.
However, the Coordinators' OJT visits are minimal as they have additional subject loads
and assignments during the semester.

2. Student-trainees of the BSBA major in Human Resource Development Management

satisfy the requirements of their Practicum Supervisors in terms of their abilities and
qualities in the conduct of their internship.

3. In their assigned duties, supervisors found a sense of responsibility, well dressed and
very polite to co-workers, and the ability to quickly grasp a given assignment as the

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strengths of student-interns when communicating with other people during their

internship.

4. Student trainees had difficulty searching for internship places, written and oral contact
using the English language, and academic and internship schedule disputes.

5. The supervisors' suggestions to boost their efficiency are strengthening the soft skills
and experience of the trainees in business correspondence.

IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the study results and conclusions, the following recommendations are given
hereby:

1. The College shall obtain information on the organizations hiring interns' internal
processes and procedures and shall improve the relationship and coordination with the
current cooperating agencies.

2. College can include workshops or training on professionalism in the workplace,

written and oral communication, business correspondence, time management, and
students' soft-skills in their job integrated learning or practice.

3. Development of a College of Business Students Internship Manual to enhance, expand

and upgrade the Work Integrated Learning Program to include the level of knowledge
and skills needed for different roles workers in the government or corporate world
assume.

4. Conduct a further study exploring the positions of the three stakeholders in the
internship program: university administration, interns, and employers in the industry to
improve the marketability of work for students upon graduation.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In completing this article, the researcher would like to thank the following individuals
who helped her:

Dr. Marita R. Canapi, President of URS, for her continuing support of URS personnel
development;

Dr. Namerod F. Mateo, VP, RDEP, and Dr. German L. Penaranda, Research Director,
study approval;

Dr. Flordeliza R. Penaranda, VP of Academic Affairs, Campus Director Dr. Hermy D.

Estrabo, and Prof. Ma. Linda R. Fernandez, Campus RDEP Coordinator, for the
endorsement, from acceptance to completion of the research paper;

For their generosity in answering the questionnaires and interview, Practicum

Supervisors and Fourth-year BSBA major in students of Human Resource Development
Management, respondents;

And above all, for His everlasting blessings and guidance, to God Almighty.

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