Purpose The internship experience is rated as having a high impact on practical readiness. There is little evidence on how students perceive the importance of internships prior to completing them in relation to employability, what benefits they expect and in what types of organizations they prefer to do their internship. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of gender, level of education and field of study on the perception of the internship importance among 1,578 Czech secondary school and university students and their benefits; to explore how expectations of internships correlate with students' preferred internship environments. Design/methodology/approach Participants expressed their attitudes towards the variables studied through a questionnaire. Welch's ANOVA test, Games-Howell's Post-Hoc test and Mann–Whitney U test were used. Spearman's rho was used to determine the correlation. Findings The results indicate that the perceived internship importance varies by gender, level of education and field of study. University students and females attach greater importance to internships in comparison with secondary school students and males. Most students expect internships to provide new knowledge and practical skills that enhance their employability. Economics students perceive internships as less beneficial compared to those studying in the field of health sciences in health sciences, natural sciences and humanities. Internships in commercial companies are mainly associated with gaining additional qualifications, improving labour market prospects and strengthening the professional curriculum vitae. Originality/value The study has identified areas that have implications for promoting communication between school and students in the preparation of internships and for building educational strategies to promote the employability of the young generation.
Berková et al. (Tue,) studied this question.