Effective Students’ Development of Soft Skills, Hard Skills, and Competitiveness (SHC)Through Internship Program

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of training and supervision in internship in fostering students’ 21st-century skills, with a focus on three main elements, namely soft skills, hard skills, and competitiveness. A quasi-experiment was conducted on three groups of participants, namely Group A (students receiving both training and supervision), Group B (students receiving supervision only), and Group C (students receiving neither training nor supervision). A self-evaluation questionnaire was distributed to participants after treatment. The results showed Group A perceived development of 21st-century skills and its elements to be significantly higher than Groups B and C, while Group B reported higher development than Group C.  Providing training and intensive supervision to internship students could improve their 21st-century skills in the areas of soft skills, hard skills, and competitiveness. The study implied that students internship should be well prepared, implemented, monitored, and evaluated with measurable output skills and outcome values.