The Effectivity of Virtual Internship of The Graduates of CHTM, UNP For The School Year 2020-2021

The Effectivity of Virtual Internship of the graduates of CHTM, UNP for the School Year
2020-2021
Chapter 1
Introduction
Tourism is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world, but it is unfortunate to inform that
it is now on the decline, as it is one of the sectors hardest hit by the COVID-19 outbreak. In late
2019, a global pandemic broke out, with travel and tourism being one of the hardest hit sectors,
with a major drop in international demand due to global travel restrictions. The uncertainty
regarding the virus's nature and its extraordinary rapid spread has led in enormous cancellations
of accommodations, air travels and activities, as well as the closing of restaurants, cafes, and
hotels. Customers' expectations of service will undoubtedly shift as a result of COVID-19, both
before and during service engagements (Girdhari, 2020).
Similar to other countries, the Philippines was unprepared for and overburdened by COVID-19.
As a result, the Philippines are one of the countries most affected by COVID-19 in Southeast
Asia and the Western Pacific. COVID-19 has brought significant changes to every corner of our
lives and society. The higher education system in tourism and hospitality has to adapt to changes
brought by the current pandemic and move away from traditional classroom settings to online
classrooms. This change impacts many aspects of the student learning environment, particularly
the courses that contain field experiences such as student internship programs of Hospitality and
Tourism field.
Student internship programs are facing unprecedented challenges as a result of COVID-19,
which impacted the Philippines in March 2020. As previously stated, COVID-19 has had an
impact not only on the number of student internships available, but also on the format of
internships. Virtual internships are fieldwork experiences that allow students to gain work
experience from a remote location, usually from home instead of a physical work site.
In the University of Northern Philippines virtual internships was implemented to students prior
to the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced university to change the way they managed
experiential learning courses. Students would not be able to have the same level of engagement
with their site supervisor or coworkers in virtual internships, and they would not be placed in a
position where they would need to experience what it is like to present them professionally and
interact in an office setting for 7–8 hours a day.
Since internships became an integral part of the curriculum, tourism, events, and hospitality
programs have worked hard to improve the quality of the internship experience for students.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic left universities with no options. Many universities and
colleges had to rapidly pivot to virtual internships.
Significance of the Study
This study will discover on the effectivity of virtual internship to the graduates of CHTM,
UNP for the School Year 2020-2021 with the hope that findings will prove useful to the
following:
The students. In order for them to have a better idea of how virtual internships will work in the
new normal. In addition, it will function as one of their sources of assistance and preparation for
their upcoming virtual internship.

Future Researchers. The findings of this study will be an excellent source of information that is
useful for them.
The Academes. To see how beneficial virtual internships are for CHTM, UNP graduates in the
School Year 2020-2021. Furthermore, it will aid them in conceptualizing how to better the
virtual internship in the future while also recognizing the various obstacles that come with the
new virtual internship norm.
Conceptual Framework
The basic framework which was followed throughout the project is drawn below.
Personal
Factors
Environmental School-related
Factors Factors
Internship in the
New Normal
Theoretical Framework
Virtual internships are an example of computer-based classroom simulations. They offer learning
tasks that require students to think and act as professionals and simultaneously familiarize them
with the culture and community of (teaching) occupation Shaffer (2007).
The idea that an internship is self-regulated may be innovative, yet, in a virtual university, the
student is already self-regulated (SRL) or self-directed (SDL). While the theoretical backgrounds
of SRL and SDL may be a bit different, the outcomes mean that the learner is ultimately
responsible for much of the learning process (Saks & Leijen, 2014).
Regardless of anyone’s position on the value of virtual internships, they became an absolute
necessity in the COVID -19 environments (Maurer, 2020).
Internships are becoming an integral part of business curricula (Pittenger, 2018).
Efforts to root the design of internships in learning theory are emerging (Cannon & Geddes,
2019).
With the exponential rise of online education, the call for the greater acceptance and practice of
virtual internships can now be found (Marr, 2019; Reed, Whitten, Swank, Gioia, Marr, Woods,
Jeremiah, & Westerman, 2018).
The success of virtual internships anecdotally noted by businesses during the pandemic will not
surprise the practitioners of online education. With the growth of online education even at
traditional schools, and among ever- decreasing ages, including undergraduates and freshmen,
student experience and confidence with remote work tools are increasing. Online students need
virtual internships for the same reasons they need online education – accessibility (Marr, 2019).
Virtual internships bridge the gap of geographic separation and accessibility for the students and
employers (Clemmons, 2015; Jackson, 2019).
The challenges of virtual internships can be mitigated through better design (Jackson, 2019).
All well-designed internships need 4 Ps – Project, Place, Personnel, and Payment. All four
present significant challenges. For the design of projects, innovative thinking would be helpful to
get beyond the common use of virtual internships for marketing, social-media, or IT-related
projects such as database management or web-design (Eaton, 2018).
Virtual internships are successfully expanding to business disciplines such as logistics, supply
chain management, accounting, and even finance (Maurer, 2020; Thompson, 2020).
Virtual internships offer the same benefits as traditional internships, but also reduce the need for
relocation or unnecessary travel while giving the intern an opportunity to gain experience
working in a virtual environment. In fact, virtual internships add particular value to traditional
education, as well as to distance education (Jeske & Axtell, 2014).
Virtual internships, particularly at the graduate level, provide a number of unique affordances
that have been demonstrated to increase student learning (Conroy & Khan, 2009; Jeske & Axtell,
2014, 2016).
The opportunity to offer virtual internships using computer-mediated communication is
particularly promising when the internship placement is valued as an academic class worthy of
pedagogical improvement (Black & Bachman, 2007).

Paradigm
The research paradigm shows how the research will take place through the Input-Process-Output
system. The input consists of the respondents’ profile and the research questions which focus on
assessing their satisfaction and effectivity of their virtual internship. On the second box, the
process of which the researcher will conduct requires the questionnaire survey to be analyzed
and presented in order to formulate solutions and generate answers for the research problems
presented. The output, presents the possible outcome of the research.
INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

 The Profile of our
 Interview  The Effectivity of
respondents
 Survey Virtual Internship
 Satisfaction and
 Analysis of the graduates of
effectivity of
CHTM, UNP for
virtual internship.
the School Year
2020-2021.
Statement of the Problem
This study is to discover the effectiveness of virtual internship of the CHTM, UNP graduates
school year 2020-2021.

In order to answer the general purpose of the study the researchers will answer the specific
questions.
1. What is the demographic profile of the respondents in terms of:
1.1 Age
1.2 Gender?
2. How may the factors be affecting the virtual internship of the respondents in terms of:
2.1 Personal-related factors;
2.2 School-related factors;
2.3 Environment-related factors?
3. Is there a significant difference on the factors affecting the virtual internship based on their
differences in profile?
4. What are the challenges experienced by the CHTM UNP graduates during virtual
internship?
4.1 Supervisory support;
4.2 Working environment;
4.3 Level of tasks?
Research Hyphothesis
There is no significant differences on the factors affecting the virtual internship based on their
differences in profile.

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The Effectivity of Virtual Internship of the graduates of CHTM, UNP for the School Year

before and during service engagements (Girdhari, 2020).

Student internship programs are facing unprecedented challenges as a result of COVID-19,

interact in an office setting for 7–8 hours a day.

colleges had to rapidly pivot to virtual internships.

Significance of the Study

their upcoming virtual internship.

useful for them.

new virtual internship norm.

with the culture and community of (teaching) occupation Shaffer (2007).

necessity in the COVID -19 environments (Maurer, 2020).

Internships are becoming an integral part of business curricula (Pittenger, 2018).

Jeremiah, & Westerman, 2018).

employers (Clemmons, 2015; Jackson, 2019).

projects such as database management or web-design (Eaton, 2018).

education, as well as to distance education (Jeske & Axtell, 2014).

The opportunity to offer virtual internships using computer-mediated communication is

pedagogical improvement (Black & Bachman, 2007).

presented. The output, presents the possible outcome of the research.

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

Statement of the Problem

school year 2020-2021.

1. What is the demographic profile of the respondents in terms of:

2.1 Personal-related factors;

2.2 School-related factors;

2.3 Environment-related factors?

4.1 Supervisory support;

4.2 Working environment;

4.3 Level of tasks?

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