Third International Conference on Tourism & Leisure Studies

Abstract

Internships are believed to be vital in bridging the gap between a school’s theory and industry’s practice, and successful internships can benefit students to well equip themselves for good opportunities in future career development. However, internship experiences that fail to meet students’ expectations may also discourage them or turn them away from entering the industry. Hence, to be aware of and avoid the potential gap of students’ expectations should not be underestimated. This study explores students’ expectation of internships from an aspect of gender and multiple intelligences expecting to avoid the potential gap with perception. Subjects were eighty college hospitality students who were ready to conduct their internships in the following semesters. They helped to fill out the questionnaires dealing with their personal demographic information, multiple intelligences, and expectations of internships. Findings revealed that gender and multiple intelligences did make a difference in students’ expectations of internships. Some students seemed to be optimistic and unrealistic and might bring about some frustration or disappointment in their real internship world. Suggestions and implications for the triangular partnership of schools, students, and industries would be provided for a more appropriate internship program to avoid the potential gap in advance.