ABSTRACT
The study reported in this chapter explores how internship experience contributes to developing students’ employability, including soft skills, and factors influencing their learning experience throughout the internships. The analyses of 28 in-depth interviews with student interns in Tourism and Hospitality, Business Administration and Information Technology of two Vietnamese universities reveal that internships help students consolidate and develop professional knowledge and skills, identify their career paths, expand their professional network, and change their learning attitudes and behaviors. Students’ beliefs and engagement, collaboration between the university and industry, and knowledge and skill gaps between what the university delivers and what the industry needs are important factors shaping their internship learning experience. This chapter recommends that students’ meta-cognition of their learning process and university–industry collaboration should be enhanced to contribute to students’ employability.
