International Journal of Information, Business and Management, Vol. 12, No.

3, 2020

INTERNSHIP PROGRAM EFFECTIVENESS: A JOB OPPORTUNITY

Chan, J.M., Yeap, J.M., Taahir, A.B., *Mohd Remie, M.J.

UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

ABSTRACT

Internship is increasingly become an essential component of undergraduate program in higher education.

It provides students with many benefits such as enhancing valuable working experience, increasing job
performance, strengthening their interpersonal skills as well as establishing a professional network in
order to assist them to have a higher chance in getting job upon graduation. This main purpose of this
study was conducted to examine the relationship between internship factors with university graduates’ job
opportunity. In order to answer the research questions, a quantitative research method was chosen and
online survey has been carried out. Person Product Moment Correlation has been conducted to explain the
relationship between dependent and independent variables in this research. The results of this study imply
that the four factors; working experience, performance, interpersonal skills and social network has a
significant relationship with job opportunity. This indicates that students who emphasized and equipped
with this four variables could increase their chances of getting job after complete their education.

Keywords: Internship, Job Opportunity, Working Experience, Performance, Interpersonal Skills, Social
Network

RESEARCH BACKGROUND & PROBLEM

Internship represents a method of on-job training for students. From the perspective of students, they
might get an overview of the working environment after they start their working career. On the other hand,
from the perspective of companies, they may see this as an opportunity to look for talents which may help
in growing their companies. According to National Association of Colleges and Employers Survey, there
are 63.1% of college graduates with paid internship, 37% of college graduates with unpaid internship,
while 35.2% of college graduates with no internship experience have received their job offers (Rebecca,
2013). This shows that college graduates with internship experience would have more opportunity to get a
job offer compared to those with no internship experience. Most of the universities are now encouraging
students to have internship in a company before graduate and some of the universities set it as a part of
their studies before the students complete their programs. According to Lisa Katz (2014), there are some
benefits to work internship in a company. For example, when company assign the interns with real work
assignments, the interns may learn from practically instead of theory from book. Moreover, the best
significant benefit from internship would likely be offering a “full-time-job-access” from the company as
they already have an insight on the intern’s ability. So, the company may save cost to prevent a failed hire
of employee (Aimee, 2016). The internship program can helps students make connections between

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theories and practices that will provide them with new insights in education. However, there are some
problems such as short internship period, low allowance and internship less valuable may exist and might
be the obstacles for interns.

Short Internship Period

Most of the companies require a minimum three months of internship period. In the study conducted by
Muhamad, Yahya, Shahimi and Mahzan (2009), they reported that the internship duration of ten to twelve
weeks were insufficient for interns to learn and gain the required knowledge. Most of the interns
preferred to have six to nine months of internship period instead of three months (Mihail, 2006). This
indicated that majority of interns believe that they can gain more working experience and knowledge in a
longer internship period. A case study by Prof. Anand Narasimha (2013), reported that longer duration
internship enhance employability, by creating industries readiness and are more meaningful for both
interns and companies. Besides, intern’s skill development process can be accelerated and employers will
have more time to evaluate the interns as prospective employees (Mihail, 2006). A longer internship
period can assist interns to build up relationship with the employees.

Low Allowance
In year 2014, there is a growing number of interns looking to sue companies for an unpaid internship. In
fact, unpaid internships are unlawful in Europe countries including the UK and the US (Tucker, 2014).
However, there is no legislation stated that unpaid internships to be unlawful in Malaysia (Chai, 2014).
Recent year, most of the universities offer a comprehensive paid internship program in variety of fields, but
the range of intern salaries paid by those companies are insufficient for subsistence (Chai, 2014). Based on
210 survey reports submitted to Glassdoor from intern employees in Kuala Lumpur areas, the average
intern salaries in Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya, Damansara, and Cyberjaya were around RM800 –
RM1,000 while average intern wages in Shah Alam, Seri Kembangan and Bandar Baru Sri Petaling were
only around RM300 – RM600 (Glassdoor, 2016). Most of the well-known companies are located in the
business centre of Kuala Lumpur, even in most conservative estimate, it is not surprising that the monthly
cost of living would exceed RM 800 – RM 1000 (Chai, 2014). Moreover, in a survey conducted by the
European Youth Forum, they have found that only 25% of all interns were able to maintain their living with
the compensation they get, and a staggering 65% of the interns still relied on the financial support from
parents to survive throughout the internship (Chai, 2014).

Internship Less Valuable

Normally, interns hope to receive monetary rewards and be treated as a regular employee. However,
employers are not willing to treat interns as regular employees and thus usually assign duties that are
more suitable for college students (Hall et al., 1995). Since intern is the bottom level of employee totem
pole, some interns may only doing menial tasks all day long such as making photocopies, answering

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phone calls and perhaps preparing coffee (Guerrero, 2013). Thus, interns felt they were only low-cost
workers and distorted their work values (Chen et al., 2011). Sometimes, interns do not appreciate the
value of internship program because their work are not appreciated by the company. The short internship
period, low allowance and internship less valuable that we described in the text could affect the intern
working experience, performance, interpersonal skills and social network while they are seeking job
opportunity once they are graduated from university. Thus, in this study, we would like to investigate the
relationship between all these factors with job opportunity and hopefully can provide a new insight into
the current internship scheme to better improve the interns’ internship experience, while in the same time,
bring a maximum benefit to the company that offer the internship programme to the interns.
Research Objectives
1. To investigate the relationship between intern working experience and job opportunity.
2. To identify the relationship between intern performance and job opportunity.
3. To determine the relationship between intern interpersonal skills and job opportunity.
4. To explore the relationship between intern social network and job opportunity.

Significance of study
The main purpose of this research is to provide a better understanding on the factors such as individual
working experience, performance, interpersonal skills and social network during internship programs on
graduates’ future job opportunity. Besides, this research is also helpful to all the students towards
exploring the benefits of internship program, where it is not only serve as an education enhancement but
also may increase their job opportunity when they finished their undergraduate program. Internship
program provide a good platform for students to have a real life working experience. Moreover, it also
serve as a platform for students to gain working experience, skills and knowledge during the internship.
Through this research, we hope it may change the attitudes or perspective of students toward internship
program.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Job Opportunity
Job opportunity can be interpreted as a chance for employment or promotion or simply said as a chance to
get a job. In most of the countries, students will try to search for summer jobs during the long summer
vacation while students who enrolled in higher education would try to apply for internships (Forrest
Recruitment, 2016). In the study of Bratberg and Nilsen (1998, pp.1-29), they found that doing internships
seems to shorten the period of job searching after graduation as compare to person at the same educational
level who have not undergone the internship. This indicated students who doing internship have a greater
opportunity in getting a job upon graduation. Nevertheless, unemployment among the fresh graduates has
become an issue in the society. According to The Department of Statistic Malaysia published in 2016, the
average unemployment rate in Malaysia was 3.25 percent from 1998 until 2015, whereas the highest rate
has reached 4.50 percent in March 1999 and the recorded lowest rate was 2.70 percent in August 2012.
However, the unemployment rate in recent year has slightly decrease from 3.3 percent in 2014 to 3.1

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percent in 2015. Although the rate only show a small reduction, the unemployment issue is still an issue in
the society and it will still cause some anxieties in the fresh graduates when looking for job after their
graduation.

Internship
According to Lam and Ching (2007), internship is a bridge between academic learning process and the
reality of working environment. According to Beggs, Ross, and Goodwin (2008), internship program
provide learning opportunities for students to experience the professional practice and activities in the real
working environment. Moreover, it serves as a platform for student to associate their academic knowledge
into real life job application. Most public and private universities in Malaysia required undergraduates to
participate in internship program in order to help them obtain practical working experiences, to apply the
theoretical knowledge they have learned in university and prepare for their future careers. Generally,
most of the universities and colleges has a fix certain amount of credit hours for internship in student’s
study progression (Michael, 2002).

Interns Working Experience

Working experience can be defined as the experience that a person obtains while working in a particular
type of job. Lerner (1988) stated that internship can assist students to obtain working experience in a
particular areas of career and eventually increase their potential to have a successful career in the future.
Collin and Tynjala (2003) noted that working experience that gained through the internship program will
give a credible means for softening the reality shock of transitioning from the world of academics to the
working world. On the other hand, a bad internship experience could cause students to change their work
value and ultimately the career path (Fox, 2001 as cited in Chen et al., 2011). In addition, the study of
Rigsby, Addy, Herring, and Polledo (2013) on the usefulness of internship experience to job opportunities
among 96 interns in three of the Big 4 accounting firms has concluded that internship experience is useful
for students in getting job offers because employing firms highly value internship experiences, which
enhance the job opportunities among students with internship as compare to non-interns. This indicated
that internship experience is crucial for students in securing future career opportunities. A longer period of
internship enables students to gain more working experience. However, only good and valuable internship
experiences are beneficial to students and assist them to be successful in their careers.

H1: There is a significant relationship between intern working experience and job opportunity.

Interns Performance
Performance can be defined as the act of completing a task given by the employer with standards of
accuracy, completeness and speed (Web Finance Inc, 2016). However, interns’ performance could be
important factors as good performance may lead to high productivity which helps to increase the
reputation of the organization (Wu, 2014). According Steve Cohen’s research, students who participate in

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internship could have earned experience with professional written communication such as abstract, paper
and also proposal. Moreover, internship could enhance student’s presentation skills by learning and
experience presentation during conference at workplace (Steve, 2014). This could help a lot for students
as most of their study specifically on completing assignment and preparing presentation. With better
assignment and presentation score, it may help to boost up student’s academic grades in order to get a
better job opportunity. In addition, good grade of performance appraisal during internship could be an
advantage on their interview and even a plus point for their favourite job. Therefore, the performance of
interns could affect their job opportunity greatly.

H2: There is a significant relationship between intern performance and job opportunity.

Interns Interpersonal Skill

Interpersonal skills can be defined as the ability of a person to communicate cooperatively in groups,
either verbal or non-verbal. (Gardner, 1983 as cited in Suhaimi, Marzuki and Mustaffa, 2014). In today’s
job market, having technical skills is insufficient, thus, employees have to show their abilities and
interpersonal skills to fit with the organizational culture. Employers often seek to hire people with strong
interpersonal skills because they want employee who can work well in a team and able to communicate
effectively with colleagues and customers. Internship is one of the ways that students can develop their
interpersonal skills. Internships allow students to build interpersonal skills that are beneficial in the
employment interview (Taylor, 1988). In addition, internships can show potential employers how students
communicate with co-workers, supervisors and customers. In the study of Beard and Morton (1999)
regarding the effects of internship predictors on successful field experience has suggested that
interpersonal skill is one of the six important predictors of internship success. As a result, students who
valued by employers and being treated fairly during internship would improve their interpersonal skills
which eventually lead them toward a subsequent job opportunities and successful in future careers.

H3: There is a significant relationship between intern interpersonal skills and job opportunity.

Interns Social Network

Social network could be defined as an action of people with whom they interact on a regular basis which
may influence our beliefs, decision and also behaviours (Matthew, 2010). With the opportunity of having
internship in some organization, it provides a great prospect for the interns to have a higher chance to
obtain the job opportunity in the organization when the interns have good relationship with the colleagues
and superior. Social network become a necessary factors in our life, it could help us to go through the
obstacles easily. For example, in the workplace, there will be a lot of things that we need to learn and do,
with the help of social networking, we could get tutorial lesson from seniors which will lead us to handle
the job in an easier way with less chance of error. Internship could be one of the platforms which allow
the interns to expand their social network. After they expand their social network, it will greatly improve
their job opportunity in their future career path.

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H4: There is a significant relationship between intern social network and job opportunity.

Conceptual Framework

Working
Experience

Performance

Job Opportunity
Interpersonal
Skills

Social Network

Figure 1: The Conceptual Framework

METHODOLOGY
This study focuses on the relationship between internship programs (interns’ working experience,
performance, interpersonal skills and social network) towards fresh graduates’ job opportunity. The
sampling frame of this study consisted of fresh graduates from both public and private universities in
Klang Valley. By referring to the target population, a total of 1000 survey questionnaires was distributed
to the population while 276 questionnaires from respondent were received and usable. This research was
conducted by using online survey which is a self-administered questionnaire posted on a web site
(Sirakaya-Turk, 2011). Google forms were used to develop the questionnaire. Survey through online
platform can help to maximize the questionnaire coverage, easily to reach to the target respondents, and
increase instant feedback delivery. Respondents can answer the questionnaire at their convenience time
and location. A wide geographical area can be achieved through web survey. Furthermore, questionnaire
distribution through online is able to validate the research samples have experienced in using internet.
This study employed purposive judgmental methodology to conform target respondents to some criteria
setting. Hence, a series of screening test will be conducted to the target respondents before online
questionnaires were delivered to them. The questionnaire adapted in this study has been divided into
Section A and B for statistical analysis. Section A is related to demographic background of respondents
such as gender, age, ethnicity, educational level, and duration of internship which is measured by ordinal
and nominal scales. Dependent and independent variables which are (I) Job opportunity, (II) Internship
program, (III) Working experience, (IV) Performance, (V) Interpersonal skills, and (VI) Social network in
Section B will be measured by likert-scales with five-point scale (1-strongly disagree to 5- strongly agree),
which designed to examine how strongly subjects agree or disagree with the statements. These questions
are asked to fulfil objectives and measurement for each variable. Pilot test is a pre-test for the
questionnaire in a smaller number of respondents before the real data to be collected (Creswell, 2009).

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The purposes of this pilot test are to identify the validity and reliability of the questionnaire and to
determine the potential problems incurred. Thus, 50 respondents will be chosen randomly from the target
population to carry out the pilot test and the feedbacks regarding to the overall questionnaire design will
be collected. Hence, improvement for the questionnaires were made before distributing the questionnaires
to the concrete target sample. Data analysis is a process of investigating raw data and draw conclusion of
the information to make better decision (Rouse, 2008). In this research, data analysis will be conducted
using IBM SPSS version 20. There are several data analysis method will be used in this research included
pie chart, descriptive analysis, normality test, reliability analysis, and Pearson correlation coefficient.

DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

Pilot testing
A total of 50 respondents from target population were selected to participate in this pilot test. The
respondents who had involved in the pilot test are excluded from participating in the actual survey
conducted after this.

Descriptive Analysis
In the research, there are only 276 respondents collected for data analysis due to the time constraint. The
descriptive analysis encompassed gender, age, ethnicity, educational level, total internship program
respondents had gone through with and total internship period.
Demographic Background of Respondents
Among the 276 respondents, 180 of them were female (65.22%). The number of female is almost double
the number of male which is only 96 (65.22%). This indicated most of the respondents in this survey are
female more than male. From the aspect of age, there are two separate age groups of respondents, which
are 22-23 years old, and 24 years old and above. Most of the respondents in this survey fall in the group
of age from 22-23 with an amount of 185 respondents (67.03%), and group of age 24 years old and above
with an amount of 91 respondents (32.97%). This shows that most of the fresh graduates’ age was
between 22-23 years old. The majority number of respondents are Chinese ethic group which is 213
(77.17%), followed by Malay ethic group which is 35 (12.68%) and finally the lease number of
respondents was Indian ethnic group which is only 28 (10.14%). From the aspect of educational level,
majority of the respondents are Bachelor’s Degree holder with an amount of 250 (90.6%) from the total
number of 276 respondents in this survey. There are 23 respondents are diploma holder (8.3%) and only 3
respondents are master holders (1.1%). Moreover, the majority of the respondents which comprises of
124 (44.93%) have gone through with 1 time of internship program whereas 98 respondents (35.51%) had
2 times of internship experiences followed by 54 respondents (19.57%) had gone through with 3 times of
internship program. Furthermore, most of the respondents had 2 to 3 months of internship experience
which comprises of 166 (60.14%), followed by 75 respondents (27.17%) had 6 months or above
internship experience, there are 35 respondents (11.59%) had gone through with 4 to 5 months of
internship program and only 3 respondents (1.09%) gone through 1 month or less internship program.

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Normality Test
There are two ways of assessing the normality test which are by assessing numerically and graphically
(Testing for Normality using SPSS Statistics, 2013). In this research, descriptive statistics for all
independent variables and dependent variable are generated, which concern on the skewness and kurtosis
value of the summation scores of each variable. Skewness test is to measure the symmetry and the lack of
symmetry (Measures of Skewness and Kurtosis, n.d.). The distribution or data set is symmetric when it
looks the same to the left or right from the centre point. Kurtosis test is defined as a parameter that
describes the shape of a random variable’s probability distribution (Measures of Skewness and Kurtosis,
n.d.).

Items (summation Skewness Kurtosis

score) Statistic Stand. Error Statistic Stand. Error
Working experience -0.623 0.147 0.216 0.292
Performance -0.359 0.147 -0.255 0.292
Interpersonal skills -0.739 0.147 0.439 0.292
Social network -0.520 0.147 -0.085 0.292
Job opportunity -0.406 0.147 -0.288 0.292
Table 4.1: Normality Test Results

Table 4.1 showed the results of Skewness and Kurtosis’s statistic and standard error on variables. For
independent variables, the summation score of working experience has a skewness value of -0.623 and
kurtosis value of 0.216. For summation score of performance, shows that the skewness value of -0.359
and kurtosis value -0.255. The summation score of interpersonal skills has a skewness value of -0.739 and
kurtosis value of 0.439. The skewness and kurtosis value for the summation score of social network is
-0.520 and -0.085 respectively. For dependent variable, the summation score of job opportunity which has
the skewness values of -0.406 and kurtosis value of -0.288. All the variables have the standard error of
0.147 for Skewness and 0.292 for Kurtosis. Both skewness and kurtosis values are used to test the
normality of data distributed. The data is considered as close to normal if its skewness and kurtosis have
values within the range of -2 and +2 cut-off point set by George and Mallery (2010). Since both values
obtained in all the independent and dependent variables are within the range of -2 and +2, therefore the
distribution of the mean is regarded as normally distributed.

Reliability test
Reliability test was carried out to measure the internal consistency of a set of items by using Cronbach’s
Alpha. Internal consistency represented how closely related a set of items are in a survey instrument
whereas Crobach’s Alpha is a reliability coefficient that signified how well a set of items are positively
correlated to each other. The closer the value of Cronbach’s Alpha is to 1.0, the higher the reliability of
internal consistency (Sekaran & Bougie, 2013).

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Variables Cronbach’s No. of Mean Variance Standard

Alpha (α) Items Deviation
Working experience 0.880 6 4.094 0.382 0.618
Performance 0.887 6 4.007 0.401 0.633
Interpersonal skills 0.897 6 4.042 0.425 0.652
Social network 0.915 6 3.796 0.506 0.711
Job opportunity 0.758 4 3.438 0.620 0.787
Table 4.2: Reliability Scale Statistic for Four Independent Variables and a Dependent Variable

Table 4.2 showed the results of Cronbach’s Alpha of each independent and dependent variable tested from
the actual sample. For independent variables, working experience obtained Cronbach's Alpha of 0.880,
performance obtained Cronbach's Alpha of 0.887, interpersonal skills obtained Cronbach's Alpha of
0.897and social network obtained Cronbach's Alpha of 0.915. For dependent variable, job opportunity
obtained Cronbach's Alpha of 0.758. The results showed that all the variables used in the questionnaire
recorded a Cronbach’s Alpha value greater than 0.70 (α > 0.70), represented the questionnaire had internal
consistency. Hence, the reliability test supported the appropriateness of the instrument used in this
research.

Pearson Product Moment Correlation

Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to determine the relationships between independent
variables and dependent variables (Sekaran & Bougie, 2013). The relationship between working
experience (WE), performance (P), interpersonal skills (IS) social network (SN) and job opportunity (JO)
was investigated by using Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients. Preliminary analyses were
performed to ensure no violation of the assumptions of normality and linearity. In table 4.3 showed the
result of correlation analysis.

Variables WE P IS SN JO
WE 0.837** 0.712** 0.558** 0.502**
P 0.837** 0.557** 0.425**
IS 0.522** 0.350**
SN 0.438**
JO
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

Table 4.3: Correlation Coefficient between Selected Independent Variables and Job Opportunity

H01: There is no significant relationship between intern working experience and job opportunity.
Ha1: There is a significant relationship between intern working experience and job opportunity.

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As depicted in Table 4.3, there is a significant relationship between working experience and job
opportunity (r = 0.502, p < 0.05). Therefore, null hypothesis (Ho1) is rejected and alternative hypothesis
(Ha1) is accepted. The strength of the relationship is positive and moderate. The positive correlation
coefficient of 0.502 indicates that working experience increase, the job opportunity also increases. The
research support the research’s findings of Mihail (2006), Martin and Wilkerson (2006) and Rigsby, Addy,
Herring, and Polledo (2013) who concluded that working experience impacts university graduates’ job
opportunity.

H02: There is no significant relationship between intern performance and job opportunity.
Ha2: There is a significant relationship between intern performance and job opportunity.

As depicted in Table 4.3, there is a significant relationship between working experience and job
opportunity (r = 0.425, p < 0.05). Therefore, null hypothesis (Ho2) is rejected and alternative hypothesis
(Ha2) is accepted. The strength of the relationship is positive and moderate. The positive correlation
coefficient of 0.425 indicates that performance increase, the job opportunity also increases. The research
support the research’s findings of Steve (2014) who concluded that performance impacts university
graduates’ job opportunity.

H03: There is no significant relationship between intern interpersonal skills and job opportunity.
Ha3: There is a significant relationship between intern interpersonal skills and job opportunity.

As depicted in Table 4.3, there is a significant relationship between working experience and job
opportunity (r = 0.350, p < 0.05). Therefore, null hypothesis (Ho3) is rejected and alternative hypothesis
(Ha3) is accepted. The strength of the relationship is positive and weak. The positive correlation
coefficient of 0.350 indicates that interpersonal skills increase, the job opportunity also increases. The
research support the research’s findings of Taylor (1988) who concluded that interpersonal skills impact
university graduates’ job opportunity.

H04: There is no significant relationship between intern social network and job opportunity.
Ha4: There is a significant relationship between intern social network and job opportunity.

As depicted in Table 4.3, there is a significant relationship between working experience and job
opportunity (r = 0.438, p < 0.05). Therefore, null hypothesis (Ho4) is rejected and alternative hypothesis
(Ha4) is accepted. The strength of the relationship is positive and moderate. The positive correlation
coefficient of 0.438 indicates that social network increase, the job opportunity also increases. The
research support the research’s findings of Andrew (2016) who concluded that social network impacts
university graduates’ job opportunity.

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Conclusion
In brief, an overview results has been illustrated in this chapter. The further discussion will be explain
details in the following chapter, includes the discussion on the result findings, highlights the implication
of the study, justify the limitation of study and suggest recommendation for future research.

CONCLUSION, LIMITATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The research study is concluded to examine the internship program effectiveness which provide an
advantage for university graduates future job opportunity. From the literature review, previous studies
revealed that independent variables such as internship experience, CGPA, personality, interpersonal skills,
performance affect the job opportunity. In this study, intern working experience, performance,
interpersonal skills and social network had been chosen to focus on. This study was designed to examine
the fresh graduates from both public and private universities in Klang Valley. There are a total of four
hypotheses that had been developed to examine their significant relationships. In justifying the
relationship between all the independent variables and dependent variable, Pearson Product Moment
Correlation showed that all the independent variables have significant relationships with the dependent
variable. Hence, it can be concluded that working experience, performance, interpersonal skills and social
network affect the job opportunity among the graduates.

Implication of Study
This research paper has conducted a study on the internship factors that will affect university graduates’
job opportunity. These factors are intern’s working experience, performance, interpersonal skills and
social network. All this four factors have been proven that it would affect university graduates’ job
opportunity. Almost all of the respondents recognize that there is a positive relationship between
internship factor and job opportunity. Based on the result, it shows that internship may influence or
benefit university graduates’ job opportunity. Hence, the findings from this research paper provide
implications for all the university students who are doing their internship program. Internship program not
only affect the student academic result, it also influence the students’ job opportunity after graduate from
university. By identifying the most important factors that influence university graduates’ job opportunity,
this research paper will be serve as a guideline to help the students in improving their performance during
internship in order to get job opportunities after they graduate effectively. In conclusion, this research
paper studied on the relationship of intern’s working experience, performance, interpersonal skills and
social network towards university graduates’ job opportunity. Through this research, the students can
clearly identify the internship factors to improve their performance during internship in order to achieve
success in their future career.

Limitation of Study
The first limitation is the target population and sample size. In this study, the sample size of 276
respondents might not reflect all the interns in Klang Valley. However, the sample size of the respondents

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may affect the accuracy of the research. This study only focuses on students who have internship
experience where minorities of them are able to complete the survey and others who don’t have internship
experience will ignored the survey. The second limitation is possible existence of other variables. This
study only examined the relationship between intern working experience, performance, interpersonal
skills, social network and job opportunity. There is also a possibility that there are other factors affecting
university graduates’ job opportunity that were not measured in this study. The following limitation is
respondents are restricted from giving their own views. This study is designed using quantitative research.
Therefore, respondents can only provide feedback by answering the questions range from strongly
disagree to strongly agree (1-5). This has restricted respondent from giving their own answers and
feedback regarding the question asked in the questionnaire.

Recommendation for Future Research

In this research, there are only 276 respondents where most of the interns did not respond to the online
survey. Future researcher may increase the sample size by involving more respondents in the wider
geographic area such as distributing questionnaire outside Klang Valley. In facts, increase of sample size
in the future study could determine the internship factors affecting university graduates’ job opportunity
and generate more efficient and accurate data. Furthermore, this study has a limitation of examining only
the relationship between intern working experience, performance, interpersonal skills, social network and
job opportunity. Therefore, future study should involve other internship factors to understand more about
the benefits of internship that might affect university graduate’s job opportunity. Lastly, this study is
designed using quantitative research which restricts respondents from giving their own views towards
internship and job opportunity. Hence, a qualitative research can be conducted in the future research in
order to allow the respondents to provide their own views, opinions and feedback towards the study.

Conclusion
In conclusion, this research study provide a better understanding about an internship program
effectiveness which provide an advantage for university graduates job opportunity. The research shows
that the four independent variables which are working experience, performance, interpersonal skills and
social network play a crucial role in affecting the job opportunity. As such, students who have not gone
through internship before or required to go through internship in their current educational level such as
diploma, degree or master level need to be emphasized and equipped with this four variables; to enhance
their working experience, improve their job performance, strengthen their interpersonal skills and develop
a professional network during their internship so that it can be an advantage for them to increase their job
opportunity after they complete their education as well as benefit them throughout their career in the
future. If students do not conscious of the importance and valuable of internship, they would not
emphasize on this four variables, thus, they may have a lower chance to get a full-time job offer after
graduate as compare to students who have a better understanding on the importance of internship program.
Apart from this, researchers wish that this research study will offer a useful insights for further studies on
internship program effectiveness and job opportunity. Nevertheless, the future studies are still important

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and necessary in order to verify and assess the applicability of the findings across different geographical
areas in Malaysia such Terengganu, Pahang, Sabah and Sarawak and different nations.

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