Perceived value of internship and employability skills of psychology graduates in a private higher education

Abstract

This study utilized a descriptive-correlational research design, which sampled Bachelor of Science in Psychology graduates at Central Philippine University with a total of 113 respondents according to sex, with 31 males and 82 females, and graduates with and without honors. The results showed that both male (x=4.05) and female (x=4.11) and graduates with honors (x=4.05) and without honors (x=4.16) showed high levels of perceived value of internship and employability skills, which signifies that they place importance on their internships. Same with their employability skills, as it showed that male (x=4.16) and female (x=4.06) and graduates with honors (x=4.08) and without honors (x=4.09), which also showed high levels of employability skills and signify that they placed importance on their employability skills. The Mann-Whitney U test was utilized in this study, which showed that there was no significant difference between the demographic profile and perceived values of internships (<i>P</i>_honors= 0.246, <i>P</i>_sex= 0.755), as it did not influence their perception of internships, but places importance on it. It also showed no significant difference in the demographic profile (<i>P</i>_honors = 0.942, <i>P</i>_sex = 0.764) for employability skills, as they did not influence their employability skills, but also placed importance on it. Lastly, the relationship between the perceived value of internships and employability skills (<i>p</i>=0.766) showed that they were strongly correlated with each other, which Psychology graduates’ perception on internships played a crucial role in developing the graduates’ employability skills for their future career as it was confirmed in this study that internships strengthens employability skills and fostered positive attitudes toward future career prospects.