Abstract:

The Faculty of Public Administration at the University of Ljubljana has been organising compulsory internships continuously since 2005. In line with the Bologna Process, internships as part of the study programme represent the first contact with a real working environment for many students. The aim of the study is to find out how employers evaluate students during the internship. Using a conventional questionnaire, feedback was obtained from 47 employers from the private and public sectors in the 2022/23 academic year. The questionnaire was divided into three thematic sections covering theoretical knowledge, the ability to cope with specific challenges and the assessment of personality traits. The empirical results show that employers rate students' theoretical knowledge highest in the areas of administrative law and organisation, slightly lower in human resource management and lowest in public finance. Employers believe that students are relatively well prepared to solve selected problems in the internship context and emphasise characteristics such as independence, curiosity and interest in practical challenges. In terms of personality traits, social skills predominate, particularly in dealing with colleagues and customers. The results point to the need to improve the internship curriculum to close knowledge gaps in the area of public finance, to extend the current internship duration beyond 200 hours and to strengthen the content in the area of human resource management.

Keywords:

Public administration internship, employer evaluation, digitalisation, personality traits, curriculum improvement.