Abstract:

The internship of university students is a support tool for acquiring practical skills, which are a prerequisite for the performance of the future profession of the graduate. Hand in hand, it is necessary to support the development of hard and soft skills so that after graduation, it is possible to confirm the declared result of education with the acquired knowledge, skills and abilities that should be reflected in its competence.

The paper aims to show how respondents perceive the importance of completing the internship during university studies and identify its impact on job search success. The theoretical part defines the internship as an integral part of education. It describes the demands of educational institutions, employers, and professional interest associations to improve students' practical skills during the study.

The empirical part of the paper is focused on the presentation of partial results of quantitative research. A questionnaire survey method was used for research purposes, where the respondents were students and graduates in the study program transport. Statistical methods suitable for examining the correlation between the completion of the internship and the acquired motivation of the student for his further education and employment in the relevant field of study were used to analyse and evaluate the obtained data. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to verify the validity of the hypotheses.

The research results were confronted with the internship providers' experience and the educational institutions. The obtained results showed that the motivation to acquire theoretical knowledge is more dominant among students in the bachelor level of education. In contrast, the interest in a confrontation with practice prevails in the second level of university education. Based on the obtained results, the article points out possible alternatives for developing students' practical skills in connection with the recommendations of experts from the academic sphere and experts representing practice.

Keywords:

Professional practice, internship, skills, education, motivation.