Job reality during internship of LHU English majors

LAC HONG UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE RESEARCH REPORT Job reality during internship of lhu english majors Student: NGUYEN THI VAN ANH Supervisor: Mr TRAN VO THANH TUNG (M.A.) BIEN HOA, DECEMBER 2019 i CONTENT ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Background of the study Purposes Significance of the study Research question CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW The importance of English language nowadays Job opportunities of an English major The requirements of recruiters towards employees nowadays Faculty of English Language in Lac Hong University Internship 5.1 What is internship? 5.2 Internship significance CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURE 12 Aims and objective 12 Participant 12 Research approach 12 3.1 Instruments for data collection 12 3.1.1 Questionnaire to students 12 3.1.2 Interview of recruiters 13 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 14 i Questionnaire to students 14 1.1 Internship status of students 14 1.2 Evaluation of students about their internship and the university’s curriculum 21 Interview with recruiters 26 2.1 The requirement of recruiters toward employees 26 2.2 Most important skills 27 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 28 Main conclusion of this study 29 Limitation 30 Recommendations 31 3.1 Recommendation for students 31 3.2 Recommendation for the university 31 REFERENCES 32 APPENDICES 35 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The completion of this study would not have been possible without the contributions of the following people whom I would like to acknowledge First of all I would like to express my special thanks to the Board of Director of Lac Hong University for providing us with such good facilities and enjoyable learning environment with chances and opportunities from which students can take advantage to improve knowledge and sharpen skills My deepest gratitude goes to my instructor, Mr Tran Vo Thanh Tung for all his guidance, supports, critical advices as well as his encouragement during the time I did my research, despite being always busy with his schedule Besides, I wish to send my sincere to all teachers at English Department who have taught me devotedly Also, I would like to assert my gratefulness to students from 15AV111, 15AV112, and 15AV113 as well as Human resources managers from Sacom Corporation, Elite Joint Stock Company and Fashion Garmnet Co.ltd for willingly joining this study and contributing to the success of my research I value the assistance they provided with the data collection Last but not least, I really appreciate my family and friends supporting, encouraging and caring about me during the whole time I was carrying out this research iii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Background of the study Nancy O’Neill (2010) wrote that an internship which happens in a short period of time is an opportunity offered by an employer to usually undergraduates or senior students Normally, an internship can last between a month and three months Coco (2002) stated, internships with the emphasis firmly on training give students opportunity to gain real-life experience of the workplace and field they hope to get into, which not only helps interns gain practical skills and decide if the career they are experiencing is suitable for them, but also enables them to make contacts with recruiters to get the security for a job and “climbing the first rung on the career ladder”, said in an internship journal of Wikijob According to Mr Trinh Minh Tan (2015), understanding the great advantages of internship program, colleges and universities in Vietnam have offered internship programs, which are carried out at least two months after students are trained and get fully expertise knowledge as well as already mentally prepared for working in a professional environment This internship program is an important factor to not only the university and students but also to the enterprises In 1997, Lac Hong University (LHU) established the Faculty of English Language, and so far the Department has enrolled totally 19 courses, and 15 courses have done the internships, gaining practical experience to make significant contribution to the social economic development of the Southeast region in particular and of the whole country in general However, up to now, there has been no research conducted to reflect the internship situation of students as well as their expectation for the program; therefore, to better understand the situation, I decide to carry out an investigation into job reality during internship of English majors in LHU Purposes Based on the indicators of employment rate, income, promotion, and integration ability, this study provides the information about the senior students’ status after finishing their academic learning and provides readers an overview of current career circumstance of students in their internship Significance of the study The study, of which the purpose is to obtain the job status of senior students, is very important since the information provided by senior students will greatly contribute to the evaluation of the effectiveness of the university curriculum as well as provide useful information about future career to English majors Through that, the University will have more scientific bases to support students during their internships and adjust the content of the training program to meet the increasing needs of recruiters and job market Research question What is the percentage of LHU English majors having an official job during their internships? Which fields their jobs belong to? Beside school knowledge, what else interns need to equip themselves with to increase their job opportunities? CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW The importance of English language nowadays Shaik Riyaz Ahmad (2016) stated that English is the way to get better education and employment opportunities “English language plays a crucial role to weave the world into a single thread”, she said English is the second language in almost all countries Besides United Kingdom, 60 out of 196 countries see English as their official language, said by Thanh Binh (2015) He also mentioned that English, which is the official language used in European Union, the United Nations, the NATO, the European Free Trade Association and many national organizations and alliance, sis used in global diplomacy According to Phung Van Minh (2015), in today globalization, along with the development of technology, medicine, engineering and Education and etc, English language is now playing the most important role Said by Ms Dinh Thị My Le (2018), English now became indispensable Most Internet contents and programs are using English as the main display language Not only is English used in science term, but it is also used in all fields Phung Van Minh (2015) stated that in a developing country like Vietnam, since most people are aware of the significance of English language in finding a good job, communicating with the outside world, or accessing the scientific resources, the language has been taught very early not only in secondary or high schools but also in universities and colleges which are now having many subjects taught in English as well as setting the standard of foreign language output for graduates Rajathurai Nishanthi (2018) defined that companies or organizations consider English an importance factor in recruitment They will decide whether an employee is hired or not after checking his or her English ability International companies expect employees to fluently communicate in English and usually consider their staff well educated if they are good English speakers, writers, readers and listeners English is the dominant business language and it has become a must for people to speak English if they are to enter the global workforce In Airbus, Daimler Fast Retailing, Nokia, Renault, Samsung, SAP, Technicolor, and Microsoft in Beijing-global companies, English is their official corporate language Said by Ms Dinh Thị My Le (2018), if a person has strong English communication ability, he or she can have higher opportunity in getting good job Many employers today make English their priority in finding employees For instance, it is impossible for a graduate who would like to have the opportunity to work in a hotel or a good resort with high salary and dynamic and stable working environment when the graduate does not know how to communicate in English Although for students, it is challenging to master English, it is the key to help graduates be more successful in the future, improve themselves and develop their career According to Nguyen Thi Thu Ha (2017), when a person is good at foreign languages, especially English, it is an advantage and opportunity to work in large enterprises For instance, fresh graduates with excellent expertise knowledge but bad English skills can fail in their job interviews This is really a regrettable thing, but it can help indicate the importance of English nowadays Good English competence is always a remarkable edge when applying for a job and when working It can be said that English is an indispensable ticket for anyone who wishes to assert themselves in the integration period Job opportunities of an English major In the journal “English majors, there’s no worry about unemployment” of the Young newspaper, Tran Huynh (2018), the author quoted the speech of Mr Tang Huu Tan - head of the admissions committee of Ton Duc Thang University, about English majors that there are now many universities offering English language training In particular, each school has the strength to train a specialization of this industry including translation, English teaching and Business English Regarding the current English language curriculum, most universities or colleges have the same basic curriculum, but the output orientation of students in each school may be different Students studying English language will be equipped with expertise knowledge like politics, ethic, professional and health qualities and soft skills such as communicating, presenting, analyzing, solving problems, and working in groups, which enable them to work effectively in English-specific professional fields With the knowledge provided, new graduates from English major can work as translators or interpreters in different organizations like diplomatic agencies, media agencies, publishers, book publishing centers, newspapers, magazines or other economic social organizations, Moreover, English majors can be media specialists, event organizers, secretaries, assistants, and etc in foreign companies Furthermore, they can work in travel agencies, hotels and restaurants as tour guides or consultants, in universities, colleges, vocational schools, high schools, or foreign language centers as teachers of English Also mentioned in this article, Dr Tang Huu Tan said that English major offers the diversity in job opportunities There are very few graduates in this major unemployed However, Dr Tan also stated that besides academic knowledge, students need to equip themselves with soft skills to easily seize the chance in getting attractive jobs after graduation In accordance to Economic and Distributional Impacts of Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership: The case of Vietnam written by Maryla Maliszewska, Zoryana Olekseyuk and Israel OsorioRodarte (2018), Vietnam has signed the CP-TPP Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership Agreement and the ASEAN Economic Community, opening up potential employment opportunities for the English Language industry, with the attractive salary favor for English Language graduates- the average of 600-900 USD / month for fresh graduated students and can be up to 2,000 USD / month for those who have experienced Mentioned in journal “Career opportunities from international languages - English major” of Gia Dinh Univesity (2019), with the advantage of being allowed to freely work in the economic sector of 10 AEC countries, Vietnamese workforce with strong English skills will have the opportunity to access over 6,000,000 attractive jobs English language is always a competitive factor to take advantage at work, which expand the opportunity to find a job in multinational corporations or can even build self-own business model Therefore, the English Language opens up to more freedom to choose a job without narrowing down opportunities in just Vietnamese companies Fully equipped with both expertise knowledge and integration skills, students can quickly integrate into an international environment and take on many different positions after graduating from English major The requirements of recruiters towards employees nowadays According to M.S Vu The Vu and M.S Tran Thanh Tong (2013), the requirement for the employees can be classified according to different recruitment positions For instance, working in Production - Quality - Purchasing Department, employees are expected to have organizational, managerial and professional skills AdministrativePersonnel position need to be good in terms of office computing, communication, organization, communication, and personnel organization skills Marketing-BusinessCustomer Care positions are highly expected to have good communication, analysis, negotiation, relationship building and development skills Finally, the position of Accounting and Finance need to meet the requirement of employers in having analysis, office computing, and specialized computing skills Moreover, in accordance to the research result of Finch, D., Nadeau, J & O’Reilly, N (2012), most employers have defined their five requirements when they recruit one employee There are soft skills such as communication, listening, teamwork skills, and professional in work which employers consider as the important factor for working in professional environment and in selecting suitable employees for their corporation showed by Lievens and Sackett (2012) In the research about “Employers’ Perception On Soft Skills Of Graduates: A Study Of Intel Elite Soft Skill Training” of A Fairuzza Binti Hairi and partner (2011), they listed five vital soft skills needed in the working place with the respectively descending importance, including Communication, Teamwork, Decision Making & Problem Solving, Creative & Critical Thinking and Program & Project Management skill There is a finding that a graduate having technical skills but lacking sufficient relevant soft skills will not be assured of a job; problem solving skill according to Stiwne, E.E & Jungert, T (2010) and Wellman, N (2010), is necessary in every position in a company which demand the abilities of decision making, analysis and generalization 2.2 Most important skills When hiring employees, firstly, all recruiters always require candidates to have good higher-order thinking skills and communication skills The ability to think, reason, make sound decisions to process the work and know how to negotiate and persuade people are crucial for employees desiring to well and to develop themselves A person who can think critically, act logically, and evaluate situations to make decisions and solve problems, is a valuable asset Secondly, recruiters always need a person who know how to work and work well with the team members Good teamwork structures provide your organization with a diversity of thought, creativity, perspectives, opportunities, and problem-solving approaches which in turn increases their success to problem solve and arrive at solutions more efficiently and effectively Thirdly, time management, presentation and computer skills are evaluated as 50% of necessary when employed one staff 20% and 10% respectively of importance in employees’ ability are work independently skills and ability to handle pressure 27 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS The data was collected to answer the three research questions: ✓ What is the percentage of LHU English majors having an official job during their internship? ✓ Which fields their jobs belong to? ✓ Beside school knowledge, what else interns need to equip themselves with to increase their job opportunities? In this chapter, findings drawn from previous studies are discussed in relationships to the aims of the research Thus, the findings of this research are grouped into two following aspects according to the three research questions Research question 1: What is the percentage of LHU English majors having an official job during their internship? Research question 2: Which fields their jobs belong to? In general, up to this time most of students in course 15 of English Department have found the official job after their successful internship 100% of have presently employed as intern during July to December They separately working in developed areas such as Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai and Binh duong Province with many industrial zones bringing students higher opportunity to get good and stable jobs Due to the development of private sector in labor market, most students are working for many private enterprises mainly in education field (21%), textile field (17%) and construction and household furniture supplier (7%) Because all of the students are fresh graduates with less experience in real work, it is clear that the majority of them are interned as office staff in departments of Human resources (30%), Sales (20%) and marketing (6%), but surprisingly 4% of the 28 students have took their internship as branch managers, in which they will become managers as soon as they complete their internship This can be considered as a positive sign for future career of English majors in courses afterward Up to now, nearly all of the interns are presently employed that is in line with the course that they have taken with the stable average salary of 6.6 million VND All identified work related values particularly professional integrity was possessed by the respondents in their occupation Research question 3: Beside school knowledge, what else interns need to equip themselves with to increase their job opportunities? Overall, almost all the subject in university’s curriculum are well applied in students’ internship program as well as thin their official work However, to raise the effectiveness in job performance and opportunity in finding good jobs, students of course 15 at English Department after their internship have drawn out that they have to master four main English skills, improve their communication skills through participate in school’s activities as well as take part-time jobs, and have knowledge of the position they work in and basic office skills Besides, they make the suggestions to the university to provide more training classes about expertise knowledge of teaching, and bring into practice to office equipment The recruiters in corporations have listed their requirement and skills students need to equip to raise their opportunity in job market in accordance to descending importance that critical thinking, basic knowledge of the duty in employees’ positions, communication skills, teamwork skills, time management and organization skills, independently working and ability to handle pressure Overall, the university always offer related skills to real life work training classes to raise opportunity to find job of students as well as to meet the requirement of labor market; however, there are still some limitation of time so the courses may offer just some aspects and are not meet all students’ requirements This requires students to actively take time self-learning to satisfy the recruiters Main conclusion of this study 29 Students of the Faculty of English Language graduated from Lac Hong University with a high proportion of employment in many fields of different economic sectors Time for students to find a job of internship is very convenient, most get jobs right when the internship period begin However, when trying to adapt and blend in a new environment, interns may face difficulties with assigned tasks demanding a lot of skills and knowledge Being new comers with no experience, they may struggle to overcome the difficulties Furthermore, after a short period of time of internships, they recognize the differences between theories and the reality when there are some skills that are so useful for them but some are not or what was taught is totally different in workplaces This makes things more difficult for them to complete assignments successfully As interns, it is the fact that they lack practical experience to be actually ready for any sudden situation Luckily, they have gained many new skills and knowledge after a long time of internships Feedback from respondents’ answers pointed out that number of subjects taught in the university are helpful for their internships Hence, internship is a great chance for interns to enhance the skills acquired in classroom context and learn new skills to apply for their official jobs Realizing the different between real work and theory in class, interns give their feedbacks with the hope of improving and raising job opportunities for students at Faculty of English Language of Lac Hong University Limitation Limitations are unavoidable in this research The small number of research in this subject somehow restrict the reference for the literature review part Because all students are busy when they begin to get working, the questionnaire and interviews are carried out with a small number of participants This relatively small sample size somehow restricts the generalization of research finding to a larger population Besides, there are still limitation and difficulties to get access to interview managers of corporations 30 Moreover, the main data of this study was collected through interviews and questionnaire, which restrict the credibility and validity true of the findings For further research, triangulation is expected to overcome this weakness Recommendations Through the findings above, this small research would like to mention some recommendations in order to raise job opportunity as well as improve labor quality for English Department students in Lac Hong University 3.1 Recommendation for students Firstly, students need to concentrate more on the learning to gain and master knowledge and basic skills from academic curriculum This is the key factor to help students find a suitable jobs matching with their major Secondly, it is essential for students to take time for self-learning to accumulate English skills, Computer skills and soft skills such as planning, time management and communication skills to meet the requirement of real-life works since there is limitation in training time, so the curriculum cannot offer all of the training courses to students Finally, students can initiatively find part-time jobs during their academic, which not only helps students gain experience, but also develop their soft skills during working 3.2 Recommendation for the university First of all, the school should annually study about the job reality of students (during their academic and after their graduation), based on those scientific basis, the university can design the curriculum logically in every period to meet the need of job market Moreover, students highly appreciate the practicality of the training program, so the school and faculty should build and design of the training program having not only theory, but also practices 31 REFERENCES "Internship Expectations: What an Internship Is and Is Not - Current Students and Alumni - Career Center - University of Evansville" (2017, November 30) Retrieved from www.evansville.edu (2004) "Unpaid internships face legal, ethical scrutiny" The Bowdoin Orient, Bowdoin College 2017, Y U (2017, September 23) "Why Major in English?" 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Ng, E S (2010) New generation, great expectations: A field study of the millennial generation Journal of Business and Psychology Nishanthi, R (2018) Important of learning English in today world Overton, G K (2009) The practice-based small group learning approach: Making evidence-based practice come alive for learners Nurse Education Today Perlin, R (2013) "Internships" Sociology of Work: An Encyclopedia Reid, J & (2012) Critical thinking in the business classroom Journal of Education for Business Stiwne, E & (2010) Engineering students’ experiences of transition from study to work Journal of Education and Work Tong, M V (2013) Skils requirement of recruiters toward graduates Wellman, N (2010) The employability attributes required of new marketing graduates Marketing Intelligence and Planning 34 APPENDICES Appendix 1: Questionnaire about internship status of English majors This is a survey investigating internship status of English majors at Lac Hong University We are collecting your replies to know your opinions about the internship This is not a test so there are no “right” or “wrong” answers and you don’t even have to write your name on it Please give your answers sincerely as only this this will guarantee the success of the investigation All the information you provide will be kept as secret We highly appreciate your cooperation Please write down your answer in the line below What is your company’s name? What is your company’s address? Please put a tick (✓) to one box What form does your company belong to?  Private enterprise  State-owned enterprise  Family business Which field does your company operate in?  Electronic engineering  Automotive engineering  Chemistry  Textile industry  Food processing  Real estate  Tourism 35  Finance/banking  Entertainment  Insurance  Education  Transportation  Telecommunications  Other (please write down your answer) - Which department you work in?  Research and Development  Human Resources  Sales  Information technology (IT)  Quality control  Purchasing  Import and export  Customer service  Other (please write down your answer) -6 Do you got paid during your internship?  Yes  No Have you got the labor contract with the company that you take internship yet?  Yes  Not yet If you have signed the labor contract, what is your current income?  3-5 million VND  5-7 million VND  Over million VND 36 How would you assess the knowledge gained through the training at the school to be applied to the real work?  Very useful  Useful  Not quite useful  Not useful 10 Can you assess your satisfaction level of the internship?  Very satisfied  Satisfied  Not quite satisfied  Not satisfied Please write down your answer in the line below 11 Would you like to continue to work at the company you take internship? Why? 12 Which academic knowledge have you applied in real work? 13 Which skills should English major students need to access and improve during academic to get into the real work? -THANK YOU! 37 Appendix 2: Interview of recruiters Besides the academic knowledge, which skills you need when recruiting an employee? Why graduates need to have these skills? Can you list the skills in accordance to the descending of importance? 38 Appendix 3: Script of interview with recruiters Response 1: (Human resources manager of Sacom Corporation) Required skills: “Different positions will have different requirement toward employees Overall, people need to practice and learn to have and master some skills When interview employees, almost all recruiters will check that whether you have presentation skills, communication skills, independently working, pressure handle ability and teamwork skills To a candidate having real life work experience, the ability to handle work and job knowledge are foremost criteria in recruiting requirement For example, being an HR staff, you need to have ability to analyze work, personal skills like communication, time management, and English skills to ensure your duties completed well” Most important skills: “I think the ability to handle work are the most important factor needed in an employee Following after, it is communication skills and time management skills Also, when hiring an employee, I always consider about their English skills and computer skills” Response 2: (Recruiter of Elite Joint Stock Company) Required skills: “When we interview a staff, we would like to know that if you have the basic knowledge of the position you applying for For example, an IE staff need to know about the regulation of the Customs, Commercial ministry and steps of exporting one cargo It is really necessary to have communication skills in order to speak and negotiate with customers Always being careful when doing anything is a must to employees Moreover one employee need to have ability to handle pressure when the workload is going high” Most important skills: “I will list them following the descending level of importance: ability to critical thinking and handle work, communication, teamwork, presentation skills and ability to handle pressure 39 Response 3: (HR manager of Fashion Garment Co.ltd) Required skills: “Besides the academic knowledge, expertise knowledge are required to all positions Graduates applying for HR staff position need to know how to write reports, background knowledge about Human management and labor law Since our company are foreign company, candidate are required to fluently in speaking English Of course, communication skills are always the importance criteria in choosing an employee” Most important skills: “Firstly, it will be communication skills Then, teamwork and time management skills; English and Computer skills Come next is handle and critical thinking ability and finally, it is presentation skills” 40 ... percentage of LHU English majors having an official job during their internship? Research question 2: Which fields their jobs belong to? In general, up to this time most of students in course 15 of English. .. three research questions: ✓ What is the percentage of LHU English majors having an official job during their internship? ✓ Which fields their jobs belong to? ✓ Beside school knowledge, what else... students during their internships and adjust the content of the training program to meet the increasing needs of recruiters and job market Research question What is the percentage of LHU English majors