Adaptation and validation of the Work Experience Questionnaire for investigating engineering students' internship experience

Abstract

Background: Given the well-documented benefits of internship experience to the training of future engineers in the literature, internship courses have become an integral part of the engineering curriculum in many universities around the world. Current evaluation of engineering internship courses in higher education relies mainly on surveys developed independently by the internship coordinator which are seldom validated. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to validate a newly adapted version of the Work Experience Questionnaire (WEQ), which can be used for evaluating engineering students' perception of their internship experience. Design/Method: The questionnaire was administered to 271 engineering students from one university in Hong Kong. To provide evidence on reliability and validity, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were performed to examine the psychometric properties of the instrument. Results: Exploratory factor analysis resulted in four factors: clear goals, workplace support, university support, and generic competencies. Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that the correlated four-factor model provided an acceptable fit with the data. Cronbach's alpha indicated that the four scales were reliable. The four-factors are also pragmatic in the engineering context. Conclusions: This study reviewed and provided reliability and validity evidence of key constructs in the WEQ in a single disciplinary (i.e., engineering) context and also in the Hong Kong context. Use of the questionnaire to evaluate engineering students' internship experience and to investigate the relationship between their perception of the learning environment and their learning outcomes can help to inform the design and implementation of engineering internship program for student learning and quality assurance.

Engineering Students’ Industrial Internship Experience Perception and Satisfaction: Work Experience Scale Validation

“…In the engineering education landscape, internships have long been incorporated in curricula, either as an optional experience or compulsory internship courses [1,[12][13][14]. In Portugal, engineering internships tend to be part of the curricula as optional; compulsory internships do not seem to generally create positive effects on labor market outcomes [13].…”

“…Although the benefits that internships may bring are well accepted, namely, the development of technical and soft skills, HEIs should manage and improve the effectiveness of their internship programs to provide interns with good learning outcomes [6]. For such a purpose, it is imperative to evaluate the quality of engineering internships to determine better opportunities to improve their design and implementation [12].…”

“…Other authors addressed the WIL experience by analyzing the relationship between students' perceived learning outcomes and different learning environment factors, e.g., [12,32,33], of which Luk and Chan [12] highlighted four factors. The first factor is the students' perception of clear goals; intended learning outcomes and assessment standards should be adequately communicated to students to form their expectations and enhance their motivation [12]. Martin [33] established that perceived clear goals were positively related to students' learning outcomes.…”

“…Students' perception of workplace support is positively related to the development of their generic competencies [35]. The third factor is university support, which is mainly ensured by an academic supervisor (often also playing the internship coordinator role), who prepares the students for the internship, monitors their performance, interacts with the organization when any issue arises, and helps students reflect on their experiences when the internship is over [12]. Student supervision is a key factor underpinning the success of WIL programs [36].…”

“…The students' perceived ability to contact their academic supervisor seems to affect self-efficacy, but not other generic competencies [32]. Finally, the fourth factor is the development of generic competencies, which include soft skills, personal attributes, and attitudes [12]. A study by Kelley and Gaedeke [37] found several career preparation skills to be important: oral and written communication, problem solving, analytical skills, computer applications, and leadership and teamwork skills.…”