Quality of Academic Services for Interning Office Administration Students during the 2022 Pandemic ^†

Abstract

Academic services for interns are one of the decisive factors in supporting the success of student studies in vocational education. Various services to support the student internship process have been provided by campus to help students attend lectures, especially during the post-pandemic period. Service during a pandemic or transition period after going through a pandemic is a separate phenomenon that must be faced by students, especially those undergo internships with companies. The approach used in this study is a quantitative approach. The research instruments used were questionnaire interviews and additional in-depth interviews with several alumni who had recently graduated. The Likert scale was used in this questionnaire research. The result of this research was a measurement of the quality of service provided to students starting from the internship preparation period to the completion of the internship. From the research conducted, it was found that the quality of academic services for internship students were good or near-excellent on average. It would benefit the program to maintain or increase the quality that it has attained.

1. Introduction

There is consensus on the importance of internships with companies in achieving a complete and comprehensive education during university studies [1]. Office Administration is one of the study programs at the vocational program/faculty of the University of Indonesia. The Office Administration study program was established in 1989, which at that time was under the auspices of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Indonesia. This department was formerly known as the Office and Secretary Admissions study program. In 1918, this department changed its name to Office Administration, this change was in accordance with the name in the national and international nomenclature. More recently, there has been increased attention paid to studies associated with the internship process and particularly its connections to stakeholder benefits and human resource practices [2]. The Office Administration department or study program teaches its students skills in terms of office science, knowledge of business and secretarial. Foreign language skills and information technology are also competencies that need to be mastered by graduates of this study program. In addition, students are also taught knowledge on the basics of ethics in the work environment. After completing the coursework, students are required to take part in an internship at a company or government institution in order to gain hands-on experience in field work practice. Taylor [3] defines internships as “structured and career-relevant work experiences obtained by students prior to graduation from an academic program” (p. 393). The internship obligation is carried out for every student who has entered the 6th semester of lectures. The obligation of internship at a company is carried out for 4 to 6 months. Lectures during the study period are carried out in class and also in available laboratories. The laboratories available on campus include computer laboratories, office technology laboratories, laboratories, personal development laboratories, office laboratories and archival laboratories. One challenge of an internship that is conducted on the ground and integrated with a virtual academic program is the manner of connecting students with employer organizations [4].

2. Internship Program

Work experience and internships provide students with a vehicle for transferring the advanced knowledge and skills acquired through their academic education into a work setting [5]. Internships are a part of the curriculum that must be completed during a vocational education program at the University of Indonesia. The internship program used to last for 3 months or 90 days, but now has to be taken by students for a minimum of 4 to 6 months. Various benefits can be obtained from this off-campus internship program. Starting with acquiring work experience, experience interacting with other employees or even practicing skills that have been acquired on campus. In addition, from a student perspective, internships provide students with enhanced career development and preparation, relevant work experience and greater networking opportunities, among other benefits [6], all of which provide benefits for interns. Some interns receive transportation or food allowances that vary in size from companies. However, some of them do not even receive money for transportation or other concerns. This also all depends on the policies of the company where the internship is based.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the implementation of Office Administration student internships was carried out by means of WFH or work from home (WFH). Meanwhile, in the post-pandemic period, internships are carried out in a hybrid manner, where on some days the internship takes place in the office, and the rest is completed from home. This does not reduce the quality of learning from the company considering that when a hybrid system is applied, many companies are also still implementing it even though the situation is approaching normal again. Learning to work from home for some companies has continued as a new work culture that can contribute to the company in the form of increasing work efficiency.

One of the factors that determines student satisfaction is how the quality of service provided by the campus to interns increases during the pre-internship period, during internships, and services when students finish internships or post-internship services.

One of the causes of unemployment is the non-absorption of graduates from educational institutions into the existing workforce. This is partly due to the incompatibility of the abilities of the graduates with the skills required by the job market. This causes unemployment. Improving economic conditions is followed by a reduction in poverty, a decrease in inequality, and a decrease in the open unemployment rate. However, it seems that Indonesia entered 2022 with a fairly heavy burden of poverty and unemployment. (Kompas 7 January 2002).

Vocational education, which takes place at applied educational institution that teaches much more practical content than theory is expected to be the right solution in overcoming the increasing unemployment rate caused by educated unemployment.

Internship Service

The internship is a fairly important part in the study journey of vocational students. Internships receive a sizeable portion of credit in vocational education curricula. Internships also help to focus students’ future career choices [7] and crystallize their vocational self-concept [6]. The internship plus the writing of the student’s final work have a value of 14 semester credit units; a fairly large number. With this internship, students learn several competencies regarding the world of work. The tone of the majority of academic scholarship on this topic suggests that internships yield positive benefits for students [8] contend that “Internship programmes have long been regarded as an important addition to…education, and they play a fundamental role in pre- paring students for their future careers” (p. 176).

The important factor in supporting the success of students’ studies is the level of service when students enter an internship period in companies or government institutions. Good service from the campus in terms of internships will be able to support the success of internships carried out by students.

Services in terms of this apprenticeship can basically be divided into three stages. The first is referred to as pre-apprenticeship, which is a period of preparation before the internship. During the on-campus period, various facilities and services that can support the requirements for internships outside the campus are provided. The services provided by the campus include the preparation of internship requirement letters, internship provisions or internship guidance. The second stage is the internship period, which is the time when students conduct their internships off-campus. During off-campus internships, the campus continues to provide supporting services to students, including services in consultation with academic supervisors, implementation of internship supervision by supervisors, and so on. The third stage is referred to as the post-apprenticeship stage. At this stage, several services that can be provided by the campus to students, including the implementation of the final internship assignment test, preparation for graduation, the process of conducting competency certification exams and preparation of graduation registration. More details can be seen in

Table 1. Number of Sample.

Population Size	No Answer	Male (Answered)	Female (Answered)	Real Sample
63	13	1	49	50

below.

3. Material and Methods

This study aims to determine the level of satisfaction of the interns with the services provided by the study program and the campus when students enter the 6th semester of the Office Administration study program. The internship service period is divided into 3 main parts, namely the first period where students have not entered the internship period, which is referred to as the pre-apprenticeship period; the second, the service during their internship at the company, referred to as the internship period. The third, on average students complete an internship period of 4–6 months in corporate agencies or government-owned and private institutions. The respondents of this research were alumni of the Office Administration Program Universitas Indonesia who took internships at companies and institutions both governmental and private during the internship period January–June 2022. The research questionnaire used a Likert scale where 1 is the lowest service quality and 5 is the highest service quality. The number of alumni recorded in 2022 was 63 students, with the type of gender being 2 male and 61 female. As for those who filled out the questionnaire that we provided, as many as 50 alumni or about 76% responded, as can be seen at Table 1.

On the

Table 2. Types of student internship service.

I. Pre-Apprentice

Service in receiving internship requirements

2. Service in applying for a permit/internship introduction

3. Internship briefing by program

4. Services in the application for transcripts

II. During Internship

5. The service process in submitting a 2-week internship report

6. The process of reminding the incomplete report letters by the education administration staff to interns

7. The process of implementing guidance with supervisors

8. Quality of the implementation of internship supervision by study program lecturers

III. Post-Internship

9. Registration process and implementation of TKA trial exam

10. The process of implementing competency certification exams

11. The process of making a letter of completion of internship

12. Registration process and graduation ceremony

we can see Types of student internship service below:

4. Result

Efficient student internships are essential for appropriate career preparations to ensure a smooth transition to their professions after graduation [9]. From the results of the distribution of research questionnaires, several conclusions were obtained as follows:

4.1. Service in Receiving Internship Requirements Files

From Figure 1 below, it can be seen that the level of satisfaction of internship students was quite high, with a total satisfaction of about 87% being at a satisfactory level of service. Of the 87%, 41% were very satisfied with the services provided in terms of receiving an internship requirements file, while the remaining 45% were satisfied. As for those who felt quite and somewhat dissatisfied, of the 48 students who filled in, only 12%, or 6 students answered as such, where from the 6.3 students stated that they were somewhat dissatisfied with the service in receiving an internship requirements file.

4.2. Service in Applying for an Internship Permit

In terms of service in applying for an internship permit, there was also not much difference. As with the previous service, Figure 2 shows that most respondents also expressed satisfaction with the services provided in terms of submitting an internship permit. Only a small part of the respondents stated that they were moderately satisfied and dissatisfied with the services provided when submitting an internship permit.

4.3. Internship Briefing by Program

In terms of internship guidance provided by the study program, the level of student satisfaction was also very high, as evidenced by the number of students who provided perfect scores in terms of internship guidance during that period, which was as many as 20 students or around 41.7%. As many as 17 students or about 36% expressed satisfaction and the rest, namely as many as 11 students, felt satisfied or somewhat less satisfied. Meanwhile, there were none who stated that they were very dissatisfied. As can be seen at Figure 3 that explained internship briefing below:

4.4. Service for Application for Transcripts

From Figure 4 below, we can also see that even the level of student satisfaction in terms of service making the list of values can be said to be very satisfying. Of the total, 54.2% of students stated that they were very satisfied with the service provided when making grade transcripts, while the remaining 35.4% said they were satisfied or gave a score of 4 for the service. Only a small proportion of them stated that they felt average or somewhat dissatisfied, namely a total of five people. Services in terms of creating transcripts are important for students who undergo internships at certain companies or agencies, because they are usually required to be seen by the company as a part of the internship students’ recruitment process.

A. 

During Internship

4.5. The Service Process in Submitting a 2-Week Internship Report

The internship period is a period in which final year students apply the various knowledge and skills they have acquired while studying to certain companies or institutions. During the internship period, at certain companies or agencies, students are at the same time also required to write a biweekly daily report to the campus. This report is usually tasked to students on Saturdays, when the student is off internship or work. In addition to submitting biweekly reports to campus, students are also used to meeting with friends and looking for literature. Final work assignments that must also be completed in the form of internship reports and final trial exams. From the picture above, we can see that there are no students who do not fit or were not satisfied with the service regarding the submission of biweekly re-ports. The majority (45.8%) said they were very satisfied [8], 43% said they were satisfied and the remaining 10.4% said they were average, or five people. On average, it can be said that in terms of submitting bi-weekly reports, students expressed satisfaction or high satisfaction. As can be seen at Figure 5 that explained the service process insubmitting report below:

4.6. The Process of Reminding Incomplete Letters

During this internship period, sometimes there are students who do not complete the various internship requirements requested by the company. The task of the administrative staff of the study program is to remind the students whose files are incomplete. The requirements for the completeness of this file are also required for the final examination of the student’s work. From the graph below, it can be seen that in terms of reminding students, the services provided can be said to be also satisfactory on average, 54.2% percent even fall into the very satisfactory category. From Figure 6, it can also be seen that there were no students who expressed disappointment or lack of service regarding this aspect. Only two people said the service was average.

4.7. Implementation Process of Guidance with Supervising Lecturers

The implementation of guidance by the supervisor is a very important part of the service during a student’s internship process at a company. Each student is guided by one study program lecturer. At the company, students are guided by industry mentors who also direct the writing of reports that are made by interns as the main task of the internship process at the company. From the graph below, it can also be seen that the number of students who stated that they were very satisfied with the implementation of guidance by their supervisors could be said to be quite high, namely around 54.2% or 26 students, the remaining 15 students stated they were satisfied, 5 students stated moderately and 2 students said they were somewhat dissatisfied. As can be seen at Figure 7 taht explained implementation process of guidance below:

4.8. Quality of the Implementation of Internship Supervision by Lecturers

The implementation of supervision of students who are doing internships at companies is part of the internship supervision process to ensure that students actually undergo internships at companies or institutions that have been registered. The implementation of supervision can also be used by the campus to establish closer relationships with the company as well as to enter into long-term agreements in terms of internships or other activities. From the graph below, 45.8% show that students were very satisfied with the implementation of supervision carried out by the campus for interns who were undergoing an internship at a company or. While 17 children stated that they were satisfied, 8 children said they were quite satisfied and 1 child said they were not satisfied.

B. 

Post-Internship

The final stage that must be passed by students is the post-internship stage. At this point there are several stages that must be passed by students so that they can complete their studies on campus. At this post-internship stage, there are several activities that students must go through to obtain good service from the program or campus.As can be seen at Figure 8 that explained the implementation of internship below:

4.9. The Registration Process and the Implementation of the Final Assignment Examination Session

The registration process and the implementation of the internship’s final work exchange exam is one of the important prerequisites for students to be able to complete their studies at the Office Administration study program, University of Indonesia. The final exam is a graduation exam that must be taken by students before the student concerned can be declared passed by decision of the study program’s administrators. The final assignment of the internship is carried out by three examiners consisting of one expert examiner, one supervisor on campus and one user or supervisor from the industry. The implementation of the exam in 2022 was be carried out online. From the graph below, we can see that the service in terms of registration and implementation of the trial shows a fairly high level of service satisfaction with 47.9% very satisfied, 41.7% satisfied while the remaining 8.3% were quite satisfied and 2.1% said somewhat less satisfied. As can be seen at Figure 9 that explained Registration and Implementation Final Assigment below:

4.10. The Process of Conducting Competency Certification Test

Other services are received by interns after the trial. The final task is the process of administering the certification exam for new graduates. Competency certification exams are usually conducted by graduates so that they can receive certifications that are additional provisions in finding work. The competency certification exam is mandatory for every graduate who has completed their studies or has been declared to have passed by the University. From the graph below, we can see that the level of satisfaction with the competency certification exam’s service can be said to be quite high with the following details, 5.4% stated they were very satisfied, 35.4% also stated they were satisfied, the remaining 14% were quite satisfied with the next 14% also expressing dissatisfaction. As can be seen att Figure 10 that explained process conducting competency certification test below:

4.11. The Process of Making Completed Internship Letter

The internship completion letter is a letter that is needed by students when they want to apply for a job. This letter shows that the student has completed their internship of several months at a certain company or agency. This letter is also usually requested by companies that recruit new employees to their company. The internship experience at a company is an added value for students who participate in it, not only completing the obligations of the campus but also the opportunity to increase the ability to work directly in the industry. From the graph below, we can see that there is a similar pattern to the previous figure, where the level of satisfaction of internship students with post-internship services, especially in terms of service for writing letters after internships, can be said to be relatively satisfying for students, even some 41.8% felt very satisfied with services provided, 37.5% were satisfied the, and the rest, a not-too-large amount of 16.7%, felt average/moderate. As can be seen at Figure 11 that explained the process of making a completed internship letter below:

4.12. Registration Process of Graduation Day

Graduation is a ceremony or celebration for students who have successfully completed their studies at a certain university or educational institution. To take part in the graduation ceremony, in addition to having completed all of his courses and other tasks such as internships of a vocational education program, the student must also have completed various obligations related to financial administration. Students must not have debts in the form of arrears in payments. Registration services in the context of graduation implementation for those who have completed all their obligations are separate from the faculty or the university rector. From the graph below, it can be seen that the level of service quality in terms of registration for graduation implementation also shows a pattern that is not much different from the quality of other services. Only here, respondents who stated that they were very satisfied or who gave a perfect 5 score dropped to 35.4 percent or around 17 students only, while those who said they were satisfied were 39.6% or about 19 people. As for those who stated moderate, as much as 12.5%, slightly less satisfied 10.4%, and very unsatisfied 2.1% or 1 person. As can be seen at Figure 12 that explained registration process for graduation day below:

5. Conclusions

From the results of the research exposed above, the following conclusions can be drawn: The service factor plays an important role in supporting the success of student’s studies in higher education, especially vocational higher education, which provides many practical lectures to students. One form of service that is quite important for vocational education students is service in terms of apprenticeship. Internship services can be grouped into before internship, during internship and post-internship.

On average, for the various types of services that the researchers asked about, in services before the internship, during the internship period and the stage after completing the internship, there was a pattern that was almost the same regarding the respondents’ answers, where both before the internship, during the internship and after the internship, the respondents answered comprised 48 students. They stated that they were on average satisfied and very satisfied with the services provided during their off-campus internship, with only a few respondents stating that they were not satisfied or dissatisfied with the services provided. This means that the University of Indonesia’s Office Administration study program has done a good job in terms of providing quality service to final year students who to take internships off campus.