ABSTRACT
There were many literature studies have shown that university students’ participation in off-campus internship comes with a lot of advantages. However, literature studies on students’ psychological changes after finished their off-campus internship, especially in the process of socialization, remain scarce. The paper of this study was to explore the socialization of off-campus internship of students at technological university in Taiwan. 7 internship students were randomly selected from best top 5 universities to undergo in-depth interviews. The research conclusions point out that off-campus internship experience has a tremendous impact on students’ process of socialization, including: 1. Socialization process during internship of the students in technological university including five stages: observation, simulation, reflection, internalization, and behavior performance, 2. To think more things not learned in school, 3. To know how to be a good employee, 4. Be able to develop their professional network, 5. Be able to work under pressure, 6. Be better able to understand making money from working is difficult. According the conclusions, schools and internship institutions should properly plan the students’ internship contents and arrange the time. Internship institutions provide interns with more difficult and challenging experiences, thereby producing more significant results in the socialization process of students.
KEYWORDS
Socialization, Off-campus Internship, Internship, Technological University