Exploring the realization of memorandum of agreements for college internships: Basis for enhancing professional exposure

Abstract

This convergent mixed-methods study assessed how Memoranda of Agreement for college internships were realized in practice and identified factors that enabled or hindered implementation based on the perceptions of student interns and internship coordinators at a higher education institution in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Philippines during School Year 2024-2025. Student interns (n = 210) from seven schools and internship coordinators (n = 6) completed structured 4-point Likert questionnaires with open-ended prompts. Descriptive statistics summarized Memoranda of Agreement realization and influential factors; between-school differences in student perceptions were examined using Kruskal-Wallis tests with Dunn post hoc comparisons with Holm adjustment, and student-coordinator ratings were compared using Mann-Whitney U tests. Students reported high realization overall (general mean = 3.66, SD = 0.42) and high ratings for influential factors (general mean = 3.61, SD = 0.46). Significant between-school differences emerged for orientation and preparation and for safety and professional environment. No significant differences were found between student and coordinator ratings across influential-factor domains. Thematic analysis highlighted strengths in authentic work exposure, skill development, and supportive supervision, alongside improvement needs related to timelines, coordination, feedback routines, and workplace climate safeguards. Findings support targeted operational refinements to strengthen consistent implementation across internship settings. For institutional practice, the findings support standardized orientation, visible processing timelines, structured feedback, and strengthened workplace safeguards as feasible mechanisms for making professional exposure more consistent across programs and partner sites.