IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF STUDENT SOFT SKILLS THROUGH INTERNSHIPS TO REDUCE THE NUMBER OF EDUCATED UNEMPLOYED

Sep 11, 2026

Internships are training activities that strengthen students’ soft skills competencies and support their professional readiness. A qualitative study using a phenomenological approach collects data through semi-structured interviews with students who have completed internships in private companies and government institutions. Findings indicate that internships improve behavior, communication, critical thinking, teamwork ability, continued learning drive, service and entrepreneurship skills, ethics, and leadership. Intern success also depends on ongoing learning from experience and mistakes.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryGeneral

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time3 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Educated unemployment in Indonesia

Economic growth, GDP, and unemployment context

The role of human development and productivity

Hard skills versus soft skills

Soft skills: definitions and scope

IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF STUDENT SOFT SKILLS THROUGH INTERNSHIPS TO REDUCE THE NUMBER OF EDUCATED UNEMPLOYED 1 Baby Poernomo, 2Avradya Mayagita 1STIAMI-Institute of Social Sciences and Management, Jakarta 2Master’s Program of Communication Sciences, Esa Unggul Unggul University, Jakarta [Email:](Email:1 babypoernomo28@gmail.com)[1](Email:1 babypoernomo28@gmail.com)[ ](Email:1 babypoernomo28@gmail.com)[babypoernomo28@gmail.com](Email:1 babypoernomo28@gmail.com) , [Email:](Email:2 mayagitaavradya@gmail.com)[2](Email:2 mayagitaavradya@gmail.com)[ ](Email:2 mayagitaavradya@gmail.com)[mayagitaavradya@gmail.com](Email:2 mayagitaavradya@gmail.com) ABSTRACT Internships are training activities or courses carried out by students to improve their soft skills competencies. Internship conducted by students can not only provide benefits to students who take part internship program, but with internship activities students can also improve their soft skills competency. This is a qualitative research with a phenomenological approach. Data collection was carried out using semi-structured interviews with students who had completed internships in private companies and government institutions. The research results show that internship activities carried out by students are a good means to improve their soft skills competencies, especially in terms of behavior, communication, critical thinking skills, ability to work in teams, desire to continue learning, service and entrepreneurship skills, ethics and leadership. The success of interns in improving the quality of their soft skills also depends on their willingness to continue learning from experience and from the mistakes they make. If students can improve their soft skill competencies optimally, then this can help reduce educational unemployment. Key Words: Soft skills, internship, educated unemployed INTRODUCTION High levels of educated unemployment or unemployment with higher education are oneof the characteristics of unemployment in Indonesia. In this case, educated unemployment is the ratio of the number of job seekers who have a high school/K Diploma to Bachelor's education level to the number of workers. The rise and fall of the unemployment rate will be influenced by various factors such as economic growth. Economic growth is the ability of an economy to produce goods or services over a period of time to increase the prosperity of society. Economic growth describes the increase in GDP and is used to measure the current state of the economy. GDP at constant prices is used as a measure of economic growth for regional coverage (Nurlina, et al, 2023). Data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) for August 2023, the unemployment rate in Indonesia is 7.8% in 2023. Unemployment in Indonesia is currently dominated by young people, reaching 42.62% . Most came from the 15-19 year age group, namely 25.7%, followed by the 20-24 year age group, namely 16.85% . Vocational school graduates contributed 9.31%, high school graduates 8.15%, secondary education 17.46%. It turns out that the vocational school that we hoped would soon enter the job market, apparently there has still not been a link and match. Higher education, both universities and diplomas are also contributors to our unemployment. University 5.11%, diploma 4.97%(BPS, 2023). According to Sumarsono (2009), stable economic growth and the level of community prosperity are the main goals of development. In its implementation, this goal is difficult to realize because there is a problem, namely unemployment, especially educated unemployment. Educated unemployment causes the level of social welfare to decline. Educated unemployment can reduce the level of government revenue from taxes due to economic activity caused by unemployment. Educated unemployment can cause a reduction in skills because skills can improve if they are always sharpened (Mankiw, 2003). Apart from wages, the human development index is another factor

FAQs

What is the main purpose of internships in this study?

The study examines internships as a training activity to improve students’ soft skills competencies and professional readiness.

What research method and data collection approach are used?

The research uses a qualitative design with a phenomenological approach, collecting data through semi-structured interviews with students who completed internships.

Which soft skills are reported to improve through internship activities?

Internship activities are reported to strengthen behavior, communication, critical thinking, teamwork, continued learning, service and entrepreneurship skills, ethics, and leadership.

Sep 11, 2026

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