The pandemic has disrupted the education around the world, impacting the way it is delivered. Teaching and training during this period create challenges to students since online learning provides the knowledge transfer that were usually done physically. Accounting internships enable students to get familiarized with different types of accounting context in a realistic environment. During the pandemic, this setting has changed, and the remote internship becomes the new reality. The aim of this research was to obtain feedback from accounting students who experienced internship due to pandemic by (1) collecting their opinion and expectations regarding this new form of internship, (2) stating their satisfaction of the internship program, (3) addressing their readiness for doing the internship, and (4) indicating the fulfillment of the internship's learning outcomes. The outcome of the study revealed interesting results and a set of factors that accounting faculty should endeavor to address in order to build resilience into the accounting internship.
Top1. Introduction
The pandemia has disrupted the education around the world, impacting the way it is delivered. A disruption in that extend to every level of education had never occurred again. The lockdown imposed in many countries resulted in the immediate closure of university campuses and the move to distance learning and other related activities.
Teaching and blended learning in general during this period creates challenges to students since it is the online learning which provides the knowledge transfer that were usually done physically (Salleh et al., 2020; el Refae et al., (2021)). As a result, a large number of researchers are now examining how the learning process changes during pandemia (Salleh et al., 2020; el Refae et al., (2021); Law et al., (2019); Sangster et al., (2020)), but what about the problems have arisen when a combination of training and typical classes is required especially in the field of accounting?
“Internship” or “Practical training” is a student learning process aiming to increase student experience and provide insights in applying theoretical knowledge to real world professional activities, in this case accounting (Mediawati et al., (2020)). Work-related learning is vital for accounting students for their personal and professional development in order to build strong connections with leading business organizations (Anjum et al., (2020)). Future accountants are required to be well informed and committed to continuing education in order to incorporate all the latest scientific data into their everyday practice. This last stage of learning process plays a crucial role as they encounter the realities of their profession and gain valuable experiences for their future careers. By that way, modern accounting training is provided through dynamic and evolving environments of real organizations that cooperate with the university, where new technologies (Tsoutsa et al., (2018)) and skills (Cernușca et al., (2020); Daff, (2021); Trivellas et al., (2015); Fitsilis et al., (2018)) are applied.
The working environment has changed during the pandemia due to government regulations concerning the COVID-19 epidemic and a new format for training became a necessity for many students and businesses after the previous academic year. “Remote internships” or “e-internships” are work placements where the interactions between the intern and their employer are predominantly computer mediated by using different platforms regarding the domain (Jeske et al., (2020)). The main feature of this internship format is its ability to connect interns and employers across different geographical locations and enable the cooperation under these circumstances. E-internships seem to be compatible with the regulations and remote work training has been prevalent for this last year while it seems that is on the rise, considering the increased use in the post COVID era that is expected.
Previous studies on internship gathered different issues that influence the satisfaction level, which include
the quality of mentoring, challenging assignments and compensation (Sanahuja Velez et al., (2015)), job satisfaction in paid and unpaid internship (Rogers et al., (2021)), job characteristics and environments such as supervisor’s support, task significance, learning opportunities and feedbacks (D’abate et al., (2015)), internship relevancy (Yoo et al., (2015)), challenges, interesting and well- defined responsibilities, and job prospects. On the other hand, are increasingly proceeding studies carrying out about professional accountants to capture the impact of the pandemic generated by COVID-19 on their profession (Frumușanu et al., (2020)).