Abstract

Vocational schools aims to provide qualified staffs for sector. For this purpose, students who are training in the vocational programs are provided with internships at firms related to their professions. Considering the studies on the lack of efficiency for expected level of internship practice for students, it can be considered that some problems prevent this. The purpose of this study is assessment of the problems that students experience in their internship practice. Thus, it has been determined in which dimensions the problems are concentrated and what kind of problems negatively affect the workplace experience of the students. Qualitative techniques were used in the study. Study designed as a case study. Data were gathered from the participants through the semi- structured and structured interview forms. Interns within the Vocational School at a state university in Istanbul have been included in the study. The study included 2016 and 2017 summer internship periods. In addition, via reaching the internship firms, assessment for interns were included in the study. The collected data were subjected to content analysis. In the findings of the study, many problems have been experienced during the internship process. These problems grouped such as; low practical experience, lack of giving the required role to interns, adaptation process to the workplace field and problems faced at field. The faced problems have negative effects on the quality of expected from the internships. For this reason, solving of the problems should be the priority. In addition, it should be ensured that the vocational colleges and workplaces are interacting with each other in this process.