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Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

Project Context

With the World Wide Web evolving above and beyond

anyones expectation, it seems that all businesses have

moved online, including recruitment or job placement. These

days, it is no longer unusual to see job seekers searching

for available jobs online nor companies posting their job

vacancies, advertising their business, products and

services, and hiring people to fill in their needs for

human resources online. Businesses, in the process of

hiring new employees, are maximizing all the resources

which the World Wide Web can offer including the use of job

portals.

As presented in the homepage of VRMInfoTech (2009), a

job portal is the most popular and widely used tool by

institutions and recruitment staff to facilitate the smooth

flow of the recruitment process in the competitive world.

Job portal provides a platform for the employers to meet

the prospective employees. It allows job seekers to submit

and edit their resumes and apply for specific jobs at

companies of their choice. The companies have the choice to

search for their ideal candidate from the resume database


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using various options and parameters available in the job

portal.

Further, Tambot (2010) claimed that job portal gives

support to job seekers allowing them to post personal

information and work experience relevant to their

application and be noticed by different employers. She

further said that job portals also work as a venue for

employers to post their job vacancies online for job

seekers to see. With the use of job portals, job seekers

may search for job vacancies in the comfort of their home

with the aid of the Internet.

Based on an article entitled Active Versus

Traditional Job Search Methods (2009), only less than 30%

of job seekers find jobs when applying for a job in a

traditional manner, while more than 70% of job seekers who

utilized the World Wide Web find jobs.

In addition, according to a study conducted by Nielsen

(2005), there were over 202 million Internet users as of

December, 2005 who regularly visit job related websites.

Recruitment with the use of the World Wide Web,

specifically using job portals, is referred to as online

recruitment or better known as e-recruitment.

E-recruitment as defined by Silver (2009) is the act

of advertising and promoting vacancies via the web, where


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potential candidates can sign up, post their resumes, and

apply for these vacancies all in one web portal. Rao (2010)

further defined e-recruitment as an online recruitment

where the recruitment is done through electronic resources

and utilizing the web-based tools, techniques and

technologies in the process of hiring new employees for an

organization.

Some of the advantages of e-recruitment as listed in

NetSite (2009) are as follows: (a) reduced size of adverts

in conventional print media because the print advert only

needs limited information, directing applicant to the e-

recruitment system to view a much richer range of

information and the opportunity to apply online

immediately; (b)gaining occasional candidates for free by

ensuring the e-recruitment website is easily found from the

front page of the corporate website, interested applicants

have the opportunity to apply for specific vacancies which

are available now or registering a speculative application

for the future; (c)building a talent pool of candidates

retaining speculative and star candidates for the future,

and then contacting them when an appropriate vacancy is

advertised effectively generating applicants for free;(d)

reduced administration as all applicants are held on a

single e-recruitment system they can be contact


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individually or collectively with ease at the click of a

mouse, reducing the time, effort and cost of the

administration staff;(e) pre-filtering candidates the use

of job specific questions and selection techniques allows

the employer to focus quickly on the most appropriate

applicants and efficiently communicate with them very

important in a candidate short market where good candidates

have many options and expect instant response to their

applications; (f)using e-recruitment rather than

conventional print media or agencies - offering

considerable cost savings (90% or more) and extensive

candidate reach for most roles;(g) applicants receives a

much higher quality of service, ranging from prompt and

timely communications through to the ability to select

their own interview time through an online interview zone

all of which enhances the employer's brand making it easier

in the long term to attract staff;(h)reduced time to hire

all major employers using e-recruitment systems report

reduced time to hire which can have a major economic impact

for the employers, getting productive employees for a role

quicker; and (i)management reporting giving the employer

the knowledge to evolve the e-recruitment process.

Apart from the various benefits, e-recruitment has its

own share of shortcomings and disadvantages. Some of the


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disadvantages of e-recruitment as presented in Recruitment-

Naukrihub (2007) are (a) screening and checking the skill

mapping and authenticity of millions of resumes is a

problem and time consuming exercise for organizations; (b)

organizations cannot be dependant solely and totally on the

online recruitment methods; and (c) the employers and the

employees still prefer a face-to-face interaction rather

than sending e-mails.

With the realization of the advantages and regardless

of the disadvantages of e-recruitment, companies also

utilize the job portals to recruit student interns for

local and international internship opportunities.

In todays fast paced world, education needs to be

more than just book study. Hands on learning in a

particular field offers the best training for people new to

a career. As such, educational institutions incorporate an

internship program as a major requirement for the

completion of their degrees. In the said program,

internship students are sent for on-the-job training to

companies whose work environment is related to the degree

being pursued.

Internship as defined by Doyle (2009) is a pre-

professional work experience that provides students, recent

graduates, and those seeking to change careers with the


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opportunity to gain experience in a particular career

field. Erdogan (2009) further defined internship as a work-

related learning experience for individuals who wish to

develop hands on work experience in a certain occupational

field.

Universities and colleges in the Philippines,

specifically those offering computer-related degrees such

as Information Technology (IT), Information System (IS) and

Computer Science (CS)require students to render internship

with a specific number of hours as defined by the

Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Memorandum Order No.

53 s. 2006 Section 11. The memorandum states that:

Internship is a requirement for the BSIT and BSIS

program but optional for the BSCS program. Students

are eligible to enrol the internship program after

completing the 80% of the total number of units in the

curriculum. The minimum number of internship hours for

the BSIT and BSIS programs are 486 and 162 for the

BSCS program. (page 15)

The possibilities are endless for student interns to

learn valuable new skills and discover their competencies.

Internship carries the possibility of a full time position

with the company once the internship is complete.


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As discussed by Erdogan (2009), internship helps

student interns develop professional work habits; provide

an understanding of corporate cultures, gives an

opportunity to analyze business settings and offers

platforms to compare differences in work styles.

Student interns are motivated and are eager to put

their skills, abilities and performance in front of equally

motivated employers looking for just the right employee to

compliment their staffing requirements as mentioned in an

article posted in Internship.com (2009). The article

further stressed that student interns often seek positions

that are related to their chosen fields of interest and

obtaining the opportunity to work within a specific field.

Internships can provide solid footing for a student intern

while often producing a solid employee for the business.

The studies presented by Vizcarra (2010) entitled

Web-based Placement System for Colegio de Dagupan and

Tambots (2010) Job Portal for Don Mariano Memorial State

University discussed how the World Wide Web may influence

the overall process of applying for job vacancies and

hiring of individuals to fill in these vacancies. The

authors also developed job portals for their chosen

institutions which saved their end-users from the hassle of


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going through the entire internship and job search process

themselves.

Vizcarra (2010), in his study, concluded that the

existing manual internship placement system utilized by the

College of Information Technology and Computing Studies

(CICS) of the Colegio De Dagupan is costly and time

consuming. He further mentioned that the department

encounters difficulties in finding industry partners which

causes delay in the internship of student trainees, file

management, soliciting of feedbacks, monitoring of student

trainees and generation of reports.

In order to address the stated problems, Vizcarra

developed the Web-based Placement System for Colegio de

Dagupan, which adopts a skill matching system in searching

industry partners for more reliable and easy access to

available intern positions. In terms of file management,

the system provides an organized individual file system for

each registered student trainee per assigned block. Also,

the system implements message boards to capture feedback

from the industry partners and student trainees. Student

trainees are organized per block and assigned to a specific

internship facilitator for ease of monitoring. The system

also implemented a quick access to all reports and

information of student trainees and industry partners.


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On the other hand, Tambot (2010) developed the Job

Portal for Don Mariano Memorial State University whose

main features focused on the job hunting of job seekers and

job advertising of employers. Security of the job portal is

also implemented by means of a login account. Other

features such as posting of announcements and articles

related to job hunting are also helpful to both job seekers

and employers since they may access essential facts in the

job portal.

With all the abovementioned discussions and advantages

of e-recruitment with the utilization of a job portal, the

researcher decided to propose an Online Student Internship

Portal for the University of the Cordilleras, particularly,

the College of Information Technology and Computer Science.

The study shall help the student interns in choosing an IT-

based company to render internship and increase the

likelihood of their employment after graduation. It shall

also aid the College Dean and the internship advisers in

facilitating the internship program and the industry

partners in choosing the student interns to work in their

company.


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Company Profile

Baguio Colleges, as the University of the Cordilleras

was earlier known, pioneered in tertiary education in the

mountain highlands of the Cordillera region amidst

devastation in and around Baguio City after the Second

World War.

Despite a pessimistic outlook and the bleak prospects

pervading the climate of any undertaking at that time,

Atty. Benjamin R. Salvosa envisioned Baguio City as a

university town. With such vision, he undauntedly pursued a

noble mission by founding a college.

It was on June 19, 1946, coinciding with the birth

anniversary of Dr. Jose P. Rizal, that a historic event

unfolded. Baguio Colleges was established initially

offering courses in teacher training and liberal arts, with

the first batch of enrolees consisting of 156 students.

Classes were first held in rented spaces at the Antipolo

building, and later, at the Lopez and Lamping buildings

along Session Road, the citys main thoroughfare.

1966 became a turning point for Baguio Colleges as it

was converted into an educational foundation. Since then,

it has blazed new trails and has become more responsive to

the needs of the time.


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The founder, Atty. Benjamin R. Salvosa sat as the

Chairman of the Board of Trustees and held the reins of the

presidency up to the early part of 1994.

Through the years, the University of the Cordilleras

has grown bigger through the offering of additional courses

and increasing student enrolment. It continues to grow even

better with time, as evidenced by exemplary performance in

various fields of discipline, with its graduates shining in

national licensure examinations, and its alumni doing well

in private employment, in the practice of their trade and

profession, and in public service.

Today, the University of the Cordilleras caters to

more than 15,000 students coming from the Cordillera

Administrative Region (CAR), Regions I and II, as well as

from neighboring provinces in Luzon. Course offerings range

from graduate studies, law, arts and sciences, nursing,

engineering and architecture, commerce and secretarial,

teacher education, computer science, technical courses,

elementary and high school.

The various colleges in the University offer several

bachelor degrees, each of which incorporates an internship

program as one of the major requirement for graduation. It

is in this course program that students are given the

opportunity to have an industry immersion to experience the


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real world application of the concepts and ideas learned in

the class as well as to further their knowledge in their

chosen field.

The College of Information Technology and Computer

Science (CITCS), which is the primary focus of this study,

is one of the several colleges in the University which

offers its students an internship program. Students are

sent to the different IT-based companies in the city and

neighboring places for internship.

Through the different industry linkages, the College

is able to help the student interns in choosing an IT-based

company to render internship in both local and

international setting. To date, the College has an average

of 75 industry partners. The number of industry partners

and linkages continues to increase through the efforts of

the College led by Dean Nancy M. Flores.

The College has several notable accomplishments, among

which is being selected as the only Center of Excellence in

Information Technology Education in the Cordillera Region

by the Commission on Higher Education. The college mission

is to provide competent instruction geared towards the

development of responsible Information Technology (IT)

professionals equipped with skills and strong moral values,

thus becoming the preferred source of services and manpower.


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The mission of the College is realized and reflected

through the continuing efforts of the College Dean and the

faculty to increase the quality of instruction and to

immerse their students to IT-based companies to help them

hone their skills and competencies.

As per interview with the College Dean, all graduating

students taking up BS Information Technology (BSIT), BS

Information System (BSIS) and BS Computer Science (BSCS)

are required to undergo internship as a requirement for

graduation. The College offers a three unit and a nine unit

internship programs. The BSIT and BSIS students under the

old curriculum (school year 2006 and earlier), as well as

the BSCS students are required to enroll in the three unit

internship program and must finish 250 hours of internship.

The BSIT and BSIS students under the new curriculum (school

year 2007 to present) are required to enroll in a nine unit

internship program and must render 500 hours of internship.

The nine unit internship program was created in compliance

to section 11 of the CHED Memorandum no. 53 series of 2006.

As of the third trimester of school year 2009-2010,

the College had a total of 93 student interns monitored by

six internship advisers headed by the College Dean. From

the 93 students, 56 are under the 9 units internship


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program, while the remaining 37 students are enrolled in

the 3 units internship program.

The internship program requires the student interns to

submit documents needed for the completion of the course.

The student interns shall submit reports on seminars,

trainings or company visits attended as well as an

internship report containing the tasks and responsibilities

assigned to him/her during his/her internship. An

evaluation form accomplished by the student interns

internship supervisor must be submitted prior to the

conduct of the oral presentation for the internship.

Purpose of the Study

The proposed Online Student Internship Portal for the

University of the Cordilleras intends to provide an

innovative tool to efficiently facilitate the conduct of

the internship program. This shall be favorable and

beneficial to the following entities:

To the Student Interns. The proposed portal shall

provide the student interns with a more convenient and

easier means of choosing a company to render internship.

The portal also serves as a tool in the submission of the

needed course requirements regardless of time and location.

To the Industry Partners. The portal shall offer a

more efficient way to identify and classify a virtually


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unlimited number of student internship applicants and to

broaden the scope of their search, thus, significantly

increasing the likelihood of hiring the best student

interns to fill-in their internship vacancies. The proposed

system shall aid the industry partners in giving immediate

feedbacks to the College Dean and internship advisers on

the performance of the student interns.

To the Internship Advisers. The study shall provide an

easier access to company and student intern information.

The proposed system will further help the internship

advisers in monitoring the progress of each student intern

and their performance with ease.

To the University of the Cordilleras. The study shall

help the university, specifically, the colleges, to broaden

their industry linkages and make further revisions of the

course curriculum to align the courses offered with the

trends and needs of the industry. Thus, the graduates of

the university are given a higher chance of being employed

after graduation.

To the Researcher. The study shall serve as an avenue

for the researcher to apply her skills and competencies in

system development.

To the Other Researchers. The study shall serve as a

reference for future researchers who intend to study a


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similar system. This shall also help them understand the

processes, concepts and ideas undertaken by an Online

Student Internship Portal.

Objectives of the Study

The general objective of the study is to design and

develop an Online Student Internship Portal for the

University of the Cordilleras.

Specifically, the researcher aims to achieve the

following:

1. To identify and discuss the processes involved in

the existing student internship placement of the University

of the Cordilleras along the areas on:

a. accrediting companies for student internship;

b. placement of student interns; and

c. submission of course requirements;

2. To identify the problems encountered in the existing

student internship placement of the University of the

Cordilleras; and

3. To identify and incorporate the features for the

proposed Online Student Internship Portal for the

University of the Cordilleras along the areas on:

a. accrediting companies for student internship;

b. placement of student interns; and

c. submission of course requirements.


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