An investigation of students' perceptions, taking logistics training, against internship within the context of factors related to organization

The notion of logistics has emerged as a military concept. Afterwards, logistics has become a sector that delivers goods and services to the target market with minimum cost by focusing on customer satisfaction in many areas. The logistics sector needs qualified labor force in order to perform its activities more effectively and to provide competitive advantage. Logistics training plays an important role in the labor force to obtain the necessary knowledge, skills and experience for the sector. Logistics education is given in the undergraduate and graduate programs of universities. Students who have acquired theoretical knowledge through with logistical trainings do their compulsory internship in order to improve their skills and to increase their experience. Students learn more about the sector, the profession and the business life with their compulsory internship programs and manage their careers. The positive or negative situations experienced during the internship affect the students' perspective towards the sector and the level of satisfaction they feel from the internship. There are several factors that cause these situations to occur. One of these factors is the characteristics of the company. The aim of this research is to find out whether the students' perceptions of internship differ according to the characteristics of the company. The sample of research consists of the students who have studied in the logistics departments of the universities in Mersin, Hatay, Konya and Gaziantep and completed internship programs. In this research, data were collected by using questionnaire technique and 407 survey forms were analyzed. In the analysis part of the research, as well as the percentage and frequency distributions, factor analysis, T test and ANOVA were performed. As a result of the research, it was detected that the satisfaction of the students in the internship varied according to work part in different departments and the number of departments worked. In addition, the students' satisfaction with the internship and their perspective on the sector showed a significant difference according to the type of company, adequate and related response to the questions by the students and the opportunities offered by the company.