The internship performance of undergraduate students: Are hard or soft skills more important?

Higher education provides students with the knowledge and skills necessary for professional development. These are applied when students make the transition from the academic world to the world of work and allow them to generate value for organizations. This study analyzes the impact that hard and soft skills have on the performance of undergraduate students in their internships. The methodology uses multiple regression techniques on data from 2010 to 2021 from a sample of 6632 students in 25 undergraduate programs at Icesi University in Colombia. The results confirm the importance of both soft and hard skills and show that soft skills explain students’ performance to a greater extent. These findings can assist universities, faculty and organizations in developing the skills necessary for students to improve their performance, build successful careers and generate value for organizations.