Personal Investment in Practice: Exploring The On-The-Job Training Experiences Of Interns at St. Vincent’s College Incorporated

AUTHOR(S)

KIERVEY P. MANGINSAY, LPT, CRS

ABSTRACT

—— On-the-Job Training is central to professional preparation, yet interns differ in how they interpret and sustain personal investment during training. This qualitative single-case study examined how interns at St. Vincent’s College Incorporated make sense of their personal investment during OJT. The participants were ten interns from Teacher Education, Accounting Education, Business Management, Tourism Management, and Hospitality Management who completed the CHED-mandated 600-hour training requirement. Data were generated through indepth semi-structured interviews and triangulated with insights from practicum coordinators. Guided by Merriam’s qualitative case study framework, analysis yielded six interrelated categories: Interns’ Self-Efficacy for Professional Practice, Goals that Drive the Effort and Engagement of Interns, Influence of Interns’ Personal Aspirations on Approaching and Sustaining Their OJT Involvement, Interns’ Perceived Opportunities and Constraints in the OJT Environment, Influence of Perceived Opportunities and Constraints on How Interns Interpret, Engage with, and Sustain their Personal Investment, and Interns Constructing a Sense of Professional Identity. Findings reveal that OJT functioned as a transformative developmental space where interns’ confidence, motivation, and emerging professional identity evolved through meaningful task engagement, mentoring relationships, and alignment between training activities and personal goals. Sustained personal investment was strengthened when facilitating conditions supported autonomy, relevance, and reflective practice, while misalignment of tasks and limited supervision constrained engagement. The study concludes that personal investment in OJT is shaped by the interaction of self-perceptions, goal orientations, and contextual conditions rather than simple compliance with program requirements. It is recommended that institutions strengthen mentorship structures, improve task alignment, and embedding reflective support mechanisms to enhance interns’ professional formation. Keywords: personal investment, interns, On-the-Job Training (OJT), St. Vincent’s College Incorporated