Abstract

The purposes of this research were to examine the effect of the catering company's dietetic internship program through a self-evaluating ability test about management performance between pre and post internship programs and consequently to suggest improvement in the internship program. In this study, two types of questionnaires were conducted in July and October 2006, targeting 41 dietetic interns who trained in a 6 months internship program. Except the 4 dropped interns, data from 37 interns were collected and used for statistical analysis, using the SPSS Win 11.0 version. The results of this study were as follows: First of all, the analysis on the effect of the internship program according to classified management segments showed significant improvements in the following order: purchase management (p < 0.001), computer program management (p < 0.001), facilities management (p < 0.001), accounting management (p < 0.01), personnel management (p < 0.01), retention management (p < 0.01), sanitation management (p < 0.01), service management (p < 0.01) and foodservice management (p < 0.01). However, there was no significantly improvement in management of clients. Secondly, the result of the analysis on the details of each management segment that were significant improvement and changing score was the top 5 duties were as follows: In the purchase management, the score of weekly and daily order management was increased 1.0 (p < 0.001), the score of weekly inventory management was 0.81 (p < 0.001). In the computation office management, expenses handling through a computer program was 0.65 (p < 0.01). In the personnel management, the score of work schedule management increased 0.81 (p < 0.001). In the accounting management, the score of monthly profit and loss account management was 0.65 (p < 0.001). Furthermore, qualified educational programs connected with the internship program will have to be systematically developed and continually carried out in order to improve service and management abilities of branch managers.

• Keywords: dietetic interns; the internship program; food catering service; foodservice management