YOUR PREPARATORY YEAR

INTERNSHIP GUIDE
S T U DEN T S IN DUS T RY REL AT I O NS OFF IC E I
B ACH EL O RS I N HO SP I T AL IT Y BU SI N ES S &
M AN AG E M EN T

L AS T U P DAT E : J UL Y, 2022
C O N T AC T : S I R -SH BM @U M 6P .M A
TABLE OF CONTENTS

1- INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................. 1

2- The internship commitment & objectives ........................................................................ 2

2.1- The internship, a commitment ................................................................................. 2

2.2- Internship objectives ................................................................................................ 2

3- Useful tips during your internship .................................................................................... 3

3.1 Anticipate and prepare for your report ! ................................................................. 3

3.2 Reflect on your experience ....................................................................................... 3

3.3 Stay in touch ............................................................................................................. 3

3.4 Leverage on your internship experience .................................................................. 3

4- The internship report ....................................................................................................... 4

4.1 Learning objectives ................................................................................................... 4

4.2 Internship report sections’ description .................................................................... 4

4.2.1 Front cover of the report - 1 page ........................................................................ 5

4.2.2 Synopsis (or table of contents) - 1 page ............................................................... 5

4.2.3 Acknowledgements - 1 page ................................................................................ 5

4.2.4 Introduction: - 1 to 2 pages .................................................................................. 5

4.2.5 Main section – Standard layout: 8 pages approx. ................................................ 5

4.2.6 Conclusion: - 1 to 2 pages ..................................................................................... 7

4.2.7 Annexes ................................................................................................................ 7

UM6P – Bachelor Program in Hospitality Business & Management – Preparatory year Internship guidelines
 4.3 Bibliography .............................................................................................................. 7

4.4 Format of the report................................................................................................. 8

4.5 Documentary remittance ......................................................................................... 8

5- Appendix: .......................................................................................................................... 8

5.1 Layout of the internship report front cover ............................................................. 8

5.2 Internship report evaluation critera ......................................................................... 8

UM6P – Bachelor Program in Hospitality Business & Management – Preparatory year Internship guidelines
 1- INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the professional world !

The preparatory year internship is a total immersion in the professional world that will allow you to
experience a hands-on, on the job training, and discover the way departments function within a hotel,
while developing your critical thinking along with your analysis, problem-solving capabilities,
communication and teamwork.
The internship is also a unique opportunity for you to stand out in your professional path by the end of
your studies, thanks to an applied experience that will be your ally when undertaking any life and work
endeavors.
Within your respective properties, you will have the opportunity to be in direct contact with seasoned
and demanding hotel clientele and to put into practice the techniques that you have learned during your
first semester of the preparatory year. You will experiment first-hand the notions of « Savoir-être » and «
Savoir-vivre » that are at play all along the guest experience but also in your journey as an employee and
a team member.
The internship, which spans over a 5 to 6-month period, is an essential part of your curriculum, to the
same extent as your courses and exams at the University. The fact that this period is voluntarily long is
definitely a plus for your career as it will allow you to dig deeper and make your knowledge base stronger,
taking you further than a simple discovery and basic initiation. It is also an excellent way to differentiate
yourself and develop a professional relationship with your employers and colleagues, therefore building
a solid network.

UM6P – Bachelor Program in Hospitality Business & Management – Preparatory year Internship guidelines 1
2- The internship commitment & objectives
2.1 The internship, a commitment
Your internship is a true commitment, towards your employer, but also the school.
By signing your internship agreement, you have validated a contract with the property you are entering
and therefore you become a full-fledged employee, bound to respect the rules and regulations of the
company. Make sure you understand their values, the rules in place and the expectations of your
employer.
As you know, each and every interaction within the professional world is an opportunity for you to
showcase your learning and values. During your internship, you are also your school’s ambassador. Your
posture and attitude must reflect SHBM’s Daring, Caring and Exemplarity, thus reflecting positively on the
school and the value of your future diploma.

2.2 Internship objectives

The internship will allow you to:

• Acquire an essential professional experience to complete your academic training with practical
skills developed in a professional environment. Indeed, acquiring experience in the professional
world is indispensable for recruiters today.
• Develop and acquire skills learned in school by applying them in a professional environment:
o Analytical and synthetical capabilities applied to hospitality operations
o Use of diverse sources of information to deal with specific needs and requests
o Find new solutions to solve a problem
o Planning and time management skills
o Communication skills and teamwork
• Build/develop a professional network and initiate your first steps into the professional world. The
internship is an opportunity for the employer to « test » a prospective employee. In conclusion, it
is the perfect occasion to prepare your future career or network of partners.
• Discover and experience the way a company operates with its policies, its values, its very own
vocabulary and customs.
• Witness the importance of client centricity and the intrapreneurial mindset that lies behind
SHBM’s daring value.

UM6P – Bachelor Program in Hospitality Business & Management – Preparatory year Internship guidelines 2
3- Useful tips during your internship
3.1 Anticipate and prepare for your report !
A soon as you receive and read your internship guide, try to make a habit of taking notes and sort out the
information collected as you go along for the remaining weeks. This will help you and prevent you from
being caught off guard when the time of writing your report has come. Each week, ask yourself: what have
I learned this week? What should I write in my report in this regard? Before using any internal documents
of the company, make sure you ask your tutor if he/she can give you access to documents that could be
useful for your report.

3.2 Reflect on your experience

Throughout your internship, keep reflecting on your learning journey and experience in regards to the
objectives you set for yourself. To support you on this, you will have the opportunity to keep an open line
of communication with the academic faculty as well as your Internship tutor.
Your tutor will also reach out to you in order to put in place periodic calls as well as a visit to the hotel you
are spending your internship in by the 4th month of your internship. Engage in these interactions and use
it as a safe communication space and a fruitful moment to reflect on your experience, share your thoughts
and any challenges and growth opportunities you are facing.
That could also be a great opportunity to submit your internship report for review before submitting the
final version to the commission.

3.3 Stay in touch

Every internship is the perfect occasion to build and reinforce your professional network with names,
positions, contact numbers and email addresses. Do not hesitate to regularly be in touch and send updates
on subsequent professional milestones. Always leave with quality contacts! During or at the end of your
internship, add fellow colleagues on LinkedIn.

3.4 Leverage on your internship experience

Update your resume and do not limit yourself to only describing the tasks your have performed.
Emphasize the skills and knowledge acquired (of an industry, a position...) that could be of interest for
your future employers.

UM6P – Bachelor Program in Hospitality Business & Management – Preparatory year Internship guidelines 3
4- The internship report
4.1 Report learning objectives

Below are the learning objectives of the internship report. We invite you to read them carefully:

• Compare the intellectual, theoretical and practical knowledge acquired in school to the realities
of the professional world.
• Identifying your strengths, what you really enjoy, along with your areas of improvements.
• Understand your motivations, know yourself better and reflect on your internship choice and
professional projects
• Identify and assess whether the personal and professional objectives you set for yourself were
met
• Reflect on the learnings and benefits of the internship as an integral part of the school’s
curriculum and pathway to your professional ventures.

4.2 Internship report sections’ description

Your report should contain the following sections:

• Front cover of the report - 1 page

• Synopsis (or table of contents) - 1 page

• Acknowledgements - 1 page

• Introduction: - 1 to 2 pages

• Main section – Standard layout: 8 pages approx.

o The property and its activity sector (industry)

o Your internship (should take up the most part of the main section)

• Conclusion: - 1 to 2 pages

• Annexes

Below is a detailed description of each section.

UM6P – Bachelor Program in Hospitality Business & Management – Preparatory year Internship guidelines 4
4.2.1 Front cover of the report - 1 page
It should mention:

• Your surname, first name

• Title (title or position) of your internship
• Dates / internship period
• Name + logo of the property - Name + logo of the school
• Your campus, your school year
• The name of your internship supervisor + his/her position (title)

If applicable, the confidentiality clause (imposed or not by the property depending on the information
provided in the report). It is advised to reach out to the HR department regarding this aspect.

4.2.2 Synopsis (or table of contents) - 1 page

This section shows how your report is built. Choose precisely the titles of each section in order to quickly
have a logical and easily recognizable structure for your report.
By reading your table of contents, the reader should be able to evaluate your work as it describes the
issue at hand that you are going to develop, meaning your subject analysis.
Number each part, section and paragraph to have a good readability. Indicate page numbers in the table
of contents.

4.2.3 Acknowledgements - 1 page

The acknowledgements in your internship report are generally for your tutor and one or two people that
have played a significant role in your internship. Mention the name, position of each person and the
reason of their mention in this section. Always remain professional and courteous in your writing.

4.2.4 Introduction: - 1 to 2 pages

Introduce the context of your internship to the reader. Outline professional and personal objectives that
you have set for yourself during your internship. Depending on the objectives, explain in this section why
you specifically chose that internship, for which reasons you opted for that department and why this
property in particular. Present in a general sense the property and your internship goals.

4.2.5 Main section – Standard layout: 8 pages approx.

Here is an example of layout that could be used for your internship report. Bear in mind, the section
related to your assignments and the summary of your internship must be larger in volume than the one
focusing on the property and the industry.
UM6P – Bachelor Program in Hospitality Business & Management – Preparatory year Internship guidelines 5
When describing your goals, focus on major facts, objectives, methods and means used, final results,
difficulties that you have faced, solutions found, persons with whom you were in contact, main issues of
your assignment. Describe as well what your typical day was as a (Position held).
This section should also comprise both the description of the property and its activity sector as well as a
focus on your internship. Find below an example of elements of the layout for both these sub-sections:

The property and its activity sector (industry) :

The activity sector/industry: describe the industry with general data, geographical distribution, situation
among the main touristic cities of the Kingdom.
The property: a very detailed fact sheet of the property with key elements (the presentation of the sheet
should be impeccable):
• Hotel/Property: stand-alone or part of a hotel chain (local/international/…)
• Type of property: depending on its core clientele (Club, Leisure, Corporate/Business, hybrid,…)
• Essential information on the chain (if applicable)
• Key/Major facts: (Ex : opening year, rating, number of rooms/suites, points of sale F&B, Banquets,
other guest services, published rates for the period, ranking/grades on Booking.com/Trip
Advisor/Google/…, specific labels, geographical location, nearby touristic attractions, special
events held in the past,…)
• The strategic assessment of the property:
o How is the property positioned compared to its competitors in terms of scale, standards,
occupancy, market share, ranking,...
o Who are their main competitors and what are the main differentiating points
o Does the company ambition to further grow the property, open additional ones or launch
new services?

Your internship

• List your assignments (objectives, day-to-day work, tools/methods used, standards you had
to adhere to…)
• Describe the overall work organization within the department & service.
• Explain the tasks you were assigned and the learning opportunities that were available to you
(daily, training sessions, explanation about standards, policies and procedures,...)
• Present what you were able to learn during your internship in detail (Ex: procedures,
techniques, standards, new way of doing things, recipes/preparations,
food/wines/alcohols/cocktails expertise, planning preparation, cleaning techniques…)
• Describe the soft skills you were able to develop or acquire
• Describe the outcome/results (comments/appraisal of your tutor, productivity, time
management, efficiency, inter-personal relationship, dealing with Top Management if
applicable…)
• Explain any difficulties met and the solutions that were found
• Assess the professional gains of your internship in terms of knowledge and skills
UM6P – Bachelor Program in Hospitality Business & Management – Preparatory year Internship guidelines 6
 • Evaluate the personal benefits from the internship: personal development, reflection on the
interactions with your colleagues and customers, …
• Explain any difficulties met and the solutions that were found

4.2.6 Conclusion: - 1 to 2 pages

The conclusion of your report helps compare the different experiences of your internship to the objectives
that you had set for yourself. Moreover, it serves the purpose to put into perspective your internship in
comparison to your training and professional objectives. Finally, it’s an opportunity to reflect on the next
step, the future of the property, the evolution of the service industry, and a possible career in this
department.

4.2.7 Appendices

You will place here the documents, tools and models used during your internship that will help illustrate
and describe in more details the various sections of your core report. Bear in mind that all the documents
in the appendices section must have been listed in your report with the proper reference to the annex.
Always ensure that the property where you did your internship has authorized you to use these
documents (for the sole internal use of SHBM, no outside publication of the documents will be made).

4.3 Bibliography
• It is highly recommended to use bibliographical references in your report. They can be about
the company/property your worked for, the position held in the economic environment for
example.
• Notation in the bibliography: Tartempion A. (2005), Le titre du livre, Paris, Éditeur.
• In the body of the text: The internship took place at the property Réussie SA, described by par
Tartempion (2005). The author outlines that the property is growing (Tartempion, 2005,
p.123), and that…
• We discourage the use of non-reliable Internet sources like Wikipedia. You could however
take the company/property web sites as references for your analysis.

Reminder: IF SOURCES ARE NOT REFERENCED, THERE IS PLAGIARISM.

Plagiarism is an act punishable by law and could lead the student in front of a disciplinary committee.

UM6P – Bachelor Program in Hospitality Business & Management – Preparatory year Internship guidelines 7
4.4 Format of the report
• Typography Times New Roman body text 12 – line spacing 1,5
• Number of pages: 12 pages minimum, 15 pages maximum (excluding annexes)
• Cover page = 1 page
• Page layout: margins 2,5 cm on the whole document
• Illustration: cross-reference in the text: … the company is growing (Illustration 1) for years…
• The illustration follows the text, like this: Illustration 1 - Title of the Illustration
• Tables: cross-reference in the text: … but competition is strong (Table 3), and the context…
• The table follows in the text: Table 3 - Title of the table
• Reminder: there should not be any illustrations, tables or annexes without cross- references
in the text.

4.5 Documentary remittance

The report should be sent in Word format to your Program Officer Zakaria Ait Mbark on his email
address: Zakaria.AITMBARK@um6p.ma on October 15th, 2022, 06:00 pm at the latest.
Note that 3 points will be automatically deducted from your internship report grade should you not meet
this deadline.

Evaluation criteria are detailed in appendix 2.

5- Appendix:
5.1 Layout of the internship report front cover
5.2 Internship report evaluation criteria

UM6P – Bachelor Program in Hospitality Business & Management – Preparatory year Internship guidelines 8
 APPENDIX 1

Layout of the internship report front cover

UM6P – Bachelor Program in Hospitality Business & Management – Preparatory year Internship guidelines 9
 NAME and Surname

PREPARATORY YEAR
PREPARATORY YEAR2021 – 2022
2020-2021
INTERNSHIP REPORT
INTERNSHIP REPORT
Name of the property
Position/Title of the intern in the property
Under the supervision of ….. (Name of the internship tutor)

Logo of the property

Internship period from xx / xx / 2022 to xx / xx / 2022

UM6P – Bachelor Program in Hospitality Business & Management – Preparatory year Internship guidelines 10
 APPENDIX 2

Internship report evaluation critera

UM6P – Bachelor Program in Hospitality Business & Management – Preparatory year Internship guidelines 11
 Category
Guidelines and format
Internship description – Property and
positioning
Internship description – Duties and
responsibilities
Internship description – Department
and environment
Personal and professional development
Personal and professional development
UM6P – Bachelor Program in Hospitality Business & Management – Preparatory year Internship guidelines
Criteria Total points / 20
The learner was able to match the deliverable
requirement in terms of length, structure, quality 2
of language, references and deadline
Learner was able to synthetically and effectively
2
present the property and industry at large.
Learner was able to list the specific tasks and
responsibilities assigned to him/her in a structured 4
way
Learner demonstrates a grasp of the environment
he/she was immersed in and overall operations of
the department. He/she is able to identify and
4
explain the different members of the department,
their roles and link it to the department's
objectives
Learner was able to identify, explain and question
the challenges that the property and/department 4
are facing
Learner was able to reflect on his/her learning
journey and investigate if he/she has been able to
4
meet the internship's objectives he/she set for
him/herself initially
1