International Journal of Work-Integrated Learning

This is the third of three articles investigating the renewal of a foundational work-integrated learning (WIL) subject offered by a faculty at an Australian university. This case study describes the project frame, the intended project deliverables, and the strategic outcomes relating to the renewal process. It reports on how the action-research project approach required the sharing of diverse expertise to enable subject reform and to also challenge and transform existing faculty-wide strategies and practices relating to career education. An accumulation of cultural capital enabled more than the re-design of the single subject, a vertical and horizontal scaffolding of Faculty-wide WIL curriculum enhancement began. The project outcomes demonstrate how a vision for a core STEM-centric foundation career education subject led to broader educational reform relating to student employability.

This study contributes a perspective on work-integrated learning (WIL) through the lens of South-North collaboration. The research question was: How might sharing experiences of WIL in different contexts enhance WIL practice in a local context? The purposive sample of twelve case studies; South Africa (n=6) and Ireland (n=6), represented business, engineering, biopharma and health sciences disciplines. Activity theory was drawn on to analyze data on program content, mechanisms and processes, and outcomes and challenges across the case studies. Key findings include: student support requirements, curricular modalities and assessment practices, levels at which WIL is offered, resourcing for WIL and understandings of WIL as enhancing students' employability and as a societal contribution. The data revealed similarities and differences in WIL practices within and across the two countries. Partners developed insights into their own and one another's practices, showing the potential of international collaboration to enhance learning and practice in local contexts.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) placement is increasingly being prioritized in university course curricula as industry, students and government seek improved employability skills, work-ready graduates and stronger graduate employability outcomes. For disciplines such as business, without industry accreditation mandating WIL placement experiences WIL placement are typically non-compulsory and administered through competitive or self-selection approaches which favor higher grade point average (GPA) and socioeconomic status (SES) students at the expense of less advantaged students. Despite well-documented benefits to multiple stakeholders, business schools’ reluctance to embrace compulsory WIL placement is underpinned by internal challenges of cost, supply, and implementation. The dynamics of business schools’ future sustainability is under threat by market disruptions, pandemic induced income and enrolment losses, and performance driven funding. Potentially the introduction of compulsory WIL placement could decrease existing discriminatory WIL placement practices and enhance student equity while delivering a powerful value proposition to combat future sustainability challenges.

The financial planning profession has undergone significant change in recent years, where the focus has shifted from disclosure and consumer protection, to quality and education requirements. In Australia, there has been an increasing focus on the role that work-integrated learning (WIL) can play in financial planning education and preparing graduates for their professional year and subsequent registration as a financial planner. Emphasizing the centrality of student wellbeing, this paper identifies key considerations for, and potential alternatives to, incorporating extended work placements as a mandated WIL activity in financial planning education. It raises concerns regarding the potential for participation to negatively impact student wellbeing, identifies the equity challenges associated with placements, and discusses the need to ensure workplaces and students are adequately prepared for the placement. Finally, service learning is proposed as a practical alternative as it overcomes many of the disadvantages of traditional placements.

Despite a growing demand for mental health/psychological support in the Australian community, there is a deficit of appropriately trained professionals, due in part to psychology graduates who are not afforded meaningful applied learning experiences during their degree. Systematic integration of authentic WIL into undergraduate psychology degrees may offset this lack of industry exposure, but such learning is scarcely implemented within current curricula. The proposed research sought to address this gap in the undergraduate curriculum by constructing a tangible framework of work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities to enrich student education and preparedness for the workforce. Semi-structured interviews (n = 36) were conducted with four key stakeholder groups to elicit the current state of WIL in undergraduate psychology curricula and to generate industry specific WIL opportunities that will enhance the skillset and abilities of psychology undergraduates, heighten their psychological literacy, and endorse their transition to an increasingly diverse workforce.

High-quality student placements in rural areas can provide students with the opportunity to learn about, and become immersed in, a rural community and associated health service delivery. As long-term placements are often resource-intensive, the learning potential of short-term placements in rural areas deserves greater examination. This research examined the learning afforded to students during a short-term, rural, work-integrated learning experience and the attributes and practices that facilitated students' learning. Undergraduate students from three health disciplines who attended the placement participated in two focus groups at the end of their placement. Thematic analysis of the data was inductively informed by a situated learning approach. The results demonstrate several localized learning opportunities afforded by this short-term placement and the design elements that enabled that learning. These findings demonstrate the value of offering short-term placements to health students.

Co-operative education is a form of work-integrated learning that includes academic study and paid work experience. This provides new learning opportunities for students and a talent pipeline for employers, but also requires participation in a competitive job market. This paper studies competition through a unique dataset from a large North American co-operative program, in which students and employers rank each other after a round of interviews, then a matching algorithm assigns students to jobs based on the ranks, and finally, they evaluate each other at the end of the work term. The results suggest that less experienced students and small employers are more strongly affected by competition and consider more options in their rankings, whereas senior students and large employers often only identify their top choice. Additionally, competition appears to affect satisfaction since students and employers give higher work term evaluations when matched with their top choice.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the continuity to Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) activities and work-integrated learning (WIL) assessments, thereby negatively affecting the progression of studies for many learners. Several institutions revisited their assessment methods and tools for WIL during such pandemics. This study investigated the assessment methods adopted by private TVET institutions in Botswana to assess WIL during the pandemic. This was a quantitative study which used online questionnaires to gather data. Purposive sampling was used to select research participants, amongst TVET lecturers and WIL coordinators in two private TVET colleges. Findings indicated that assessment of WIL practical skills online remains a challenge and most of the institutions attempted to continue with usual assessment practices.

Driven by the need to understand placement quality indicators in action, the Clinical Placement Quality Survey–Student (CPQS-S) is a psychometrically robust survey designed to evaluate allied health students' perception of placement. The CPQS-S was developed and validity established through the consensus of an interprofessional expert panel (n = 9). To determine test-retest reliability and internal consistency, students (n = 39) completed the CPQS-S twice. Construct validity was then determined by factor analysis (n = 719). The factor analysis identified four discrete themes relating to the students' perception of what constitutes a quality clinical placement experience, furthermore, these quality indicators demonstrated excellent test-retest reliability. The CPQS-S is a valid and reliable tool for evaluating allied health students' perception of a quality clinical placement experience, underpinned by current best practice frameworks. The CPQS-S provides all stakeholders with an easily scalable and objective method for evaluating placement quality to engage in quality improvement processes.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is a teaching and learning approach widely adopted across Australian universities. With inclusion across a wide range of programs and courses, WIL is championed as providing authentic and transformative learning environments that may equip graduates for the world of work. Despite a rapid expansion in WIL scholarship, there remains scant attention at the postgraduate level, including its specific contributions in preparing students for life after completion of postgraduate studies. This paper contributes to nascent literature in this space. Taking the case of the University of Queensland’s Master of Development Practice, this paper argues there are challenges in ensuring postgraduate WIL prepares graduates for careers in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world. The paper concludes that a diverse approach to WIL is vital to provide relevant pedagogical practices that prepare postgraduates for uncertain, and unknowable futures.

U.S. organizations seek to provide interns with positive socialization experiences such that their internships may lead to job offer acceptances. This study presents a process model examining how developmental relationships shape interns' experiences and outcomes. Utilizing a sample of 6,802 recent graduates from across 200 U.S. colleges and universities who completed an internship, the study found that supervisor support indirectly influences an intern's decision to accept a job offer through learning and intern satisfaction. Findings further show that interns benefit from developmental relationships such as mentors since mentor status buffered the decrements in learning when supervisor support was low. This study contributes to the growing internship literature that draws upon early socialization and newcomer adaptation by examining the critical role developmental relationships play in the experiences of interns.

In order to compensate for a demise in New Zealand’s pre-service teacher training, particularly in health and physical education (HPE), a work-integrated learning (WIL) course was added to a Bachelor of Sport and Exercise curriculum. This exploratory research provides insights into the outcomes of twenty-nine final year undergraduate PE students' involvement in teaching, coaching and management of school sports events and activities. The impact of initiatives resulted in enhanced participation, opportunities and engagement in physical education and sport activity for a range of children. Themes emerged from content analysis of student perceptions of individual's learning outcomes. WIL opportunities enabled students to build self-efficacy and career capability despite the COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns. Findings indicated that from the students' perspectives, school-based initiatives enriched career capability, whilst also requiring adaptability, flexibility and resilience. The WIL experience enabled development of transferable skills and attributes in preparation for pre-service teacher training.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) can be expensive for tertiary students. There are potential accommodation, equipment, and travel expenses, as well as opportunity costs associated with lost income when completing unpaid WIL placements. Non-remunerative financial support such as bursaries, scholarships, stipends, and honorariums (collectively 'WIL studentships') can defray student expenses and facilitate access to WIL for students of diverse backgrounds, alleviating equity concerns. Careful consideration is required, however, when designing WIL studentships to maximize the opportunities and minimize the hazards for stakeholders. This article arises from the first known systematic study examining WIL studentship design across Australian institutions, which included a qualitative web-based study of 59 WIL studentships. The article presents a typology of WIL studentships developed from that study. In addition, two case studies are presented as to facilitate examination of key features of WIL studentships, identify risks, and provide a basis for recommending effective practice in WIL studentship design.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) continues to be a central element of higher education and may provide students with opportunities for both personal and professional development. However, the personal development opportunities afforded by WIL are often overshadowed by the more typical focus of work readiness. Increasing attention to self-authorship, an important stage of personal development when students start to make use of their internal voice to guide their beliefs, identity and relationships, could address this imbalance in WIL programs. This article explores the extent to which WIL enables self-authorship development in tourism management students. An interpretive, longitudinal case study methodology guided the study. The findings indicate the significant potential of WIL to foster students’ self-authorship development given the opportunities and challenges inherent in placements. The Work-Integrated Learning for Self-authorship Development (WILSAD) model is proposed as a conceptual framework to assist WIL program designers in fostering self-authorship development in their students.

The increasing unemployment of graduates and its consequence on society make it imperative to examine the potential of the Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES), as a work-integrated learning program, towards sustainability. This study adopts the descriptive survey design, with relevant research questions and hypotheses. The population of the study comprised all the 166 final-year students of vocational and technology education (business education, home economics education and technology education) undergraduates in the federal university in Lagos State, Nigeria. The sample size consisted of 132 randomly selected students from this cohort. The findings of this study can be generalized for other public universities in Nigeria on the assumption that they share similar characteristics. The findings showed that the inadequacy of SIWES duration, insufficient funding and poorly matched placements were some of the impediments to its effectiveness. The recommended strategy is an urgent improvement of the SIWES program for the attainment of sustainability in Nigeria.

This article explores employability content that should be integrated in work-integrated learning (WIL) curricula in Vietnamese universities. An exploratory sequential mixed-methods design was employed that included 15 in-depth interviews and three focus groups with key WIL stakeholders: university department leaders, company leaders, lecturers, industry professionals, graduates, and students; and 461 responses to a student survey. Findings indicated that a WIL curriculum should contain (i) general requirements of the workplace such as work safety and work ethics, (ii) generic skills related to effective communication, and (iii) attitudes towards working effectively with customers. The influence of four factors, field of study, year of study, gender, and WIL experiences, on student preferences in WIL learning content, suggested that student demographic information should be considered when designing and implementing WIL. The research findings provide valuable information for WIL developers in Vietnam and contribute to the global quest to enhance student employability.

The sudden termination of nearly 40% of U.S. WIL experiences during the summer of 2020 caused employers to quickly adapt to virtual WIL experiences. What employers learned from these adjustments to their traditional WIL practices and perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of virtual experiences form the basis of this paper. Over 350 employers provided comments to a special set of questions pertaining to virtual WIL experiences in their organizations. A strong virtual experience required constant communicate, set schedules, structured workflow, and prepared supervisors to handle remote student employees. The advantages included more innovative practices, safe experiences, and cost savings for both students and the organization. Virtual experiences present challenges, including organizational enculturation, loss of serendipitous connections, and inability to provide hands-on learning opportunities. For virtual experiences to play a more prominent role, issues around tacit knowledge acquisition, trust building, serendipity, and mentoring need to be addressed.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is a flourishing, global, educational phenomenon that is changing the field of higher education. Through WIL, relevant, meaningful connections to work are made throughout the curriculum that lead to enhanced graduate employability. While scholarship grows across diverse areas of WIL, one important domain that remains relatively under researched is that of Indigenous work-integrated learning (WIL). This paper launches a Special Issue in IJWIL to cultivate knowledge and practice of Indigenous WIL. It proposes a definition and design principles for those embarking on Indigenous WIL opportunities. The paper introduces twelve studies that offer insight and perspectives of Indigenous community, language and culture in a variety of contexts across Australia, New Zealand and Canada. While not every Indigenous nation, nor peoples have been represented in this Special Issue, this collection of dynamic and diverse locations and perspectives aims to ignite a global conversation. To inaugurate the special issue, the authors share an Acknowledgement of Country and statement of place, inviting others to follow in these footsteps in future research and publications of Indigenous WIL.

Despite increases in Indigenous enrolment in post-secondary institutions (PSIs) in British Columbia, Canada, there are significant disparities in Indigenous student access, retention, and success in work-integrated learning (WIL) programs. By analyzing Indigenous-specific WIL literature, this article identifies existing barriers to Indigenous WIL as well as unrealized opportunities to expand and transform WIL approaches and practices. Based on these findings, the paper offers 10 recommendations for the development of resources and strategic Indigenous WIL initiatives, recommendations that also served to guide the creation of a publicly-accessible Indigenous WIL Resource Hub (IRH). However, the literature review also revealed limitations to academic publishing and challenges in institutional reporting. Accounting for these scholarly limitations and recognizing the value of on-the-ground and community-held knowledge, the directives guiding the IRH and shared in this article’s conclusions are based on the understanding that initiatives to act on opportunities and address barriers must be needs-based and community-specific.

The positive impact of work-integrated learning (WIL) is well-known, but there are substantial gaps in the literature related to the benefits Indigenous students receive and Indigenous students' perspective on those benefits. This article reports on a mixed methods research project into Indigenous students' perspectives on their curricular WIL experiences through qualitative semi-structured interviews and assessment of the academic impact of WIL. This study identified no difference between the academic benefits Indigenous and non-Indigenous students receive but did find a substantial gap in recruitment of Indigenous students into optional WIL programs. It argues that the WIL experience is best when situated in an authentic and challenging experience in collaboration with others where students can build confidence and develop new relationships. It concludes by advocating that WIL programs adopt a relational and holistic understanding of WIL to better recruit Indigenous students and support students beyond employment outcomes.

This paper presents reflections on an international field trip for Indigenous students enrolled in an Education degree at a university in Australia. The field trip was co-developed with staff, students, and community partners of a Canadian university, as a pilot project to prepare Indigenous students for work in various cultural contexts. This paper outlines considerations for planning and coordinating an international career development opportunity, from inception to completion. Successes and failures of the program are discussed, recognizing the pitfalls that plague many well-intentioned program developments. The paper then argues for an intentional and generative approach in co-developing and co-delivering international learning experiences. Finally, it offers reflections on the need for more explicit alignment between academic outcomes and career aspirations, supporting students to articulate knowledge and skills acquired to translate them into the world of work.

This is a case study of the Indigenous Pre-Accounting Enabling Program. With less than 100 self-identified Indigenous registered accountants in Australia, the accounting profession has capacity to provide opportunities for more Indigenous people. Highlighting the critical nature of Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) in making visible the stories of professions for career clarification and introducing students to the bigger picture of the accounting profession, can add to the design knowledge of what works, for WIL programs, in other universities and professions.

Fresh approaches to trades training are essential for decolonizing educational access and success for Indigenous people. Holistic approaches to supporting student success are needed for the unique learning needs and contexts of Indigenous learners. Community-based training presents opportunities for this type of innovation. Using a Canadian case study and an Indigenous storytelling approach of witnessing, this paper introduces an Indigenous work-integrated learning conceptual model to support apprentice access and success through a community-based program. This student-centered approach ensures the apprentice is grounded in culture and Indigenous ways of knowing, doing, and being. Key features are described in a medicine wheel, which includes community, training providers, funders, and industry, and has the apprentice at the core.

This study explores how work-integrated learning (WIL) in higher education contexts translates for Indigenous Australian students and subsequent notions of their employability. Through a mixed methods survey, the paper identifies problematic issues that exist in current comprehensions of Indigenous Australian graduate employability readiness; and validates the Indigenous student voice via Western methods. Insights from Indigenous Australian students highlight themes of cultural safety and individualized approaches to employability promotion, amongst others. Survey results inform recommendations for tertiary institutions to consider regarding WIL reform.

Only a few information and communication technology (ICT) work-integrated learning (WIL) projects involving universities and Indigenous partners are being reported and very little is known about the approaches that are followed. This article reports on successful student work placements in Indigenous communities when co-developing software for the community. We provide two case studies of projects which involved work-integrated learning students and researchers from a university, as well as researchers and practitioners from Indigenous communities in New Zealand and Fiji. Two independent app development projects were the central focus of the collaborations with these two communities including placement students. The article describes the learning and insights from these WIL projects and provides recommendations for creating successful WIL opportunities with Indigenous communities.

Work-integrated learning WIL provides an opportunity for integrating Indigenous and Western learning pedagogies and facilitate a meaningful pathway for authentic learning through developing partnerships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous stakeholders. However, research in developing WIL with Indigenous communities and appropriate learning pedagogies is limited. This paper discusses how WIL can inculcate Indigenous and non-Indigenous learning pedagogies to facilitate authentic, culturally enhanced learning. The proposed theoretical framework was constructed using the concepts relating to '8 Ways of Knowing Indigenous Learning' framework, Studio Based Learning, Co-design, and WIL. The research method draws on autoethnographic approaches to reflect and critically analyze academic observations and reflections across two case studies. The findings propose a WIL pedagogical approach integrating Indigenous and non-Indigenous learning pedagogies to enable authentic learning by co-generating emergent knowledge in complex socio-cultural contexts. Moreover this approach enables training architecture students to represent cultures and values of the Indigenous communities in the mainstream Anglo Australian architecture.

Aotearoa New Zealand has a significant population of Pacific students in the higher education sector although proportionally Pacific academic staff numbers are negligible. In social work programs students undertaking work-integrated learning (WIL) generally work with non-Pacific academic staff and are matched with agencies seen to be appropriate to their learning needs. This article draws on the perspectives of six Pacific graduates on elements that may enable the improvement of WIL experiences. The findings indicate that higher education providers should strengthen relationship-building with students and families; support host organizations to understand the unique needs of Pacific students; and develop systems of accountability and mentoring that promote Pacific student success in WIL. Drawing on a Pacific model of professional supervision and the findings from this study a model for supporting the learning of Pacific WIL students is proposed. The model encompasses three domains: personal, cultural, and professional.

This paper discusses changes taking place in the delivery of work-integrated learning (WIL) in a Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Development in Auckland, New Zealand. WIL in the faculty utilized a model adopted from a business school which did not recognize key aspects of the students' lives and expectations, in particular the strong connection that Māori students can have with their communities. Over time the nature of the WIL experience is moving to a model based on Māori values. Indigenous models must be relevant to and driven by a community's underlying values, as many students feel primary responsibility to their community, and second to the academy. This paper is part of an ongoing reflection on how WIL placements in Te Ara Poutama at Auckland University of Technology can fulfil wide-ranging expectations of students and their communities and help develop a coherent Indigenous framework for WIL.

Understanding employability for Māori, the Indigenous peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ), is an under researched area. The dominant Western culture, structures and practices in university and industries within NZ have obscured Māori presence and limited Māori student’s expression of their own cultural identity. The current employment environment in NZ is starting to appreciate and recognize the contribution of Māori values and principles in the workplace. The demand for Maori employees competent in tikanga (Māori protocols) and Te Reo (Māori language, one of three official languages of NZ) is on the rise. We highlight the need to explore ways to change Higher Education and work-integrated learning (WIL) to better enable and encourage students to explore their cultural identity and add value into the workplace by bringing their 'whole selves' and their 'superpower'. This study adopted a case study methodology to examine employability from a Māori perspective.

Work-related learning (WRL) and employability programmes seek to provide an effective means of testing and applying knowledge gained through academic studies within the workplace. Proponents have argued that WRL provides an opportunity for individuals to learn about the work environment and the relationship between work and future career aspirations. This study, situated in New Zealand, sought to determine whether WRL was an effective way of guiding both career decisions and improving educational outcomes among a group of 16 Māori students. Findings suggest that while Māori students develop career opportunities and awareness through WRL experiences, it is the context that allows Māori to express themselves as Māori that provides an equally, if not more meaningful experience.

Reflecting on one's performance is a critical aspect of work integrated learning and professional life in general. This project compared 282 business and tourism students' self-assessment of their workplace performance against their industry supervisor's evaluation. The analysis included possible moderator variables such as gender, residential status, level of study and placement type. Overall, supervisors rated the importance of the competencies to their organization, and the level of attainment of the students on these, higher than the students themselves. Close to half of these ratings, on both measures, were found to be significantly different with no significant interactions revealed. These findings will be used to improve the evaluation form by combining some items, including descriptors, and supporting supervisors and students in its use. This will increase the capacity of students and employers to prepare for, engage in, and extract meaning from their work integrated learning (WIL) experiences.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) has become an essential component of many university curricula. Recent global disruptions have challenged traditional models of WIL, particularly industry-based student placements, leading to growing calls for new, sustainable models of WIL. Aligned with this call and the increased emphasis on learning across disciplines, interdisciplinary project-based WIL provides an alternative to student placements that is both student and industry centered. This study reports on the outcomes of pilots of this model of WIL across four Australian universities. A cohort of 38 students, faculty and industry staff who participated in the pilots were interviewed. The key challenges and enablers of interdisciplinary project-based WIL are identified along with recommendations for implementation.

Allied health new graduates are entering private practice in increasing numbers despite limited opportunity to experience this setting during training. Exploring strategies used to host students may provide insight into how students can be integrated into practice whilst minimizing disruption to staff, clients, and service delivery. This study aimed to explore actual and potential strategies to integrate students into private practice organizations from the perspective of practices who currently, have previously, and who have never hosted allied health students (n=26) and university clinical education coordinators (n=13). Four themes were generated that encompassed key strategies in hosting allied health students. Allied health private practices and clinical placement coordinators use a range of strategies to integrate students, centering on supporting involvement in client care and steps to minimize disruption to service delivery. Consideration of such strategies may provide avenues for future practice-university partnerships, thereby increasing placement capacity in this sector.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the motivation and expectations of stakeholders (students, teachers, and employers) related to their participation in simulated work-integrated learning (WIL) taking place in a form of work-related projects in an academic environment. Analysis is based on data gathered from 49 students, four teachers and six employers who participated in WIL within four different units of study in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Organization and Informatics (FOI), Croatia. The findings of this research revealed that student learning, student career development and increasing quality of learning and teaching are common motivational factors for stakeholders' participation in WIL. Additional factors pertinent to respective stakeholders’ motivation and expectations are also detected. The results of this study can help higher education institutions (HEIs) in the organization of WIL practices to increase motivation and meet expectations of all stakeholders.

This paper reflects on the work-integrated learning (WIL) program in an undergraduate Construction Engineering and Management (CEM) department in Indonesia. Given the industrial revolution that has transformed the construction industry into Construction 4.0, concrete steps are needed to bridge the needs of industry for professional workers who are aware of Construction 4.0 concepts. This study aims to develop a WIL model adjusting to Construction 4.0 concepts. A case study of the internship experience that has been conducted for four consecutive years was used to develop the model. This observation was reinforced by a questionnaire survey aimed at students, workplace supervisors and lecturers to evaluate the effectiveness of the internship program in achieving the learning outcomes. The results of this analysis coupled with the findings from the integrative literature review were used to develop a Construction 4.0 WIL model.

This article reports on a qualitative multi-case study conducted to investigate how work placement contributes to the learning of mechanical engineering students. The study collected data from 34 mechanical engineering students undergoing year-long placement. It found that work placement students’ proactive behavior influenced their learning trajectories. Proactive students experienced increasing participation as they moved from the periphery to engaging in active participation in their work community and were exposed to meaningful and complex work. On the contrary, those students who were passive seemed to stagnate in both participation and work performance. As a result, they remained peripheral participants for the entire placement. The findings are interpreted to suggest that universities need to help students manage their participation to improve their work placement learning. Additionally, they need to monitor changes to students’ participation in work activities and their work complexity.

Benefits of cooperative (co-op) education have been investigated, mainly by surveying students already enrolled in co-op programs. In contrast, this paper investigates prospective students' perceptions of co-op. This was done by analyzing over 33,000 applications to undergraduate engineering programs in a large North American university. Text mining was applied to analyze applicants' responses to the question "Tell us about your reasons for applying". Overall, 58% of students mentioned co-op in their response; this percentage was higher for female applicants, applicants to chemical engineering, domestic students and students applying directly from high school. Based on words frequently occurring in sentences that mentioned co-op, applicants were attracted to co-op programs to learn new skills, gain practical work experience leading to a desirable career, and leverage the reputation and size of the institution's co-op program, with the first two reasons mentioned more often by female applicants and the last by male applicants.

This study examines initial teacher education (ITE) student's utilisation of intentional learning goals from critical reflection as they enter and participate in a work-integrated learning (WIL) placement at a regional Australian university. Fourteen ITE students were interviewed on two occasions during a three-week placement in a rural or remote area to elicit greater understanding of the use of critical reflection in practice. Thematic analysis of student responses led to findings on the usefulness of devising learning goals for practice and how the application of critical reflection can be encouraged. These findings emphasise how students grapple with connecting university assignments and activities as meaningful for practice. It also highlights the benefits to professional learning when learning goals are employed. The findings of this study suggest the need for a shared understanding of the importance of critical reflection by workplace educators, WIL supervisors and ITE students.

This article documents an examination of the role and alignment of social work field education within work-integrated learning (WIL) pedagogy. Both social work education and work-integrated learning share a long history of helping students connect with authentic work-related learning opportunities in the context of engagement and partnership with organizations outside of the educational institution, using onsite mentoring. The tensions associated with aligning social work with WIL are explored and pedagogical similarities between the two enterprises are identified. Key tools and processes for strengthening the quality of field education in social work are discussed along with approaches for placement preparation, student supervision and assessment. Three potential contributions that social work field education practice may offer WIL best practice frameworks include the addition of preplacement preparation for students and field educators, professional supervision approaches, and the inclusion of service user feedback within student assessment processes.

This paper discusses the outcomes of an action-research project designed to consider whether a compulsory foundational work-integrated learning (WIL) subject within a faculty at an Australian university could make an impact on three key outcomes: 1) student awareness of employability; 2) student perceptions of WIL approaches to enhance employability skills; 3) student understanding of the value of career platform tools to practise and demonstrate employability skills. Results gathered from a pre- and post-study survey and subject evaluation survey indicate an improvement in student perceptions relating to the three intersecting aspects of employability learning after completing the subject. At the conclusion of the study, over 3,000 students had completed the subject and it had evolved to become core in 80% of undergraduate courses in the Faculty. The results provide evidence of a sustainable course-wide curriculum approach for commencing the horizontal and vertical scaffolding of constructively aligned discipline-specific employability assessments.

This paper reviews the theoretical background and contextualized application of ePortfolios in tertiary education. Higher education graduates are expected to provide evidence demonstrating a complex skill set as they transition to employment, and ePortfolios are a potential tool with which to do this. This literature review explores current understanding and contemporary practices for how ePortfolios can be curated to demonstrate student competency in the desired skills. It also considers how to choose between ePortfolio platforms and how ePortfolio outputs are designed and structured to align student learning outcomes and associated evidence of student ability with student professional identity, using Australian nursing/midwifery and engineering discipline case studies to identify relevant industry-based skills as examples. While the typology of ePortfolios is consistently recognized, the implementation in teaching varies across contexts. When integrating ePortfolios into the curriculum, many elements must be addressed, including assessment strategies, pedagogical approaches, integration of professional identity, and resourcing.

The post-lesson mentoring conversation on work-integrated learning placements in teacher education is an opportunity for students to critically reflect on their practice. The potential for this learning to take place is diminished however, if the mentor is unskilled in the art of leading these conversations. This skill involves creating a dialogue where the mentee can discuss their practice in relation to learning goals. This study analyzed the transcripts of 54 post-lesson mentoring conversations. The study found that goals were rarely mentioned when conversations were closer to monologues than dialogues. If this is representative of the larger sample, then the mentoring monologue constitutes a waste of the latent learning potential of the post-lesson mentoring conversation. The implications of the study center on the post-lesson mentoring conversation requiring more scaffolding in the way of protocols that promote growth through a critical dialogue of the professional learning goals of the teacher education student.

Higher education providers are facing increasing demands to ensure graduates are prepared for the complexities of a globalized, changing and dynamic workforce. Accounting educators grapple with finding ways to develop discipline and employability skills within the curriculum to prepare students for the workforce within the limited resources available to them. This paper addresses recent calls for a range of non-placement work-integrated learning (NPWIL) strategies in accounting education, by outlining how industry partners co-designed and facilitated a case-based project in an accounting subject. NPWIL experiences engage industry partners to shape, contextualize and support student learning in an inclusive and flexible format. The paper offers recommendations for designing industry facilitated case-based learning into existing curricular and advice for accounting educators to support their students' career readiness.

There is a growing interest in understanding and evidencing quality WIL practice across higher education institutions. Despite this increasing focus there is limited evidence of shared institutional wide approaches to defining attributes of quality, establishing benchmarks of WIL in practice (i.e. the enacted WIL curriculum), and implementing a shared evidence-based approach to assuring quality in WIL. This paper presents the underpinning rationale for a quality assurance framework for WIL practice developed through a research project which engaged participants from across the Australian higher education context. The project had three phases: review, exploration and benchmarking; to develop a comprehensive framework representing the dynamic and complex practice space of WIL within higher education institutions. This paper highlights key outcomes from each phase and how these have informed the content and usability of the proposed quality assurance framework, thus providing a robust, evidence-based and comprehensive instrument for the quality assurance of WIL across an institution.

Cooperative education is a form of work-integrated learning that includes both classroom study terms and paid work experience. Prior work has studied the benefits of cooperative education for students, employers, and academic institutions. In contrast, this article studies the impact of co-operative education on students' mental well-being. This is done by mining the Reddit social media platform, which includes, among many other topics, discussion communities for major U.S. and Canadian colleges. This analysis reveals that students report feelings of self-doubt resulting from a competitive co-op job market, especially when placed in entry-level jobs that are not related to their academic programs, and anxiety due to job interviews, especially when they coincide with exams and other academic deadlines. Additionally, recent discussions frequently point out cancelled work terms due to the COVID-19 pandemic, creating even more competition, financial hardship, and pressure to make alternate academic or employment arrangements.

Universities in New Zealand are increasingly focused on an employability and global citizenship agenda, leading to a proliferation of work-integrated learning (WIL) courses across diverse curriculum areas. WIL exposes students to authentic learning opportunities in a workplace. It is however an activity with inherent risks which may have significant consequences for students, universities and host organizations. This study drew on qualitative interpretive methodology to examine risks related to WIL at eight universities from the perspective of eighteen academic and professional staff. The findings indicate that significant risks for students undertaking WIL relate to the readiness and suitability of the student, the learning environment and student safety. A framework that outlines the responsibilities and conduct of students during WIL is presented. While it is acknowledged that all stakeholders are important in the WIL enterprise, it is the student experience that should be prioritized.

The immersion of students into a workplace environment, as part of a deliberate pedagogy for integrating theoretical and practical knowledge, is not without risk. In order to safely provide such work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities, the responsibility for managing these risks should be shared by all stakeholders. The purpose of this study was to explore strategies to manage different types of risks in WIL for students, host organizations and universities. Data was collected using an online survey, and interviews with university staff involved in WIL. Twenty-eight disciplines and a range of models of WIL from across the eight New Zealand universities were represented. Key strategies identified included: appropriate pre-placement preparation for students and hosts; clear contractual arrangements; good internal systems and resourcing (especially staff); and strong relationship management. Practical guidelines to help WIL stakeholders further develop their understanding and awareness of risk are presented.

This paper identifies structural barriers faced by postsecondary students from diverse groups (women, racialized people, people with disabilities, and Indigenous peoples) when accessing work-integrated learning (WIL) programs. Drawing on the ecological model approach, this paper examines the challenges to inclusive WIL in Canada at the macro-level by looking at government funding for WIL programs; the meso-level by considering employer participation in WIL programs; and at the micro-level, by analyzing individual students' demographic characteristics. In considering micro-level factors, a quantitative approach is used to analyze the demographic characteristics of WIL applicants, while for meso-level factors, the paper utilizes a qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews designed to capture employer perspectives. The study provides recommendations for policy-making, considers practical implications, and makes suggestions for future research.

National and international calls for increased work-integrated learning (WIL) offerings have increased in the last decade. Although previous research on WIL engagement has explored population-specific barriers experienced during participation, a gap exists on barriers experienced by students across the participation spectrum, including those who choose not to participate. This study sought to investigate students' perspectives of the barriers to engaging in an optional unpaid field placement. Grounded in the transtheoretical stages of behavior change model, a mixed-methods convergent parallel design was used. Data from 110 surveys and 17 semi-structured interviews with students were analyzed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. Results are presented in relation to stages of behavioral change, barriers to engagement, and moderating factors, including perceived value of WIL and self-efficacy. Findings from this study support the need for future research to explore promotional and intervention strategies aligned with stages of behavior change to increase students’ decisions to engage in WIL participation.

There is limited research available that examines students with disabilities' participation rates and perceptions of Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) while in post-secondary. This is problematic as universities in Canada are growing their WIL programs to improve school to work transition rates. This research finds that 23% of students who are registered with the Disability Services Office for academic accommodations have engaged in WIL. For those who have not engaged in WIL, almost 50% strongly or somewhat agreed that their disability was a factor. Furthermore, students with mental health disorders are 3.3 times less likely to have had a WIL experience. Participation in WIL increases students with disabilities’ probability of reporting more positively that they understand the accommodations they may need in WIL. However, only 17% of students with disabilities in a co-operative education program reported requesting accommodations in a co-op work term.

Students, faculty, and staff in postsecondary institutions around the world are engaging in conversations about decolonization and Indigenization. These conversations are also emerging in the context of work-integrated learning and experiential learning programs. This article presents the key findings of a research project investigating the impacts of an Indigenous international work-integrated learning (WIL) exchange between the University of Victoria (British Columbia, Canada) and three partner institutions in Australia. It introduces key concepts and insights from the literature about decolonizing and Indigenizing postsecondary education and links them to WIL. It describes the specific context at the University of Victoria out of which this programming emerges and the values that guided its creation. It presents the key findings of the research to date related both to Indigenous perspectives and the application of a Cultural Intelligence (Earley & Ang, 2003) framework. Finally, it offers some reflections on the implications of the findings for decolonizing WIL moving forward.

This study explored Canadian employers' perspectives around the hiring of students who come from international pathways (SFIP) using Q Methodology. The research question was: "What are employer perceptions and practices regarding the hiring of students who come to Canadian (B.C.) post-secondary institutions via international educational pathways?" Four distinct worldviews emerged regarding employers' perspectives around the hiring SFIP: 1) Candidates' qualifications are key and diversity is a real asset, 2) International pathway students are difficult and just not a good workplace fit, 3) Candidates are hired based on who is deemed most likely to succeed in our organization, and 4) While philosophically committed to diversity, our hiring commitment remains with Canadians. All employers noted that English language and cultural competencies were critical requirements influencing their hiring decisions. This raises important implications for practitioners and institutions where SFIPs study and suggests that additional English language and intercultural supports are needed.

There is growing focus on graduating global citizens who can advocate for and operationalize sustainable futures by advancing the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With the high volume of internships the University of Waterloo facilitates, there was need to better understand how these internships might be contributing to the SDGs in deeper, more meaningful ways. The researchers conducted a pilot study to classify a sample of international internships in terms of their impact on one or more of the 17 SDGs (Ivkovic et al., 2020). A key outcome of the study is that there is need to build greater awareness of the SDGs and better assess actual impact on the SDGs. This paper explains the design and development of a low-resource activity, based on a guided-conversation exploration instrument for interns and organizations to recognize how their roles could contribute to advancing the SDGs.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is an expanding practice in Canadian non-clinical health-related undergraduate programs. WIL participants frequently encounter failure experiences, yet there is limited literature exploring how students overcome failure and how instructors can support this process. This study aimed to understand how students overcome and learn from failure experiences in a non-clinical undergraduate health-related WIL program. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 previous students from an established WIL program. Iterative cycles of data analysis and constant comparison generated a theoretical explanation highlighting how students overcome failure by renegotiating their expectations through 1) experiencing and managing the wave of emotion, 2) modifying expectations of self and others, 3) redefining success and moving forward, and 4) building flexibility of expectations. This research presents failure as a tool for learning and a steppingstone toward success. Findings inform a pedagogical framework to optimize student learning from failure.

This paper advances the Future Ready Talent Framework (FRTF), a conceptual model of talents that are relevant to stakeholders of work-integrated learning (WIL) programs. The paper is organized into three sections. The first section provides background on the development of the FRTF, including a brief review of talent frameworks and the future of work literature as they relate to WIL. The second section presents the method through which the FRTF was extended and validated. This involved soliciting behavioral examples of talents from WIL stakeholders. The third section of the paper discusses implications of the FRTF for WIL, such as its application to student assessment. It also situates the FRTF in a broader discussion of WIL and the future of work. The goal of the paper is to position the FRTF as a tool that WIL stakeholders can use to create "common ground" as they communicate with each other about talent.

With the desire to expand work-integrated learning opportunities for Canadian postsecondary students, it is timely to consider how pre-existing student work positions may be transformed to achieve the educational criteria and benefits of work-integrated learning. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of structured learning support on student professional development and workplace performance in the University of Toronto Work Study program. A survey was administered with 716 work study students and 197 campus employers. It was found that students whose supervisor had them set learning goals, conduct a mid-point check-in and a final reflection of their learning goals, scored significantly higher on a series of professional-development related statements compared to students who did not receive the learning supports. Positive feedback on the impact of the structured learning supports on students' workplace performance was also reported by campus employers. Applied recommendations are proposed along with questions for future research.

type of work-integrated learning activity, undergraduate research, through undergraduate research opportunities (UROs), is becoming a prominent agenda in higher education. Currently, there is a gap in understanding the type of UROs offered in Canadian postsecondary institutions. To apprehend the country's landscape in facilitating UROs, the study focused on four U15 Group of Canadian Research Universities: Dalhousie University, University of Alberta, University of Toronto, and University of British Columbia. Research questions explored the rationale for promoting UROs, the types of UROs available, and how these offerings differ. Basic content analysis was used to analyze written text from publicly available sources. Findings from the study highlighted the different approaches to URO administration. Issues of access by undergraduates were also identified, including a lack of opportunities in the arts and humanities and those in specific student identity populations. Recommendations and future research are outlined to deepen our understanding and enhance undergraduate research for all.

Experiential learning is increasingly being recognized as the preferred teaching method in entrepreneurship education, with particular emphasis on students' 'real-world' experience. This paper critically examines the adequacy of using work-integrated learning (WIL) pedagogy for the purpose of entrepreneurship education. A novel approach is presented for achieving learning through entrepreneurship, referred to as supervised entrepreneurial work-integrated learning (sEWIL). The rationale and pedagogical considerations for sEWIL are discussed using a case study that is based on an internship-based entrepreneurship course offered at a major Canadian university. As part of the course, students learn about entrepreneurship through a combination of in-class experiential learning activities and a WIL component in the form of an internship with early-stage start-ups, which provide the work environment. Using formative and summative reflections, students critically examine their understanding and belonging to entrepreneurship, leading to personal growth and emerging self-awareness.

Student performance evaluations are a traditional method for assessing a student's skills during a work-integrated learning (WIL) experience. While these assessments provide students with feedback on the development of their skills, little documentation of student performance exists after the WIL experience. This paper explores the role of microcredentials in evidencing student competence in a particular skill through two studies conducted at the University of Waterloo. First, students and employers were surveyed to investigate their perceptions of microcredentials. Second, semi-structured interviews were conducted with students who had the opportunity to earn a microcredential based on their performance in their co-operative education (co-op) work term and in the professional development courses that accompany their work term. Findings suggest that awareness of microcredentials remains limited. In terms of their value, there is evidence consistent with Bourdieu's theory of capital. Microcredentials appear to signal value to employers and students through the credential itself. However, aligning with human capital theory, microcredentials appear most valuable when they demonstrate both knowledge acquisition and competency. Finally, the value of obtaining a microcredential appears to motivate students to exert greater effort towards content mastery.

The impact of Australian disability policy reform, known as the National Disability Insurance Scheme, on the capacity of rural health and human service organizations to facilitate higher education has been poorly investigated. This study explored how health professionals perceive the impact of the National Disability Insurance Scheme on nursing and allied health work-integrated learning (WIL) in rural host organizations during the scheme’s implementation in Victoria, Australia. Data collected from 20 health professionals across rural Victoria were thematically analyzed and mapped onto WIL dimensions. This process revealed themes relating to shifts in WIL purpose, context, nature and responsibilities. The findings suggest the National Disability Insurance Scheme may have limited rural organizational capacity to host students undertaking WIL, and in turn, contributed to a decline in rural health education during the implementation phase. Thus, WIL partners may need to pay greater attention to the policy framework surrounding rural WIL opportunities.

The study investigated teachers' purposes and approaches to communication for connectivity and integration of learning, informed by two research questions which examined teachers' approaches to connecting with those responsible for students’ learning and integration when they are in the workplace; and what outcomes teachers expected to achieve through such communication. An online survey was completed by 95 vocational education and training (VET) teachers from Queensland, Australia, and the Canton of Ticino, Switzerland. The findings show that teachers are well-connected and achieve multiple purposes when communicating with industry supervisors. Their main purposes of communication are to coordinate and cooperate to improve arrangements for students' learning, and to a lesser extent, to co-construct curricula. Communication to co-design learning activities and scenarios would further enhance the connectivity and integration. This research contributes to a gap in literature on teachers’ purposes for communicating for connectivity and integration of learning.

Supervisors are often reluctant to make an adverse assessment of the student's performance during work placements, which leads to a phenomenon known as "failure to fail". This Australian study evaluated resources designed to enhance the management of students who fail to meet the required standard of performance during work placements. Staff from a range of health disciplines evaluated the training program comprised of a half-day workshop and written guide using a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Staff reported renewed confidence in working with underperforming students,increased comfort with failing students who did not reach the required standards. The Staff Guide was seens as useful with all students undertaking work placements, not just underperforming students. The Student Guide was perceived as relevant to the student experience. The findings of this research are important to university educators engaged with work placements, work placement supervisors, and students who undertake work placements.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is an activity with inherent risks, different from those that occur with on-campus learning experiences. Risks associated with WIL may have serious financial, reputational and legal consequences for universities, WIL staff, students and host organizations. Using a mixed methods approach, this study examined how risk was defined and perceived by those involved in WIL, across eight New Zealand universities. Differences in understanding were examined and compared across disciplines and university roles. WIL staff perceived health and safety; conduct of students; student characteristics; conduct of the host organization (including exploitation and physical safety of students) as high risk. These factors were all linked to reputational risk for the university. WIL staff (both new and more experienced) need to have a clear understanding of the risks, so they can design risk management practices to help mitigate these risks for universities, students, host organizations, as well as themselves.

This article explores ways that work-integrated learning (WIL) scholarship and the field of writing studies can benefit from intentional engagement in the context of transfer research. This conceptual paper foregrounds writing in WIL contexts, introduces writing transfer and its relationship to writing in WIL contexts, discusses conceptual overlaps of writing transfer research and WIL, and suggests what writing transfer can mean for WIL practitioners. Overall, we argue that intentional engagement with writing transfer can enrich both WIL research and pedagogy.

This article extends existing theoretical perspectives to present a continuum of global citizenship education that can be applied to explore the practice and outcomes of transformative Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) experiences encompassing service-learning. It draws data from three WIL case studies across the disciplines of Business, Social Work and Education to explore how this continuum elucidates understanding of students’ engagement with and reflection on critical and transformative notions of global citizenship. Using critical service-learning theory that positions students as agents of their own transformation, the authors found that global citizenship can be conceptualized as a multifaceted process of becoming underpinned by the development of student agency, rather than a linear destination of 'knowing'. We provide examples of this agency while also considering the complexities in and for transformative learning for global citizenship.

Situated in the context of work-integrated learning (WIL), this paper aims to build the evaluative capacity of universities in response to an increasing need for evaluation in higher education. It contributes a realist synthesis of international peer-reviewed literature on university evaluation of WIL, which revealed no use of evaluation theory or approaches by the authors. In response, to support the enhancement of university evaluative practices, this paper offers a toolkit of evaluation theory and approaches, with examples relating to WIL, featuring an evaluation planning tool (RUFDATAE). RUFDATAE is demonstrated using a study from the realist synthesis, to highlight its relevance, usefulness and simplicity, or ease of use, for university stakeholders conducting any evaluation. This paper also contributes to recent scholarly debates about evaluation – how it is perceived and differs from research – suggesting evaluation could be considered as an extension of research.

Relevant work experiences are central to the success of work-integrated learning (WIL) programs. However, how relevant work experiences are created is unclear. This study explores students' previous experiences to identity the "building blocks" of relevant WIL work experiences. Semi-structured interviews with undergraduate co-operative education (co-op) students were used to explore students' previous WIL work experiences (n = 17). A thematic analysis of interview transcripts identified four building blocks of relevance: social integration, optimal challenge, congruence with field of work, and acquisition of knowledge and skills. Implications of these building blocks for WIL stakeholders seeking to create desirable work experiences, especially employers and employer-facing staff, are discussed.

Significant concerns have been raised about supplying sufficient numbers of qualified and experienced information and communications technology (ICT) workers to meet the ongoing demands of the industry. This paper explores how professional identity and self-interest shape the career choices of ICT students. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 52 ICT students from four Australian tertiary education institutions. The findings reveal that nascent professional identity (such as mastery, sense of belonging, and status and esteem) and self-interest (such as anticipated income, perceived opportunities, and work-life balance) work together to exert a strong push away from or pull toward, seeking an ICT career following graduation. The findings contribute to understandings of how ICT students conceptualize a professional career in the ICT industry and the expectations of the emerging ICT workforce. This can influence the development of career marketing materials to attract high-quality entrants into undertaking ICT qualifications and ultimately an ICT career and assist universities and professional associations in their efforts to attract and educate a diverse and inclusive ICT workforce.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) involves employers and industry in education and training. In order to maximize benefits for all involved, sustainable and reciprocal processes are necessary. While institutions may have internal mechanisms to gather feedback from external partners, the feedback process often tends to be ad hoc. To inform the development of systematic and useful mechanisms, in-depth semi-structured interviews were held with eight representatives of large industry groups providing WIL opportunities for nursing and allied health students enrolled in two Australian universities. Interviews were recorded and transcribed; data was analyzed thematically. Findings confirm the centrality of relationships to successful WIL partnerships. Although participants expressed general satisfaction with existing feedback processes, the consensus was for: (a) the introduction of more strategic and standardized approaches, and (b) collaborative approaches based on rigorous and careful understanding of the WIL context.

Cooperative education and principles associated with learning ecosystems appear throughout the literature. However, the application of cooperative education and learning ecosystems to work-integrated learning has not been fully examined. Furthermore, the applicability of learning ecosystems within work-integrated learning to specific professional practice domains has similarly not previously been examined. The development of domain-specific work-integrated learning ecosystems and an explanation of how they might apply to cooperative education in higher education, the purpose of this paper, are explored from three sequentially related conceptual levels: Level 1), a proto-theoretical model of cooperative education > Level 2), a functional model of a work-integrated learning ecosystem > Level 3), an example of an applied model of a work-integrated learning ecosystem. Specifically, the paper explores how policing, presented here as a working example of a socially important practice domain, has been developed into a work-integrated learning ecosystem within the Australian higher education context.

This study examined academics, students, professionals and careers advisors' perceptions of how the inclusion of of Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) in Human Resource Management (HRM) undergraduate degrees influenced students' achievement of Graduate Attributes (GAs) in Australian universities. Prior research finds that student participation in WIL can strengthen the opportunities for acquiring GAs, thus influencing their employability. Utilising stakeholder theory 38 qualitative semi-structured interviews revealed different and sometimes competing understandings of GAs and employability, along with their link to WIL, across four stakeholder groups. Notably, a marked lack of understanding of GAs and employability was found in the student stakeholder group. These findings have practical teaching and learning implications for the embedding of GAs in higher education programs to increase student understanding of GAs and employability, and their importance for their future.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is becoming increasingly important in university education and research demonstrates work experience increases graduate employability. At the University of Newcastle, WIL is a critical component in the journalism major offered in the Communication program and one strategy to increase employability is to embed authentic assessments throughout the journalism courses. Formal student feedback at University of Newcastle typically demonstrates that authentic assessments are appreciated by journalism students but that may not be the entire story. Opportunities for publication of their work in national student outlets such as The Junction have demonstrated many of the students lack confidence to seek that opportunity. This article is reporting on a survey of students undertaking the journalism major at University of Newcastle and their attitudes to, and experiences with, authentic assessments. The research examines and analyses the students' attitudes to WIL and how academic staff might enhance the learning experience and employability prospects for students.

Recovery Camp is an innovative work-integrated learning (WIL) approach. Bringing together healthcare students and consumers with lived experience of mental illness, it is intentionally designed whereby each participant has a role that facilitates the educational experience. Student learning is developed through their involvement in activities, interactions with consumers and reflective practices. Consumers assume the role of educator, sharing their unique and personal experiences of mental illness with students. Recovery Camp challenges traditional healthcare WIL settings, by offering a setting that is both autonomy-supportive and provides the provision of structure. After attending Recovery Camp, students have shown themselves to be more self-determined toward working in the area of mental health, as well as displaying resilience and positive attitudes.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is central to the delivery of high quality student learning that provides students with the knowledge, skills, attitudes and professional networks for successful careers. In rural and regional Australia WIL placements can be particularly challenging to source due to limited clinical supervision capacity. This article reports regional Allied Health clinical supervisors' perceptions of enablers and barriers to engaging with interprofessional student WIL. A phenomenology of practice framework was used to interpret the data, highlighting three key themes: introducing an interprofessional lens early; tapping into unique possibilities; and setting up for success, balancing challenges with opportunities. The study identified key elements that may contribute to successful Allied Health interprofessional WIL placements in rural and regional settings, including incorporating early student placement opportunities, using shared interprofessional supervision to foster the development of junior clinicians' supervisory skills, and ensuring clarity around the purpose and processes of each interprofessional placement.

Traditionally work-integrated learning (WIL) programs document tripartite outcomes for students, workplace organisations and universities. This qualitative research study considers a fourth stakeholder, the client. It examines clients' (n=40) perceptions of the benefits of being part of an on-campus Exercise Prescription Clinic (EPC), and students' (n=22) perceptions of their learning outcomes from participation in a New Zealand university's WIL program within a Bachelor of Sport and Exercise. The clinic provides opportunities for clients to undertake physical activity, training and rehabilitation programs in a social, supervised and safe environment, and is accessible to anyone who wants to improve their fitness for sport or health. The findings reinforce the importance of developing WIL experiences that enrich both benefits for the clients and enhance the learning outcomes for students. Designing authentic industry WIL clinical experiences for future health professionals should also enable students the opportunity to engage with a range of clients.

Schools provide different contexts for pre-service teachers who are learning to teach under the guidance of mentor teachers as part of work-integrated learning (WIL). As a result, universities and teachers' colleges offer guidance to schools and classroom practitioners to ensure that pre-service teachers are provided with similar opportunities during WIL field experiences. This qualitative paper used semi-structured interviews, observations and document analysis to examine mentoring contexts in different classes, to gain a deep understanding of the mentoring practices, by using the socio-cultural-theory lens. The mentoring pair was used as the unit of analysis. The study analyzed three cases from Zimbabwean secondary schools with different mentoring contexts. Findings indicate that the contexts of WIL for pre-service teachers could be more conducive but are limited by the multiple roles of mentors and limited mentoring infrastructure and facilities. The paper recommends that pre-service teachers practice in different school contexts.

As the world reacts to the impact of COVID-19, work-integrated learning (WIL) programs globally are similarly affected. Across Canada and Australia, thousands of WIL students either shifted to working remotely or dismissed from their WIL experience. This disruption impacted student learning, program delivery, risk management, staff capability, and industry engagement, and posed significant challenges for institutions. This paper presents the responses to COVID-19 by the University of Waterloo, Canada, and RMIT University, Australia, each guided by quality WIL principles and different WIL organizational structures. This paper outlines how each institution: mobilized staff, introduced program changes while maintaining quality, engaged industry partners and presented WIL program-based solutions to COVID-19 challenges. The paper concludes with discussion on challenges and opportunities that events such as COVID-19 has upon WIL programs, implications for other institutions and student outcomes. Consideration is given to post-COVID scenarios, and how WIL might need to be re-imagined.

response to COVID-19 the Division of Experience-based Learning and Career Education at the University of Cincinnati embraced flexibility and innovation to expand on the existing practice of facilitating cooperative education employment experiences for students to re-envisioned opportunities that considered student wellbeing as the paramount tenet. This process created opportunities for faculty-scholars, administrators, and students to work collaboratively considering new forms of work-integrated learning while maintaining the academic rigor of the founding program of cooperative education. This case study describes the broad offerings of WIL at the University of Cincinnati and outlines the process of re-contextualizing WIL responding to limitations dictated by a global health crisis. New curricular offerings within the Experiential Explorations Program including the Serve-IT initiative, virtual apprenticeship initiative, upskilling initiative and micro-co-op model are discussed. The authors comment on innovative forms of WIL born out of unprecedented circumstances and share recommendations for ways in which WIL educators can continue facilitating rich work-integrated learning.

COVID-19 calls for new approaches and frameworks for the delivery of work-integrated learning (WIL). Standalone WIL opportunities are also increasingly difficult to realize, with the current economic climate limiting industry resources available for placements and WIL partnerships. The hybridized WIL model presented in this paper thus proposes the scaffolding of simulated WIL experiences into core undergraduate design curriculum to promote deep, authentic, transformational learning, fostering broader student employability. Noting a gap in design educational research relating to embedded scaffolded WIL, the paper refers to examples of scaffolded WIL experiences across core design studio subjects of a four-year embedded honors interior architecture program. Conceived as a way to prepare students for more significant standalone, cross-disciplinary and cross-national WIL, the authors argue that this model develops the professional skills required by industry and better prepares students to navigate the dynamic real-world problems that societies face, particularly during the pandemic.

This article explores Namibian students' perception of work-integrated learning (WIL) readiness skills developed from an offline and online business simulation course, pre and during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the use of simulations to prepare students for WIL placements. The findings indicate that both versions of the business simulation were able to inculcate WIL readiness skill in the students and that students perceive learning tools, such as the business simulation course, appropriate in developing the skills needed for WIL. Skills including communication, professionalism, leadership, teamwork, analytical, problem solving, critical thinking, assertiveness, time management, willingness to learn, attention to detail, diversity and accountability were more significantly developed in the offline business simulation than in the online version. It is thus highlighted in the study that pedagogical and content related strategies that can enhance online business simulations be considered.

Student success in nursing degree programs is contingent upon work-integrated learning (WIL) success, particularly given the mandated curriculum requirement for clinical hours in WIL environments. The impacts of COVID-19 disrupted study and resulted in anxiety for nursing students. For most first year nursing students this also included an interruption of their socialization to university, provoking uncertainty. This paper presents a case study of the development and implementation of a new virtual environment explorer tool for simulated learning at one multi-campus university in Australia (February-June 2020). COVID-19 illuminated the extended utility of this tool, for supporting ongoing nursing student orientation to the university environment and to the materiality of the simulated clinical setting. Educational theory is drawn upon to discuss the implementation and evaluation, of this tool, within the COVID-19 context. Findings suggest inclusive teaching practices underpin effective preparation for WIL, especially in uncertain times, and must be valued more highly.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the South African government's response of a lockdown required the cessation of all clinical training. Virtual environments offered alternative methods of teaching and learning clinical skills in an attempt to mitigate the cancellation of first year students’ clinical visits. The research question of how a simulated workplace environment could replace first year students’ workplace visits was addressed. A case study at a University of Technology focusing on a radiation therapy program provided an opportunity for academic and clinical lecturers and first year students to consider the qualities of the Virtual Environment for Radiotherapy Training. Findings indicated that the environment could be incorporated into emergency remote teaching to enhance student learning as it provided an engaging, safe, and effective space in which to learn clinical skills. These findings have implications for the design of responsive curricula for the changing higher education and professional landscapes.

In the current context of COVID-19 restrictions, the perceived infection risk in healthcare facilities has resulted in limited opportunities for clinical placements. This paper aims to demonstrate how virtual WIL clinics (virtual simulated general practice clinics), provide an authentic clinical experience and to ascertain whether these virtual clinics allow the practice of generic WIL competencies. The clinics provide students with WIL experience without the face-to-face contact of a physical clinic via telehealth. The practice of WIL through virtual WIL clinics at James Cook University, Australia, is assessed using the Work Skill Development (WSD) framework via GoSoapBox surveys. Students surveyed (N=66) expressed a high level of motivation to engage, reflect and learn through this medium. The survey also highlighted some possible areas of improvement in time management and communication. Virtual WIL clinics are a suitable substitution for WIL clinical activity and ideally suited to the COVID-19 context.

Faced with broad scale cancellation of allied health student placements due to COVID-19, placement coordinators at The University of Melbourne Department of Rural Health established remote, online work-integrated learning placements across a range of settings, including a primary school, specialist school, kindergarten association and a homelessness sector organization. To ensure safe and high-quality placements, the evidence for telepractice and placement innovation was reviewed and integrated with existing knowledge of developing quality service-learning placements and COVID-safe guidelines from professional associations. This paper describes how placements were established, how student learning needs were aligned with host site objectives, and critically analyses the benefits and challenges of the online placement format. Partnerships, communication, and planning with all stakeholders were critical in placement redesign. The outcome is that students have enhanced their clinical and professional skills and provided community services to clients that would otherwise not have been provided during a pandemic.

This paper describes the design, implementation and impact of a non-placement WIL project, focusing on the development of students' responsible leadership competencies through a third-year undergraduate unit – Responsible Leadership. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic the WIL project pivoted from face to face delivery to online. The WIL project was designed to provide engagement with a local non-government organization and enable the co-development of authentic learning experiences with the industry partner. Findings from the comparison of pre- and post-semester CARL (Competency Assessment of Responsible Leadership) online surveys of 107 students showed increases in the development of ethics and values; self-awareness and systems understanding as well as an increase in their knowledge and attitude action domains. With industry support to implement a systems approach to a non-placement WIL project, an impactful transition to the online environment was achieved.

This paper details a new dimension to an existing internship program developed in response to the effects of COVID-19 in a creative industries faculty at a large Australian university. Recent changes to workplace activities, as a result of the pandemic, have offered an opportunity to test a mode of internships in which students work and engage remotely, via on-line modes, with a workplace. Analysis of the offering is conducted using the Community of Inquiry framework. Outcomes confirm the concept of remote internships as appropriate strategies that can not only support improved student retention in the short term, but offer new opportunities for enriched, broadened and more equitable internship experiences. Workplace-based internships, while offering high impact and authentic experiences, are often difficult for many students who are unable to attend workplaces to complete the required hours due to a range of other work, study, and life factors. The new remote internship, seeks to overcome these barriers.

South Africa went into lockdown on 27 March, 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is unlikely that thousands of preservice teachers will be able to complete their teaching practicum during 2020 at schools. In this action research study, we investigated a two-week teaching practicum experience that was completed via WhatsApp by 12 students. During this time, the student teachers were supervised and monitored by university teaching practicum lecturers and mentored by school mentor teachers via WhatsApp. The results indicated that all participants perceived the teaching practicum experience via WhatsApp to have contributed to the formation of a community of practice that resulted in feedback and assessment being focused on a core teaching practice, namely explaining subject-specific content. Guidelines are provided for universities or teacher training providers who have work-integrated learning components to show how a teaching practicum experience via WhatsApp can be integrated into their training programs.

While the fields of work-integrated learning (WIL) and career development share common goals, WIL literature tends to focus on student employability more than students' ability to manage their careers. The Leading Edge program at a Canadian institution, the University of Victoria, brings together these two disciplines as it draws from theory and methodology in WIL and career development to strengthen student experiential learning and prepare students for meaningful careers. Four reflective questions form the core of the program, and support students to become pro-active experiential learners, embrace diversity and become career-ready during their academic journey. The authors present the theoretical underpinnings in career development, WIL and experiential learning that inform the program development, and analyse its strengths and challenges. The paper concludes with an exploration of how the Leading Edge, an online program, can support learners to navigate the challenges of the current labour market conditions created by COVID-19.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the practice of work-integrated learning (WIL) has been significant, with many active WIL activities pivoting to remote offerings where students engage with the workplace through online platforms from their homes. The pandemic has also caused significant and ongoing disruption to the economy, likely causing less work placement opportunities for upcoming years within the context of limited institutional budgets and resourcing. It is, therefore, vitally important that institutions develop diverse practices of WIL and shift away from a heavy reliance on work placements. Developing diverse WIL practices across educational institutions is an important strategy to build 'institutional WIL resilience' during times of disrupted economies with limited WIL opportunities. During the pandemic, the use of simulations had increased, in particular, in relation to preparing students for WIL, however, caution is needed in considering simulations as a comparable alternative to WIL.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations offering work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities were no longer able to support student placements, resulting in many institutions searching for a range of innovative solutions. Many have redesigned their conventional placement-based WIL activities or programs to enable students to meet graduate profile criteria through alternative means such as virtual or simulated WIL experiences. The literature shows there are many models of WIL beyond conventional work placements. Therefore, a meta-analysis was conducted of these WIL models, to provide a complied synthesis of existing practice from within the WIL field specifically focused on two books, the International Journal of Work-Integrated Learning, and three national WIL association conference publications. The trends and qualities that emerge from the meta-analysis of existing practice can inform the redevelopment across the different modes of conventional, remote, virtual, and simulated WIL experiences.

The disruption caused by COVID-19 has accelerated many changes already emerging within work and higher education sectors. With the rapid move to online and distance learning models, the value of alternative forms of work-integrated learning (WIL), in spaces other than physical workplaces, has been realized. After the state of 'panic-gogy' where experimentation was rife, purposeful design of WIL in non-workplace settings now requires greater attention. Recent practice has shown that different models and approaches can still harness the authenticity of work tasks and therefore challenge dominant understandings and practices of designing and facilitating WIL. This paper advances the argument that the nature of work, itself, is morphing and, therefore, realizations of WIL also need to change including current conceptions of quality in WIL.

Teaching skills through workplace learning is easy, but developing professional agency is more challenging. In this paper we turn Dewey's claim that you cannot learn from experiences alone, but you can learn from reflecting on experiences on its head. We suggest more, or at least equal, focus be placed on learning from preparing for experiences. COVID times have reminded us how important pre-placement preparation for learning is, and how critical it is to have our students prepared to identify and leverage every learning moment they might encounter, especially when working remotely or for reduced periods of time. We describe the production, methodology and theoretical framework of eight short films especially devised to teach agency before students embark on their placements. This leads in to the second half of the paper where we describe and discuss typologies of agency.

This position paper will examine the complexities of remote working, specifically as it impacts students on work integrated learning (WIL) placements such as internships. Current literature on the challenges of remote working and recent student reflections based on their experiences of pivoting from office space to completing their internship placements online during the COVID-19 self-isolation orders, provide the context for examining best practice curriculum strategies for a new and unpredictable work world. Boundary theory is used to unpack the challenges of remote working that students may face, and students’ reflections provide insight on the skills they developed from their remote working experiences that will give them a competitive edge in the job market. WIL curriculum needs to address the changing nature of work and work placements in order to prepare students for remote work in an ever-shifting world.

This paper describes a case study of how situated learning and community of practice theory were applied to the design and delivery of activities and learning assessments in a remote WIL course in a master-level Kinesiology program, supporting students’ learning in professional placements. The rationale and theoretical grounding for the course design and delivery are described, as well as practical considerations of how it was structured to assess student learning. A framework is proposed to inform the design of future WIL courses to best support the development of student professional identity development. Recommendations are posed for future study.

The COVID-19 pandemic required a quick adaptation in the way work-integrated learning programs are offered. While not suitable for all types or disciplines of WIL, this disruption has led to many WIL experiences occurring remotely, that is, students working for organizations from home. Students' perceptions of their WIL experiences have previously been examined, but there is little literature investigating students' perceptions of remote WIL, and how host organizations can best support their learning in a remote working context. Organizational research conducted on remote employees over the past two decades has identified important considerations, such as flexibility, productivity, engagement, and commitment. In the present study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 50 co-operative education students and a grounded theory approach was taken to analyze the transcripts. Findings reveal the importance students associate with socialization, productivity, and meaningful work in the remote context. Study limitations and directions for future research are also discussed.

This paper examines how five students within a Bachelor of Sport and Exercise university WIL course developed learning opportunities that resulted in WIL being moved from the workplace to create authentic online initiatives during the COVID-19 restrictions. This exploratory research provides insights into the students' learning outcomes from creating online WIL initiatives that developed and promoted activities for a range of stakeholders involved in sport organizations, schools, and fitness industry businesses. The impact of these initiatives resulted in enhanced participation opportunities and engagement in physical activity for a range of sport teams, school children, and fitness clients. Themes are presented from content analysis of student perceptions of individual's learning outcomes from moving WIL online. The findings indicated that from the students' perspective, their online initiatives enriched capability but required adaptability, flexibility, and resilience. The period of online WIL also enabled the development of transferable skills and graduate attributes.

This article is a scholarly discussion that outlines current studies of virtual training and internships in hospitality and tourism, and questions how these approaches can satisfy hospitality and tourism industry requirements in post-COVID19 environments. It reviews existing literature and compares best-practice approaches. In particular, this study investigates the state of play in three Asia Pacific tourism destinations that each have distinct contextual challenges; Cambodia, Vietnam and Australia. A research concept framework that takes into account the changes to the hospitality and tourism industry due to COVID-19, subsequent changes to industry training mechanisms, and the potential implications for work-integrated learning internship placements for the future generation of students, graduates and industry professionals, is presented. A structure for upcoming studies that compare post-COVID19 hospitality and tourism industry internship potential approaches is proposed for discussion.

This paper discusses how the COVID–19 pandemic can shift the conversation of paid and unpaid placements from an economic to a pedagogical and goodwill perspective. During the pandemic lockdown many placements were cancelled or postponed. Some continued as agreed but with students working from home, while other placements became unpaid. We build on the pertinent literature that raises legal, ethical, economic and pedagogical implications of paid versus unpaid placement models and what motivates placement organizations to offer placements. Four interdisciplinary trans-Tasman case studies are discussed to better understand the complex situations for placement organizations and universities to sustain WIL placements during this pandemic. Conclusions include recommendations to be vigilant and ensure goodwill is not used to mask the exploitation of students, but rather, positively influence the motivation behind offering placements during these trying times and beyond.

This study explored the ways that work-integrated learning (WIL) influences the development of entrepreneurs. Seven alumni from Canada and the United Kingdom, who experienced differing forms of WIL during their degree, participated in qualitative in-depth interviews and provided rich pictures. A rich picture is a pictorial representation of a situation, including what happened, who was involved, how the participant perceived the situation. During the interviews, participants reflected on how WIL impacted their career and they created rich pictures to depict their perception of an entrepreneur and what influenced them to become an entrepreneur. Several important themes emerged and included seizing opportunities, thinking "outside the box," being resilient during difficult times, and the importance of networks. The influence of WIL was important for all participants and provided the framework of support that enabled the participants to manage difficult times and turn disruption into opportunity.

In the current context of COVID-19 and the limited availability of physical workplace settings for work-integrated learning (WIL), this study explores the intervention of a WIL pedagogical strategy in order to support career development learning during the pandemic. The innovative Entrepreneurial Mindset (EM) reflective model introduced at a Mexican University employs experienced entrepreneurs as professors and mentors to teach entrepreneurial mindset reflection via online modality. The effectiveness of the model as a teaching and learning tool is assessed in a class survey of 203 students. The study concludes that although the application of the EM model to the curriculum is well suited to a non-physical workplace environment, the survey to assess mindset reflections could have been conducted both at the beginning (pre survey) and at the completion (post survey) of the course, to assess any changes in mindset reflections between pre and post. However, the introduction of 'growth' mindset reflections to a curriculum is a significant contribution to WIL literature and a valid COVID-19 strategy.

This article describes use of a virtual environment in a multi-disciplinary context to enhance discipline specific skills. A virtual environment built by reusing gaming technology was modified in a collaboration across Computing, Construction Management and Nursing & Midwifery disciplines. A two-staged pilot evaluation considered (i) a construction management cohort engaged with regulatory building inspection critically analyzing their environment to determine compliance and (ii) a nursing cohort, building occupant's experience in a virtual fire drill. Feedback from cohorts was used to improve the virtual environment and reflect on the use of simulations in this context. Results suggest students appreciate graphical realism in the simulated environment and the ability for the virtual environment to enhance practicality in learning and to contextualize theory.

Studies exploring engineering students' experiences with cooperative education (co-op) typically utilize traditional quantitative and qualitative methods to focus on overall outcomes as opposed to individual voices. As a result of this, women's experiences in a co-op environment are rarely captured. Historically, women are underrepresented in engineering undergraduate programs, and this can lead to feelings of isolation and low self-efficacy, which, in turn, can lead to attrition. Participatory action research (PAR) not only highlights marginalized voices, but also empowers participants. The current study implements group-level assessment (GLA), a large-group PAR method, to study the co-op experiences of women in engineering at a large US research institution. During the GLA, participants developed an action plan to improve co-op experiences for women in order to improve retention and help future women succeed.

Interprofessional education (IPE) is championed as an innovative approach to prepare the future health workforce to address the complex needs of consumers and tackle a range of contemporary healthcare challenges worldwide. An interprofessional work-integrated learning experience (WIL), whereby students were immersed in international and rural settings and worked in teams to deliver primary healthcare project outcomes, was developed, implemented, and evaluated with undergraduate health students. Qualitative evaluation of the IPE program aimed to investigate the experiences and perceptions of 62 students through focus group interviews, is reported. Students regarded the placement as a rich learning environment and reported positive experiences in interprofessional collaborative competencies. Major themes included: overall perceptions and attitudes, scope of practice, improved teamwork skills, future practice, and placement preparation. Students strengthened their learning with, from and about other professional groups and identified challenges and implementation issues. Findings from this study will inform future implementation of interprofessional WIL experiences.

Internships are widely promoted as a "high-impact" practice, yet the literature is limited by insufficient attention to the impacts of program format on student outcomes. In this mixed-methods study survey (n=1,129) and focus group (n=57) data from students in three U.S. colleges were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis, chi-square, and hierarchical linear modeling to document intern characteristics, access-related problems, program structure, and impacts on student outcomes. Results indicate that internship participation varied significantly by race, institution, enrollment status and academic program, and that high degrees of supervisor support, supervisor mentoring, and relationship between internships and academic programs were significant predictors of students' satisfaction with internships and perceived value for their career development. Consequently, colleges and universities should work to ensure equitable access to internships and that additional research be conducted on how individual, institutional, and programmatic factors influence student participation in internships and their subsequent outcomes.

Past studies have found that early career experiences drive attrition more than other factors. This paper investigates early engineering careers from a gender perspective to understand differences in opportunity, satisfaction, perceived competency, and choice. To do so, it analyzes job search, hiring, and performance appraisal data of 9,000 undergraduate students enrolled in work-integrated learning (WIL) programs. The analysis leads to four main findings. First, men and women appear equally likely to obtain interviews and secure WIL placements. Second, women in computing are more likely to apply to jobs involving user interfaces/experience. Third, women receive slightly higher performance appraisals. Finally, men appear to be more satisfied with their WIL experiences, especially with compensation and networking opportunities, while women appear to be happier with the availability of employer support. The results provide actionable insights for students interested in engineering, and academic institutions and employers wishing to diversify their talent pool.

Understanding and addressing employers' needs is an essential step toward developing a work-integrated learning (WIL) program. The key concern for employers is the development of a talent pipeline: a system through which organizations identify, attract, develop, and retain talented people. This study examined organizational perspectives on the contribution of work-integrated leaning (WIL) to their talent pipelines. Semi-structured interviews with talent managers (N = 18) were used to identity what forms of talent employers sought from WIL and the mechanisms within WIL that support the development of organizations' talent pipelines. Findings highlight the desirability of a lifelong learning mindset, which includes an aptitude for learning, fluid intelligence, and adaptability. Findings also highlight contributions of WIL to talent pipelines in terms of preparing students for success, reducing hiring risks, developing long-term relationships, and mobilizing staff to support recruitment processes. The study suggests how WIL administrators might organize resources to deliver value for employers.

In response to the high unemployment rates of university graduates, Asian governments are encouraging their universities to develop a more practice-oriented curriculum. The aim is to provide better-qualified graduates, who will meet the needs of industry. The Duale Hochschule Baden-Wuerttemberg (DHBW) supports this development, through internationalizing cooperative education programs at Asian universities, based on its successful study model. This paper focuses on comparing the DHBW with two Asian universities: Walailak University in Thailand and Southeast University in China. Descriptive case studies for the two universities, using a multiple case design, were mapped to the key success factors of the DHBW, in particular achieving practical experience and the role of industry. The data for the case studies originated from semi-structured interviews in a focus group setting with 36 academics, government officials, cooperative education bodies and industry representatives. The aim was to assess the opportunities and limitations for implementing the DHBW model.

In 2019 a South African university adapted its program for initial teacher training to substitute school-based work-integrated learning in the first year with a non-placement campus-based program called Professional Orientation Program (POP). This paper deals with the rationale, aims and conceptualization of the program. It furthermore shares data collected from participating students regarding their expectations and experiences of the POP, their views on the contribution of the program to raising awareness of professional teacher identity, and suggestions to improve the POP. The findings in this article suggest that this non-placement WIL program positively influenced the development of students' personal and pre-professional identities and created an awareness of the challenges posed by the profession, laying a solid foundation for teacher training. The focus on reflective practice promoted personal growth and invited students to self-directed learning and critical thinking that can bridge the gap between theory and practice.

This article explores the perspectives of participants from a partnership established between Western Sydney University (WSU) and the National Rugby League (NRL), a large and multifaceted international sporting organization. Ten students from WSU's Pasifika Achievement to Higher Education (PATHE) initiative took part in an internship program with the NRL. This program sought to bolster Pacific cultural awareness, and consider how PATHE interns developed learning outcomes and experiences whilst interacting and encouraging positive relationships between the NRL and its community groups. Four NRL staff members who acted as the intern’s supervisors also took part in this partnership. The implications of this research are three-fold – strong partnerships between universities and industry partners are vital for effective work-integrated learning; the development and upholding of Indigenous and Pacific platforms and spaces are important to increase cultural awareness; and to foster such developments, universities and industry partners need to demonstrate clear leadership.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate students' perception of growth in the area of work-related skills through their participation in an integrated work study program (IWSP). In Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT), 368 students across a range of six programs took part in an IWSP lasting six to twelve months. Students reported self-perceived improvements after IWSP in their work-related skills, encompassed by six domains – learning & work integration; professionalism; communication; problem solving and decision-making; teamwork; and adaptability. Their mindset was additionally analyzed against ratings by their work supervisors to determine if having a fixed or growth mindset would have any implications on how their work-related skills were perceived. This paper thus investigates the impact of the IWSP on students' self-perceived growth in comparison to their work supervisors' perception of them, and whether mindset contributes to this.

Universities around the world seek to increase their students' learning abroad in forms like international co-op and exchange. The authors build on findings in a 2016 publication by Behrisch in this journal to focus on the correlation of perceived risk with students' completion of a learning abroad experience. Using binary logistic regression analysis, findings suggest that students' perceived risk is negatively correlated with their likelihood of completing a learning abroad experience. Drawing on approach/inhibition theory and sensation seeking literature, the authors form a picture of how risk perception interacts with other factors to influence students' completion of learning abroad. Risk is typically regarded at the institutional and student levels as something negative to avoid. Reframing risk within the university as a conversation about learning, opportunity, and cognitive processing is recommended, since learning and teaching are essential elements of universities. The goal is to increase student engagement in learning abroad.

Globally internships are increasingly applied as means of providing Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) and as a channel for graduates into employment. Whilst these trends have crossed national borders, the transferability of such WIL practices, across national contexts has been largely assumed rather than empirically substantiated, thereby, necessitating work which situates WIL practices within specific national contexts. This exploratory study provides the contextual backdrop of internships in South Korea and seeks to unearth any contextual variables of potential relevance to the practice of internships and by extension WIL in South Korea. The study's findings indicate that both conceptually and in application WIL in South Korea is shaped by underlying contextual influences. This highlights avenues for further empirical investigation, including internships as qualification rather than as a learning experience, culturally specific forms of mentoring within internships and the role of internships in the Korean graduate employment market.

This paper investigates the perception of corporate managers regarding employability skills of management students undertaking summer internship with them. The study is divided into two parts wherein the first part consists of literature review and in-depth interviews of senior managers, and it is devoted to identifying critical parameters that affect employability of management students. The second part of research consists of a survey of 195 company supervisors who rated 405 intern students on the 22 items identified in the first part. The results indicate that intern students lacked in communication skills, problem solving ability, analytical skills and business understanding but fared well in the other parameters like self-management, using ICT efficiently, people relations and team spirit, innovative approach and critical thinking, self-confidence and assertiveness and drive to learn.

The research reported in this article attends to the learning and knowing that students experience in workplace practice. The research enquiry is propelled by the theories of workplace learning and the recent ‘practice turn’ in the literatures of organisational studies that accommodate student learning that is impromptu and emergent in the workplace. This research makes a contribution by momentarily decoupling student learning in the workplace from purposeful educational perspectives, to better understand the unscripted knowledge that students acquire in practice. With stronger awareness of this alternate pedagogy, student experiences of work can be enfolded by greater understanding and authenticity in the academy. Using a grounded theory approach, students returning from internships were asked to discuss their learning experiences, what and how they learned. The data were analyzed for emerging categories and a conceptual framework titled Student Knowing in Workplace Practice is reported in this article.

Universities around the world face a common challenge – producing graduates with the necessary practical skills for employment. Cooperative education and work-integrated learning (WIL) make a valuable contribution to increasing graduate employability, however, there are differences in the level of cooperation from industry and government commitment. A comparative study of WIL in Germany, Australia, and South Korea, focusing predominantly on three universities, showed differences in the approaches to achieving practical experience and increasing graduate employability. The data underlying the research was derived from questionnaires, a focus group session, and the development of a descriptive, multi-case study. This allowed comparisons and contrasts between the three universities to be identified. The results and conclusions outlined in this paper aim to highlight best practice in cooperative education and WIL and provide recommendations for the future development of cooperative education, in order to improve graduate employability.

During work-integrated learning (WIL), student teachers usually practice what they have learned in theory under the apprenticeship of mentor lecturers and teachers. This experience might not adequately prepare them for the complexities of full-time teaching. To address this concern, 252 student teachers worked in small groups to identify challenges and to suggest effective ways of mediating cooperative learning during WIL in schools. The student teachers implemented what they had suggested and reflected on their learning experiences. Student teachers' field notes and discussions regarding their anxieties, uncertainties, beliefs, practices, orientations, and their reflection on the mediation of cooperative learning were analyzed. Findings show that the use of group discussion and reflection developed student teachers' teaching autonomy, which resulted in improved teaching. We argue that the combination of group-work and reflection is an effective way of developing student teacher autonomy and for preparing them for real-life classroom teaching.

The present study aimed to investigate the desirable assessment methods of the performance of the BA law students during internships, using a mixed methods research approach. The data was collected by using semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. In the qualitative part of the study, interviews were conducted with 28 internship experts, lawyers, faculty members from the University of Isfahan, and graduate students, who were purposively selected. In the quantitative part, questionnaires were administered to 114 students from the academic year 2017-2018 and the graduates from 2014-2017 in the field of law. The results of the qualitative part of the study revealed that the interviewees emphasized the professor’s assessment of student performance. The results of the quantitative part of the study revealed that "student performance in simulated settings" and "practical and diagnostic capabilities of students for dealing with client problems" are among the desirable assessment methods of the performance of the BA law students during internships.

Vocational education is distinctive by virtue of workplace-based learning in curriculum. This nexus of theory with practice, extends the learning space to authentic work environments. A critical issue of workplace-based learning is the assessment thereof. This article presents a review of workplace-based learning assessments in terms of whether the specified learning areas were attained, using portfolios and performance appraisals as the dominant assessment methods. Interviews with workplace coordinators and a review of assessments for diploma programs were subjected to content analysis to extrapolate themes related to the objectives of this study. Literature on workplace-based learning and assessment formed the backdrop for data analysis and discussion. The emerging themes revealed the influence of institutional and workplace dynamics on assessments and that portfolio development required revision. The import of this study foregrounds the need to evaluate current practices to ensure that workplace-based learning gains its rightful place as a valuable learning space.

Students in psychology are often surveyed for personality. Empirical results show relevance of this topic, because personality influences academic success. In contrast, we know much less about the personality of students of cooperative education. So, we collected data from 5,863 students at Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University in August 2016. Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) indicated that gender (partial η² = .06), academic field (partial η² = .01) and covariate university entrance scores (partial η² = .05) have an effect on Big Five personality traits controlling age and social class. The results can be used for selecting students in cooperative education for academic fields and compare them with other types of study.

While the benefits of work-integrated learning (WIL) are undisputed, identifying what elements enable quality experiences is a more challenging endeavor. This article focuses on the perspectives of New Zealand social work tertiary educators regarding components of quality WIL. The participants recognized the difficulties in succinctly articulating quality WIL but agreed with previous research that effective WIL is reliant on strong relationships between the tertiary sector, organizations and students. Findings from this research attest to the importance of placing field educators into this traditional tripartite relationship thus celebrating their central role in student learning. Addressing poor professional practice in the WIL environment was an identified concern. Effective use of the national field education guidelines for the evaluation of WIL experiences is recommended. The assessment of student readiness and suitability for specific environments also requires ongoing consideration from HEIs alongside mitigation of the potentially negative impacts of WIL.

Enterprising students who understand the work environment are considered more employable. It is accepted that higher-education has a responsibility to produce career-ready-graduates. Practicum experience provides a critical role in this preparation. This study describes the development and implementation of the WIL instrument and WIL experience to assess the perceived skill development of students (n=19). This research utilized three data capture points; 1) employability skills cluster matrix-self-assessment tool (ESCM-SAT), 2) industry feedback from supervisors to develop a deeper understanding of the value of WIL; 3) students used the Gibbs reflective cycle (Gibbs 1988). There were improvements in all skills clusters, main gains were in career management (p<0.01). Supervisor feedback gave direction for improvement for; communication, preparation and organization skills. Student reflection suggests career management skills were strengthened, confidence increased, as did their value of academics. The ESCM-SAT, industry feedback and student reflection were deemed a suitable combination to measure the WIL experiences from a student perspective.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) continues to be seen as an important strategy for enhancing graduate employability. While work placements continue to be the dominant approach, there has been a focus on diversifying the types of WIL offerings in recent years, and in particular, the development of innovative models. This is partly in response to calls for universities to be more flexible and responsive in order to better cater for industry and student needs. This Special Issue, stemming from the 2018 Australian Collaborative Education Network National Conference, integrates a number of perspectives and approaches to WIL and employability, with a focus on innovative models, curriculum and research. A number of areas are identified as posing particular challenges and opportunities in WIL. These include: scaffolding of WIL through the curriculum; student preparation for WIL; wellbeing, resilience, persistence, and motivation; and developing quality measures of WIL. It is timely to develop and research more integrated and holistic approaches to WIL and other related areas such as employability and career development learning, both to account for the inherent complexity and diversity of WIL itself and to utilize the new research findings in the WIL literature.

Debriefing is used across many disciplines and for different purposes in work-integrated learning (WIL), but there remains much ambiguity about what debriefing actually is, and what it entails. This study explored conceptualizations of debriefing for 35 WIL practitioners. located across a range of disciplines, professions, institutions and countries (Australia, New Zealand, Canada). Findings point to a broad range of views and demonstrate that debriefing is associated with three different types of learning in WIL: academic, reflective and performance related. Our results show that the most consistently cited feature of debriefing was the presence of a facilitator, with the value of debriefing seen as enabling deeper insights than would be possible via solitary reflection. For supporting learning, most practitioners used both reflection and debriefing, suggesting that neither is seen as better than the other, but that both are useful and necessary strategies for student learning in WIL. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

There is a societal expectation that undergraduate degrees will contain activities that focus on making graduates workplace ready. Although it is likely that many of these activities occur in science degrees, there is a lack of formal and tested methodologies and frameworks for identifying them. One existing framework (Edwards, Perkins, Pearce, & Hong, 2015) was used to analyze WIL activities identified in course (unit, n=81) documentation and interviews with unit coordinators (n=71) at one Australian University. This revealed many (hidden) WIL activities that had not been previously articulated to either students or curriculum designers. The authors refined the existing framework to develop a rubric that allows the depth and breadth of WIL activities to be captured in a standard manner and WIL activities in a degree to be readily mapped.

This research is based on the T-shaped professional model (Gardner, 2017), which advocates developing a breadth of knowledge and skills, and exhibiting boundary-spanning competencies such as teamwork, communication, organizational perspective and networks. This paper describes a thematic content analysis of 271 students' reflections about their main tasks during their sport management and coaching work-integrated learning (WIL) placements. The findings highlight a breadth and depth of WIL activity, which reinforces the notion of developing T-shaped professionals (Gardner, 2017), who are characterized by their deep disciplinary knowledge in at least one area (e.g., event management), and their ability to function as 'adaptive innovators' across boundaries between disciplines (e.g., various business activities). In developing students as 'reflective practitioners', a key finding is the importance of the WIL learning process that facilitates reflective work-based experiences. It provides an ideal environment for encouraging the individual student to develop self-efficacy, analytical, systems and critical thinking skills, and a problem-solving mind-set/approach.

Observational research has a long history in many disciplines, such as education and organizational studies, yet has had slow uptake in the scholarship of work-integrated learning (WIL). Observational research enables the researcher to journey inside workplace or community sites where actions and conversations unfold, to unpack the complexities of work, learning and practice. This paper looks at observational methodologies and their use in WIL research, highlighting practical methods for accessing and generating data, and discussing criteria for judging the quality of observational research. It introduces WIL researchers to alternative methods to elicit data, to consider making their bodies, thoughts and reflections part of the research itself.

In the ten years since Australia's first large-scale scoping study of Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) there has been a rapid increase in WIL research and undergraduate WIL opportunities. Though well-established in undergraduate degrees, WIL in postgraduate research degrees is relatively unexplored. Less than half of PhD graduates in Australia are employed by the higher education sector, therefore transferable skills and industry experience are increasingly important. The last few years have seen several Australian peak bodies call for further investment in the employability of PhD graduates. The Australian Government recently provided funding aimed at encouraging doctoral students to undertake internships and placements. Drawing on seven qualitative interviews with past and present PhD students at Griffith University, this exploratory paper explores how PhD students view the potential role of WIL in higher degree research programs in Australia and the challenges they see as facing the broader implementation of WIL across PhD programs. This has broader implications for how WIL may be utilized to equip doctoral graduates with the industry experience and training to improve their employability outside the higher education sector.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is a national priority and a strategic direction for Australian universities. To increase industry engagement, there is a need to identify emerging WIL models that enable flexibility while optimizing outcomes for stakeholders. This Australian Technology Network (ATN) project explored approaches that overcome constraints to engagement, particularly for small to medium enterprises (SMEs). The preliminary qualitative phase comprised a literature review, workshops and interviews. Examples of emerging WIL models, both curricula and co-curricular, were clustered into five models: micro-placements, online projects or placements, hackathons, competitions and events, incubators/start-ups and consulting. This paper outlines these models and summarizes defining features, enablers, challenges and opportunities. Contemporary trends informing innovative WIL design and implementation emerged. Features fell into three broad areas, stakeholder engagement, design elements and co-design with partners. Enablers, challenges and opportunities in the implementation of these WIL models that respond to the changing nature of work were documented.

The purpose of this grounded theory study was to explore the notion of inclusion from the perspective of LGBTQ+ co-op students in the context of their work term experiences, including searching for work and during the work term. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight LGBTQ+ students who had at least one previous work term experience at a Canadian university. Analyses of transcripts revealed several themes pertaining to how students navigate the recruitment process, feelings about inclusion at work, contributions of interpersonal dynamics (with supervisors and co-workers) to those feelings, and the role of co-op administrators in enhancing inclusion. The study identifies directions for future research in this area and suggests some strategies for creating inclusive co-op workplaces.

This article reports of a study of workplace supervision and student experiences and outcomes through insights from semi-structured interviews with 21 graduates who had previously supervised work placement students. The study focused on questions framed from the perspective of the interviewees' work placement experiences as a student and then as a supervisor (e.g., impact, motivation, insights for future students/supervisors, and graduate attributes). The findings from this study indicate importance of workplace supervisors setting expectations and engaging in initial planning and organizing for effective management of the work placement. Findings also suggest that the supervising can usefully take the form of mentoring, and that this provides the supervisor with professional development in self-management, effective communication and leadership. Implications for future WIL practice include utilizing workplace supervisors, particularly those who are themselves WIL graduates, to help further enhance student WIL experiences, learning outcomes, and legacies.

Multiple benefits may be gained from academic staff undertaking pracademic experiences as part of their continuing professional development. A pracademic experience may increase collaborations between practitioners, academics and their tertiary institutions in terms of research and teaching. Academics can demonstrate the relevance, significance, and impact of their empirical research which then can support the practitioner’s narrative to stakeholders. Teaching practices may improve as critical curriculum gaps are identified and the curriculum aligned with current professional practice.

This paper promotes the proposition that a pracademic experience may also assist an academic to model, scaffold and coach employability skills to students. To provide evidence of the potential benefits from these collaborations, a case study, based upon the author-academic's experiences transitioning into the role of an insolvency file accountant, is included within the paper. The various benefits derived by the academic, the host practitioner, and the academic’s home university from engaging in the pracademic experience are discussed.

The concept of work-integrated learning (WIL) is significant as it has a considerable influence on a student's fitness for the workplace upon graduation. This paper aims to determine the perception of graduates of the United States International University – Africa (USIU-A) towards the quality of the internship program and especially the effects of the learning activities of a work-integrated learning course. The study was conducted using an adjusted framework for evaluating the quality of WIL curricula based on six dimensions of WIL including: authenticity; integrated learning supports; alignment of teaching and learning activities and assessments with integrative learning outcomes; supervisor access; and, induction / preparation processes. From the findings, supervisor access and authenticity received high ratings while integrated learning support and alignment of both teaching and learning activities received the lowest rating. The findings will inform the developers and implementers of internship programs by identifying key areas of focus.

This research sought to investigate the perceived relevance of cooperative education to final year students of the Communication Studies Department at Central University (CU) in Ghana. The research employed a qualitative approach to examine how interns perceived the relevance of courses offered by the department to the world of work with emphasis on course utility and relatedness. The study was motivated by the perceived difficulties students face transitioning from higher education to full-time employment. A total of 30 students participated in five focus group sessions. Guided by the concept of cooperative education, the study found that students perceive the internship as a worthwhile initiative although the time allocated to it was considered inadequate for students' skills development. The study concludes that the current learning of students is related to their future careers, but, the internship program is poorly designed and needs some modification.

This paper examines the teaching patterns of experts employed in the information technology (IT) industry. The objective was to study the teaching patterns that are used to develop new IT workers in organizations. Thematic content analysis was conducted on interviews with thirty-four IT professionals working in IT and non-IT industries with experience of mentoring new workers. The study investigated the use of adult-learning theory in four teaching patterns: time-based, function-based, technical-task-based, and case-based. Indications for the applications of the various patterns are described in detail. The researchers suggest the use of the patterns identified to optimize the process of enhancing the ability of IT students involved in work-integrated learning projects.

Portfolios are widely used to document and assess professional development in tertiary teaching. This paper examines a self-reflective approach to critically evaluating practice and developing an evidence-based teaching portfolio through an emergent, evolving continuum of initial, life-story biography, evocative auto-ethnography and, finally, analytical auto-ethnography. This learning journey of a work-integrated-learning (WIL) academic supervisor highlights the development of an effective 'reflective practitioner' through a cyclical experiential learning process of 'learning through reflection on doing'. An holistic flexible approach to teaching and supervision is presented, that advocates student centered course design and facilitates strategies to engage and enhance students' learning. Effective leadership and mentoring utilizing coaching strategies and the development of intuitive good practice through peer feedback aim to improve the quality of tertiary teaching practice in WIL, and result in better scaffolding of student learning outcomes, enhanced self-efficacy and employability and a breadth and depth of graduate attributes.

This study examined the effects of a work-integrated learning (WIL) placement on student's self-efficacy and perceived workplace skill levels. Twenty-eight participants volunteered for this study, in which 15 completed WIL and 13 did not (non-WIL). The Work Self-Efficacy Inventory (WS-Ei) and Workplace Skills Questionnaire (WSQ) were used to collect student responses. Differences between groups were analyzed using a Mann-Whitney U test, mean differences were shown, and statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. Results from the WS-Ei indicated the WIL group shown significantly higher total WS-Ei scores, higher mean scores for all dimensions measured, and significantly higher scores for individual dimensions; problem-solving, politics, pressure and role expectations. The WSQ indicated the WIL group had higher mean scores for all perceived workplace skills, except for information technology, and no significant differences was observed between groups. Areas showing little difference between groups can be highlighted for further support and development.

This book is the third in a series on Understanding Teaching-Learning Practice.

This series is focuses on publishing research on the intertwining relationship of how practice informs research which subsequently informs practice.

Disruptive technologies, emerging global markets, and uncertain workforce requirements are driving the need for skilled graduates. This research developed a framework for collaboration between stakeholders to ensure work-ready graduates and sustained economic growth. A mixed-methods, multiple case study research design was deployed to gather data from graduates, employers, staff, students, and professional body representatives across three disciplines. The Australian course experience questionnaire generated 476 graduate responses and 1,175 comments. The graduate employability surveys collected responses from 88 graduates, 51 employers and 34 teaching staff. SPSS and Excel functions were used for quantitative data analysis and NVivo for thematic analysis. A cross-case analysis of the three case studies revealed consistency in stakeholder perceptions of domains perceived as important for graduate employability with collaborative partnerships emerging as integral to actualizing the domains. Findings from this research challenge conventional university approaches to brokering and maintaining partnerships and suggests a holistic engagement framework for stakeholders.

Global industry requires resilience and adaptability to match the new fluid necessities of 21^st Century reality. Learning as a finite suite of knowledge and skills at university to prepare for a static career is now anathema, with industry demanding constant new insight and innovation to meet the needs of an ever-changing global society. In the case of initial teacher education, however, programs that purposefully develop these capabilities are not prevalent, with knowledge and skills sets too often being presented as script and thus reinforcing static thinking and teaching practices. This paper explores qualitative data collected across a network of globally focused secondary schools in Denmark and presents a positive approach for cooperative work-integrated education (CWIE) educators and institutions in initial teacher education that is based on the explicit modeling of learning dispositions. Importantly, the approach can also be seen as being the basis for any practice across professional fields where resilience and adaptability are essential.

Research indicates that work-integrated learning (WIL) experiences enable students to develop both generic and work skills as well as helping students identify their future academic and career directions. This study used pre- and post-survey instruments to evaluate the effectiveness of a WIL placement to develop work skills of students in different academic programs of a university in Thailand. This research was based on an Australian work skills development framework model. The analyses of the pre- and post-survey results on 584 co-op students indicated notable changes in student work skills performance after entering the workplace. The program difference in work skills is significant between the groups when ANCOVA test was applied using pretest-placement as covariates. The positive learning gains suggest that WIL enables students to acquire confidence, building work skills particularly in "initiative/motivation to engage", and attain the ability to self-reflect on whether they have contributed to improved productivity in the workplace.

The demand for relevant skills for the labor market constitutes one of the fundamental challenges facing the post-school system in South Africa. The South African government has therefore proposed a policy on professional development teacher education programs for Technical and Vocational Education and Training and the South African Department of Higher Education and Training lecturers to ensure that they understand the labor market demands and are able to produce graduates who meet these demands. This study examines factors that enable the successful integration of industry-based work-integrated learning (WIL) in professional development teacher education programs for TVET lecturers. The enabling factors were obtained from 28 academic staff in 14 South African universities responsible for developing WIL curricula in TVET teacher education programs. Some of the enabling factors that were considered when integrating WIL in TVET teacher education include higher education providers, students, industry, mentorship, the varied programs and learning outcomes as well as the community.

There is mutual agreement about the need for internationalization in higher education. However, there is no consensus regarding the best practice. Universities offering cooperative and work-integrated education have a comparative advantage in providing their graduates with capabilities needed on the labor market. They face the challenge to develop an internationalization strategy that reflects the practice-orientation of their study programs. The key question is how to use the specific feature of dual education to expand globally. This paper analyzes the approach of Duale Hochschule Baden-Wuerttemberg (DHBW) as Germany's first university to integrate academic studies and work experience. It examines student exchanges, study-abroad internship tandems, short-term programs as well as the implementation of the DHBW model in other countries. The strengths and weaknesses of these approaches as well as their conformance with the objectives of the internationalization strategy are evaluated.

Marketing principles and consumerism are evident in higher education with universities central to the development of fit for purpose graduates. Students are increasingly viewed as consumers of university products and expected to manage self-hood and to promote themselves to the marketplace. This article is drawn from research in an ongoing larger scale project exploring the ownership of students in shaping their 'career capital' and in building 'brand-me' from a student perspective when seeking industrial placement and graduate career progression. It appraises the use of a 'soft systems' methodology using rich pictures (RP) to support qualitative one-to-one interviews with students in higher education. The findings showed that the combination of in-depth interviews with the rich pictures creative qualitative approach provided a much closer generation of insights to inform staff in the support of students pursuing of industrial placement and career progression, and for the students it offered an opportunity for self-reflection and consideration of 'brand-me'.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) has attracted considerable attention as an instrument for enhancing professional practice and developing work-readiness in graduates. It is widely considered as a point of difference in developing graduate employability by enhancing skill outcomes through an authentic learning experience. This paper focuses on student insights of the added value of WIL and their development of personal and professional graduate attributes. Thematic content analysis was undertaken of students' reflections (n=271) of their perceived learning outcomes and overall experiences from their sport management and coaching WIL experiences at Massey University, New Zealand. The findings show that enjoyment, achievement and reinforcing career decisions added value to the student’s experiences. Gratitude for the support and mentoring of workplace and academic supervisors was also evident. Development of personal attributes involving self-management, enterprise, and effective communication were important learning outcomes. Professional development of a community of practice and leadership responsibilities were also highlighted.

Many governments are expecting higher education institutions to make strong links between the educational offerings and employability while many employers are demanding graduates with prior workplace or community engagement before entering the workplace. As higher education institutions respond to these challenges, work-integrated learning (WIL) is increasingly seen as a powerful educational approach in developing and empowering work-ready graduates, with many institutions expanding their WIL offerings. With the expansion of WIL, however, comes the need for more staffing to resource the activity. The type of staff vary from practitioners (placement coordinators, field practitioners), teaching staff, researchers, and curricular designers, all of whom require a relevant skills set and knowledge. However, to date, professional development opportunities directly related to WIL have been limited, with most opportunities offered by some national associations providing webinars and workshops. Furthermore, little work has been undertaken to determine the actual professional development needs of WIL staff. Presented here are the findings of an online, international survey of 668 WIL practitioners which explores their perceived professional development needs.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) for students studying medical laboratory science (MLS) provides hands-on experience that prepares graduates for entry into the pathology workforce. This study explored the student perceptions of studying MLS, before and after WIL placement in a pathology service, and the associated employment opportunities in a pathology laboratory. The WIL pathology technician model enabled students to gain experience across regional and metropolitan locations within the state of Queensland, Australia. With nearly two thirds of graduates employed in the profession and a quarter continuing further education in this field, this program was regarded as a success and helps meet the needs of a growing population with an expectancy of high quality health care. Discussed in this paper is the unique role of the pathology industry working with a regional university to develop successful graduates for a career in pathology, with a focus on the impact of WIL.

This paper addresses the question of the relative importance of work-integrated learning placement quality, structure (whether part-time or full-time), and duration (in weeks), for producing employability outcomes. Additionally, we explore whether the quality of those placements is more, less, or equally important than the structure and duration. Drawing on responses to questions in a survey from 2,313 participants, 1,316 of whom had no placement experience and 997 of whom had had a placement experience, as part of their university studies, we tested a series of related hypotheses. After controlling for prior work-experience, results show that the quality of the placement experience is a greater predictor of a variety of employability outcomes than either structure of the placement experience or its duration. Findings will inform curriculum designers, practicum supervisors, and those interested in the outcomes of higher education.

Inclusive education remains a challenge for Australian tertiary education, particularly specialized pedagogical approaches like work-integrated learning (WIL) and service learning. Critiques of mainstream pedagogical approaches raise questions about the predominant models of educating students (Butin, 2010; Howard, 1998). There is a definitive need to recognize the diversity of the student population within course structures, rather than integrating diverse student needs into a static curriculum (Harrison & Ip, 2013) Wise practice takes WIL objectives - professional skills development and professional experience - and positions inclusion and transformation at the center of the learning experience. This paper explores inclusive education in WIL and service learning and examines how a wise practice approach can help all students equally benefit from the transformative potential of service learning.

Previous research suggests that going unmatched in the competitive co-op job search process might have an emotional cost. This study examined the feasibility and efficacy of interventions for improving unmatched co-op students' emotional wellbeing. Participants (n = 74) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a positive psychology based writing task, a toolkit with materials and information about coping with stress, or a control condition. They completed a measure of emotional wellbeing before and after the intervention period (one week long). Controlling for pre-intervention emotional wellbeing, statistically significant gains in emotional wellbeing were reported only by those in the writing task condition. Administering positive interventions such as instructions to focus on "good things" may be particularly feasible and effective in the co-op context. Implications for co-op practitioners and future research are presented.

Reflection for learning is a common course requirement for many WIL subjects and when students are engaged in blended or online modes of delivery or in off-campus placements, reflective practice needs to be supported. It also needs to be better integrated with mobile technology. This paper reviews the three cycles of the iReflect project which aimed to address these needs by developing a mobile reflection app. The project was framed by an integrated theoretical approach that combined participatory action research (PAR), distributed leadership and agile development. A mixed method approach was adopted to collect data from literature reviews, student focus groups, surveys and research notes. A focus on the pedagogical, technological and institutional dimensions of the WIL ecology provides new insights into student use and perceptions of mobile technology. One key outcome is the identification of nine new user stories demonstrating the mobile technology needs of reflective WIL students and teachers.

The study was aimed at comparing the expectations of Slovak employers and students in terms of employability skills. Twenty-seven companies which employ university graduates working in the manufacturing and financial sectors, represented by a Managing Director or Human Resources Director and 534 university students in the Bratislava region completed a questionnaire that evaluated the perceived importance of, and satisfaction with, generic employability skills. Employers perceived a lack of appropriate skills as the biggest barrier to employing graduates. With regard to the importance of skills, students considered only three skills to be more important than employers did; experience in the field, leadership and authority, and field knowledge. Compared to students, employers regarded engagement and willingness to take on extra work as the most important. In terms of satisfaction, students were more satisfied than employers in nineteen skills from a total of thirty-two. To reduce the satisfaction gap between graduates and employers, higher education institutions can promote students' self-awareness through career psychological services centers.

WIL practitioners encounter ethical issues, dilemmas, or conflicts ('risks') in the delivery of work-integrated learning (WIL) programs. Ethical risks which are not properly managed can have reputational, legal, and financial consequences for the higher education institution (HEI). Whilst students' experiences of ethical risks, particularly in health-related WIL programs, have been extensively reported in the literature, there is no known systematic study that has explored ethical risks in WIL from the sole perspective of WIL practitioners. A case study of 10 Canadian practitioners identifies five key characteristics of ethics underpinning the delivery of co-operative education programs, as well as ethical risks that they have experienced relating to the conduct of WIL practitioners, students, and employers. The findings can be applied by WIL stakeholders to enhance their ethical awareness, and to improve management of ethical risks.

This book is now in its fourth edition with the earlier three editions being well-received. The book is tailored to undergraduate students and graduate research students, with useful appeal for emerging researchers.

The book was well presented, with 14 main sections divided across four Parts, ending with three useful appendices on writing a research report/paper, statistical review methods, and statistical tables.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) experiences rely heavily on the development of relationships between the university, industry and often community organizations. As participation in WIL is increasing, the issue of sustainability becomes paramount, requiring processes and practices for effective collaborations and partnerships. This paper reports on an action research project to develop a framework to represent the critical success factors for sustainable WIL relationships. Drawing on reflections from WIL practitioners on what they considered were the critical success factors and a review of literature, a framework was developed, prioritizing three key themes: communication, commitment and compatibility. Within these themes, nine key factors were identified and then evaluated by academic and industry stakeholders in New Zealand, Canada and Australia. Trust, expectations, reciprocity, coordination, vision, learning, resources, reputation, and recognition were confirmed as important factors for sustainable WIL relationships. The framework provides good practice guidelines for all WIL stakeholders.

An employment contract between the student and the host organization may be the unintended consequence of a work-integrated learning (WIL) placement. The student, as an 'inadvertent employee' of the host organization, can expose the university to risk. A case study involving thirteen Australian university lawyers identifies the legal and reputational risks associated with paid and unpaid WIL placements, and how university lawyers manage these risks through WIL agreements, legal advice and the support of external agencies. In Australia, the key themes which emerge from university lawyer experiences, and the existing literature, are the vocational placement exemption under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), and scholarship payments. The article concludes with a series of lessons for WIL practitioners in terms of managing the labor-related risks of WIL programs.

Assessment is said to drive student learning, though the value of a 'grade' within work-integrated learning (WIL) is still not clear and most field placement students do not want their learning to be assessed beyond a pass/fail grade. Is then, the 'learning' in WIL as important as 'learning' in non-WIL courses? The focus of this paper is on the 'value' stakeholders place on the academic standards and grading practices in WIL. Data from a small qualitative constructivists grounded theory study undertaken in the Human Services sector will be used and how to grade 'reflection' will link learning, assessment and grading practices, identifying the difficulties and challenges to mainstreaming WIL. The importance of employability from a WIL experience will be the focus of a future paper.

This study followed recent computing graduates into the workplace and explored their undergraduate experiences of work placements and subsequent impact on graduate employment. Whilst studying at one of 14 Scottish universities, participants (n=99) had registered interest in a student placement. Factors influencing the ability to secure a placement included recognition of the benefits derived from completing a placement, and parental experience of higher education. We found that graduates had benefited from work experience financially, earning more than those who had not completed placements. They had also found graduate positions more quickly and were more likely to be in work than those who had graduated without completing a placement. The study provides evidence of the long-term benefits of work placements to inform students, university staff, employers, and, where appropriate, to influence government policy in increasing access to student work placements.

Student participation in work-integrated learning (WIL) is commonly held to enhance graduate employability and employment outcomes. Nevertheless, there exists significant research that questions the nature of this relationship. For many reasons, universities are unlikely to reduce their efforts and interest in WIL for students. However, for both quality assurance and quality improvement processes, it is important for institutions to evaluate the contribution of WIL to graduate employability and employment. Based on a critical review of the research literature, the rationale for an institutional proposal for the evaluation of the contribution of WIL to graduate employability and employment is developed and presented. The research literature suggests that the relationship between WIL and graduate outcomes is likely to be complex and context dependent. A methodology that others can adopt, adapt, or use as a stimulus for thinking, in their own unique institutional context is offered here.

This paper presents research related to the work-integrated learning (WIL) model. The objectives were to explore the characteristics and the techniques associated with it. The focus of this research was on model linked to the IT industry or IT department in non-IT industries. A systematic literature review was applied as research methodology and the collected data were from 2006 to 2016 from eight databases. There were 24 articles which matched the search criteria. The WIL models reported can be separated into four groups. The two key features are activities created by universities and activities offered by industry. The model techniques are knowledge, methods and tools for acquiring research problems and developing solutions. The existing models are very broad and need to be narrowed down so that prospective careers and the needs of the digital workforce are prioritized. Researchers suggest future trends in WIL models in the digital economy.

A partnership between a regional Australian university and the Friendship Village in Vietnam was established in 2016 as part of a health promotion unit of study. The aim of this project was to evaluate the sustainability of the international service learning model of health promotion, and its impacts upon the students and the Friendship Village. International service learning imparts personal growth, self-confidence, cultural competence, and work readiness for participating students. While these outcomes are beneficial to students, the needs of the host community and sustainability of ongoing healthcare are often be ignored, which can raise ethical concerns if not addressed. Qualitative methodology and thematic analysis were applied to survey data. Five themes emerged reciprocal learning, sustainability, building capacity of the students and the Friendship Village, and meeting the needs of the host community. One recommendation includes adequate pre-departure preparation for both partners to understand the principles of the international service learning model, means of sustainability and evaluation.

This paper explores the employment and further education outcomes of students studying criminology who participate in professional skills development and work-integrated learning courses at a major Australian university. Three years of data were obtained from the Australian Graduate Survey, which is completed by university graduates four months after they complete their tertiary studies. The results indicate that students enrolled in a Bachelor of Criminology and Criminal Justice who complete a career and professional development course in conjunction with a work-integrated learning course are approximately twice as likely to be engaged in industry relevant employment or further study four months after graduation. They also are more likely to use a wider range of search techniques to find employment. This suggests that it is possible to improve employment outcomes for students by providing a university-based course that focuses on employability and professional behaviors in conjunction with work-integrated learning programs.

Over the last 20 years, research focused on work-integrated learning (WIL) has expanded considerably. While early research predominantly utilized quantitative study designs, recently a more diverse set of methodologies is being used to address questions and issues arising from a range of WIL models. This Special Issue is intended to present different methodologies available to WIL researchers. The papers include case studies of how these methodologies, and methods within, are being used for WIL research, along with discussion of the strengths and limitations of using the research approach. Examples of case study methodology, multiple case studies, mixed methods, program evaluation research, hermeneutic phenomenology, grounded theory, reflective practice as research, and large-scale data mining, provide insights into different ways of addressing research questions. In this issue, the advantages and challenges faced by those conducting research as 'insiders' within their own organizations are also examined. Specifically, within this paper the importance of ethical conduct while engaging with research, especially WIL research using human participants, is discussed, including the need to obtain ethical approval and consideration of issues around informed consent, conflict of interest, risk of harm and confidentiality.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) research is heavily steeped in particular contexts making it highly suited to flexible, multiple perspective methodologies, such as case study. However, case study methodology is often criticized for being too specific, not generalizable and limited in what it can contribute to theory. In addition, there is often confusion between the meaning and application of the terms method and methodology. This paper presents an argument to help guide and support researchers who are considering a case study approach to their WIL research. Two vignettes demonstrate how researchers overcame some of the alleged limitations of case study as a methodology and utilized the benefits to advance the theory and practice of WIL. Case study provides a sound methodology that can reflect the variability of research contexts and enables a flexible approach to address a wide range of research questions that are relevant to the evolving nature of WIL.

The different learning offerings provided by various faculties have unique and diverse procedures which justify different work-intgrated learning (WIL) approaches. A lack of structure regarding the information management for WIL across departmental silos, results in different processes being followed. Frameworks for the information management of WIL have been developed at international higher education institutions over long periods of time, which have evolved into good practice benchmarks. In order to answer the research question 'how can information be managed to facilitate the WIL process for various faculties at a higher education institution?', three higher education institutions were studied, two in America and one in South Africa. The primary focus of these multiple-case studies was to determine how information can be managed to facilitate the WIL process for various faculties at a higher education institution. The research approach and design of the study is discussed in terms of the methodological contribution.

This article describes the evolution of, and rationale for, a mixed methods study of risk management by university lawyers in the specific context of work-integrated learning (WIL) programs. The evolution provides a road map of the research design, incorporating references to research methods texts used by the author at each stage of the mixed methods design. The roadmap also includes primary resources developed during the mixed methods study, such as survey instruments, invitations to participate, consent forms, conceptual models and interview guides. These resources can be accessed by WIL researchers to assist them with navigating mixed methods design. WIL researchers are also provided with a number of strategies to promote the validity of their research and research limitations to be mindful of when conducting WIL research using mixed methods.

Grounded theory is an inductive enquiry that explains social processes in complex real-world contexts. Research methods are cumulative cyclic processes, not sequential processes. Researchers remain theoretically sensitive and approach data with no preconceived hypotheses or theoretical frameworks. Literature is reviewed as lines of enquiry and substantive theories emerge. Interviewers ask broad open questions, check understanding and prompt further description. Participants choose how they share their perspectives and experiences. Everything is considered data. Data is analyzed in cyclic processes. Initially coding uses participants' words, and then identifies patterns, social processes and emerging substantive theories. Memos and diagrams facilitate understanding of data and literature. Grounded theory is a suitable research methodology for work-integrated learning because grounded theory explains social processes, such as learning, in complex real-world contexts, such as workplaces, where multiple influencing factors occur simultaneously. A case study illustrates how grounded theory was used to explain learning in the workplace.

Our research using hermeneutic phenomenology positions a pre-service or graduate teacher's learning to be a teacher as a process of formation which involves relational sensibilities and ontological understandings that are often taken for granted and can be drawn from teacher’s everyday experiences of 'being-in' their practice. We live in ideological times that are challenging the priorities, practices and discourses within pre-service teacher education programs. Critically important here are changes driven by an ideological 'evidence-based' priority for the 'measurement' of preservice teachers and graduate teachers' professional practice. In this paper, we share our concerns over this narrowing of educational outcomes toward behavioral practices occurring in the context of work-integrated learning (WIL). How have Initial Teacher Education Programs lost sight of the holistic, complex and contextual nature of their praxis? Not to mention the nuanced and experiential improvisation occurring within every relational engagement that constitutes WIL.

Universities are increasingly investing in work-integrated learning (WIL) as a mechanism by which to enhance graduate employability. However, with such investment comes more pressure to demonstrate impact. Program evaluation can be undertaken for a diverse range of purposes including quality assurance, program improvement and accountability. Many evaluations in WIL have focused on measuring the impact of discrete models or cohorts on student outcomes, with less attention to partner and community impact. The complex nature of WIL, such as the involvement of multiple stakeholders, diverse models and delivery modes, means that a holistic approach may be more appropriate, measuring outcomes for multiple stakeholders, as well as program processes. This paper will discuss some of the opportunities, challenges and tensions associated with program evaluation in WIL, drawing on a case study of one Australian university, which implemented the evaluation of a university-wide WIL initiative. Implications for practice and research are discussed.

Within work-integrated learning (WIL), partner communities and organisations are increasingly seen as co-educators, but not often as collaborators of research inquiry (Hammersley, 2012; 2015). This paper reflects on the research methods employed to engage partner organisations in the co-creation of curriculum to support international WIL activities in a way that recognises the valuable expertise, knowledge and skills of international community partners. In particular, it focuses on the specific role of reflection as a research method that enabled participants from diverse cultural and experiential backgrounds to critically and collectively explore the co-creation process. This paper shares the different ways reflection was used to recoginse multiple knowledges and enable all participants to freely and creatively map and share their personal and collective experiences as co-researchers.

This paper describes two classes of advanced data mining methods that can obtain actionable insight from co-operative education data: text mining of job descriptions and graph mining of job interview data. While these methods are not new in general, they have not been widely used in co-operative education research. A technical overview of each method is provided, followed by a case study using real data from a large North American university. The case study illustrates that the proposed methods can enable students, employers and institutions to make better data-driven decisions. For example, text mining of job descriptions can reveal sought-after skills while graph mining of interview relationships can characterize the extent of competition for jobs.

Insider research studies are common in work-integrated learning (WIL) research, yet little has been written about the methodological and ethical dilemmas that WIL researchers face. Using a case study narrative, the position of an insider researcher is justified, and the challenges faced, when a researcher undertakes an in-depth study of their own WIL program is examined. The unique perspective of the history and culture of the researcher's program was the most significant advantage, enabling a deep level of understanding and interpretation. Key challenges included: minimizing the potential for implicit coercion of the participants; acknowledging the desire for positive outcomes; ensuring tacit patterns and regularities were not taken for granted; and awareness of the potential conflicts of being an academic and researcher within the same context. In this paper, strategies to assist WIL researchers minimize these challenges are suggested. Insider research provides a valuable contribution to the theory and practice of WIL from a different perspective than may be obtained by someone not deeply embedded and involved.

Little is known about how university institutions are coping with increased placement demands in professional disciplines, and what this means for the quality and integrity of the Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) experiences offered within degree programs for all partners concerned. The first stage of a critical ethnographic study is reported in this paper. It forms part of a larger, ongoing study that seeks to generate critical perspectives on the impact and effects of an inquiry-based WIL philosophy that fosters sustained, meaningful university-community partnerships across a suite of Early Childhood programs. Institutional insights into the workload of university staff responsible for these programs are presented, revealing the complexities and possibilities of what this form of work involves in efforts to sustain meaningful, reciprocal partnerships over time. Findings reveal challenges to the relational foundations of this work and the potential implications for universities to reconsider the nature of their engagement with community in the education of deliberate professionals.

The introduction of a new work-integrated learning (WIL) policy for university environmental health education programs seeking professional accreditation identified a number of problems. This included how to evaluate the acceptability of differing approaches to WIL for course accreditation purposes and a need to develop an agreed understanding of what constitutes WIL in environmental health. This paper describes a Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach undertaken as an initial step towards addressing these problems. The key recommendation from this research is the need to develop a framework to evaluate approaches to WIL in environmental health. In such a framework, it is argued that a shift in focus from a specified period of time students are engaged in WIL, to greater consideration of the essential pedagogical features of the WIL activity is required. Additionally, input from all stakeholder groups, universities, students, employers and the professional body, is required.

Although work-integrated learning represents an increasingly prevalent part of the tertiary education landscape, there are limited explorations of student experiences through a wellbeing lens. Wellbeing represents more than an individual’s quality of life; it is an individual’s ability to manage different inputs across intersecting physical, social, cognitive, psychological, environmental and economic factors often from a moment-in-time positioning. In connecting work-integrated learning and wellbeing, this conceptual article introduces work-integrated learning wellbeing (WIL wellbeing) as a construct to identify potential impacts of work-integrated learning on participants’ wellbeing within and beyond learning contexts. The model highlights the importance of recognizing and appreciating student diversity in personal circumstance and experience when undertaking work-integrated learning. Explicitly connecting work-integrated learning and wellbeing emphasizes the importance of nurturing a combination of individual coping strategies, formal policy and informal institutional support, and provides a framework for higher-education institutions to address the impact of work-integrated learning on students.

Universities, industry and professional bodies advocate work-integrated learning (WIL) as a valuable way to prepare graduates to meet the challenges of contemporary society. When organizations preference particular students over others to host on placement, the full individual and collective potential of WIL is not realized. This paper reports findings from a qualitative study focused on the role played by Human Resource (HR) professionals in influencing student access to WIL placements in Australian organizations. Findings suggest being in a HR role may influence why and how an individual acts as a WIL gatekeeper however, there is an interplay between forces at three distinct levels: organizational, occupational/job and personal, which affect the intentions and actions of the HR professional. Furthermore, the study suggests several conditions are required for an inclusive approach to WIL to be enacted. This study contributes to the underexplored topic of equity and access in WIL.

Internships are becoming more relevant to universities as they provide students with practical skills that can be aligned with their career aspirations. Typically, successful undergraduate internship programs depend on the efficiency and design of the university internship program; the student commitment to the internship; and host organization’s level of resource commitment to the program. Currently, there is very little empirical research conducted to examine how host organization based factors influence the quality of a good internship from a student interns' perspective. The Transaction Cost Economic (TCE) model was the theoretical lens used to address this research. The study used a survey (n=83) of an undergraduate internship program at a university in Australia. The findings indicate that the host organizations' resource commitment has a significant positive influence on the interns' perceived success of the internship. Findings from this research can help to align organizational resource commitment with the students' expectations.

There is growing pressure in higher education to develop graduates with the capabilities to work effectively in collaborative, interdisciplinary teams to solve the key issues facing humankind. For many years, health has been pioneering interprofessional education as the means to deliver professionals with capacity to work together to deliver high quality, cost-effective, client-centered care. This paper reports on an explorative case study where interviews were undertaken with ten students from different professions who had experienced interprofessional education at three different community sites. The learning was informed by an adapted version of contact hypothesis for use in interprofessional education combined with adult learning principles. Four interrelated metathemes were identified: space and time, informality and independence, which resulted in a more holistic approach to practice. Results suggest that the contact hypothesis, with consideration of contact variables, has the potential to improve the quality of interdisciplinary group interaction.

This paper will put forward an argument that work-integrated learning (WIL) should be semi-formal in nature and will examine the characteristics of this proposed learning environment. When a student work placement is unstructured or informal a learning framework is absent, often resulting in tacit or implicit knowledge which creates difficulties. Although the expectation of accessing a fully formal educational framework cannot be completely achievable within a busy work environment, an opportunity can be created to integrate characteristics of formal education, which leaves space for individuals to learn from each other as well as accessing formal learning experiences. This perspective also suggests that the different modes of workplace learning should be combined so that formal training utilizes informal learning. In addition, the proposed structure embraces the emerging paradigm, which integrates education into workplace learning, allowing students to gain access to diverse learning opportunities, adequate assessment, constructive feedback and reflection on learning.

Internationally, innovation represents the lifeblood of modern economies. In particular, there is growing recognition of the vital role of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) educators in developing students' innovation skills for the jobs of the future. Work-integrated learning (WIL) has emerged as an important pedagogical approach for developing innovation capabilities. This paper is based on a quantitative study that examines the key factors driving innovation in STEM WIL students. The study undertakes a comparative analysis of students by age, gender, degree type, and placement duration. It found that students participating in longer durations of 20 weeks compared to 12 weeks had higher perceived levels of innovation skills. The study shows how feedback on skills can be provided to students and employers, with output from the tool used in this study. Therefore, it has implications for student career literacy, industry outreach and WIL program development.

While a growing body of literature in cooperative education (co-op) has seen an increased focus on what makes for a quality work term for the student, few studies investigate the satisfaction of the co-op supervisor. This paper seeks to address how supervisors perceive the role of the co-op student in the workplace and understand how these values influence satisfaction with a hired co-op student. A self-report survey was sent to supervisors who had hired co-op students from one Canadian academic institution. The results showed a significant correlation between attributes valued by the supervisor and supervisor rating of the student when those attributes were exhibited; however, this was only the case after the attributes were weighted for importance. The results demonstrate the importance of expectations in influencing satisfaction and reinforce the need for preparation of the student for the workterm, a clear alignment of expectations between the student and supervisor, and the value of onboarding in creating a successful work term.

The importance of work-integrated learning (WIL) experiences in the development of work ready graduates is well known. Despite the centrality of WIL to graduate employability, the vast majority of studies relating to student feedback tend to focus on the evaluation of learning and teaching in the classroom context. This article reports on the development and implementation of a university wide systematic approach to the collection of student feedback on learning in the workplace. It is anticipated that the approach and development of the summative survey tool described in this article will enhance the capacity of the tertiary sector to routinely capture student feedback on the experience of learning in the workplace and assist the development of models of best practice in work-integrated learning. We argue that ensuring quality in the student experience of work-integrated learning is core University business.

There is broad acknowledgement that higher education should produce career-ready graduates and the role of practical experience - such as part-time employment, unregulated extra-curricular internships and work-integrated learning (WIL) – in achieving this. WIL is critical for developing the non-technical skills, disciplinary expertise and career self-management competencies required to prepare graduates for the world-of-work. Although Australia appears committed to growing WIL, many employers engage in extra-curricular internships while there is a lack of industry partners available to meet student demand for WIL. Extra-curricular internships may, therefore, be considered the 'black market' to WIL and could be constraining the achievement of targeted growth in Australia's National Strategy for WIL. This paper highlights that extra-curricular internships may not be governed by the good practice principles critical to a quality work-based learning experience. It explores possible reasons for stakeholder preference for unregulated, extra-curricular internships and presents strategies to shift their engagement to WIL.

A recent (2017) study of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that the unemployment rate for 20-24-year-olds, the age when many graduate from university and enter the workforce, is nearly twice that of all other age groups. The startling statistic suggests that more can be done to better prepare undergraduates for the workplace. This three-year study explores gaps in workplace preparation as identified by practitioners in the field of public relations. Based on job bank data from the Public Relations Society of America and interviews of industry leaders, this research emphasizes the imperative of student exposure to authentic work experiences for boosting graduate employability and further informing curriculum content and format. What practitioners feel to be important, what industry trends demand and what is achieved in the classroom broadly align with the best practice principles for work-integrated learning (WIL) programs.

This paper investigates the impact of entrepreneurship on cooperative job creation in a large North American post-secondary institution. The data-driven analysis is enabled by two unique datasets: a list of companies started by the institution's engineering students and faculty, and a database of the institution's cooperative education (co-op) placements. Over the past 10 years, companies started by the institution's engineers have created at least 9,000 co-op placements for the institution's students, paying a total of at least $115 million in salaries (Canadian dollar; CAD$). Furthermore, students working for these companies were more likely to receive high performance evaluations than their peers and were more likely to be satisfied with the cooperative experience. Finally, students who went on to start companies did not always take entrepreneurship courses or excel academically, but they were rated highly by their workplace supervisors.

Service learning (SL) presents apposite opportunities for students to share with and learn from businesses for mutually beneficial development and experience. This article focuses on a SL project conducted by undergraduate students in South Africa, to devise advertising and marketing strategies for community businesses. The reciprocity of benefits for participants, as well as ontological aspects of student learning were explored. Questionnaires administered to three student cohorts and feedback from business owners were subjected to content analysis. Theoretical underpinnings of SL as work-integrated learning (WIL) modality and the curriculum approach of knowing, doing and being, framed this study. The findings revealed that a well-structured SL project is a valuable learning experience with permeable boundaries between knowledge and practice. This article focuses on, firstly, the importance of relating classroom learning to real world experience; secondly, the emergent ontological perspectives of SL, and thirdly, empowering community businesses by sharing knowledge and skills to foster entrepreneurial ideals.

The aim of this study was to evaluate undergraduate exercise and sport science students' learning experiences in a strength and conditioning internship. There was a special emphasis on the interns’ personal development, the influence of supervision (academic supervisor functioning as a dual professional) and feedback on their development as a strength and conditioning professional. Seventeen exercise and sport science interns participated in a focus group discussion. Four themes were identified from analysis of the interns’ perception of their internship experience: positive supervision relationship, student ownership, satisfaction and development of professional skills. The findings of this study provide both academic and workplace supervisors with practical methods in which they can successfully cultivate effective strength and conditioning professionals. While the research findings provide guidelines on an effective model for strength and conditioning internships based on interns lived experience, the key findings are applicable to a range of cooperative learning environments particularly in health science and wellness.

This paper applies a conceptual model for work-integrated learning (WIL) in a multidisciplinary sports degree program. Two examples of WIL in sport will be used to illustrate how the conceptual WIL model is being operationalized. The implications for practice are that curriculum design must recognize a highly flexible approach to the nature of placements and, as a result, emphasize the necessity to conduct a post-practicum debriefing to support the valuable learning and to continue the duty of care towards the student. We propose the expansion of Martin, Rees, and Edwards model to include both a partnership and debriefing component for sport WIL in Australia. This inclusion will not only provide a sustainable model for sport partnership WIL programs in Australia, but ensure that a focus on duty of care towards students is a core responsibility and moral obligation for universities and placement organizations.

The examination of work-integrated learning (WIL) programs in the undergraduate Human Resource Management (HRM) curriculum is an area under-represented in the Australian literature. This paper identifies the challenges faced in implementing WIL into the HRM undergraduate curriculum. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 38 participants including academics, careers advisors, professionals and students from nine Australian universities. The findings show that a lack of resources, a clash of agendas, legal and ethical issues, expectations, the HRM profession and academic perspectives of WIL, are impacting on how WIL programs in HRM are being developed. Recommendations are made for the future development of WIL in HRM.

A growing body of literature suggests the need to better understand the subjective well-being (SWB) of students enrolled in cooperative education (co-op) programs. Some co-op students will be unsuccessful in securing employment, yet there is a scarcity of existing quantitative research outlining the impact that this will have on students, particularly first work-term students who are engaging in the job-search process for the first time. Using an integrated framework of SWB, this paper seeks to address the negative effect of co-op unemployment on SWB and the potential moderating effect of students' rejection sensitivity. Two self-report surveys were analyzed (n=82). These were taken before and after first work-term students were informed of their employment results. The results showed a significantly negative main effect on SWB after discovering they were not employed, compared to their employed peers. Rejection sensitivity was found to be a moderator of the effect. These findings imply that consideration should be given to ways to support this group of co-op students to ameliorate effects of non-employment on well-being.

Students occasionally experience difficulties during work-integrated learning and clinical placements. The authors reasoned that these placement difficulties might be related to the students' emotional intelligence (EI) being underdeveloped before they commence full-time clinical placements. A cross-sectional survey design was used to measure the EI of third-year undergraduate occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech pathology and second-year business students (n = 369). Results showed that over 40% of therapy students reported scores that are considered low or markedly low in the EI domains of independence, problem-solving and stress tolerance. The EI scores for therapy students that were significantly higher than the Australian EI norms were self-actualization, interpersonal relationships, empathy, and impulse control. The mean scores of business students were within the normal range for all EI domains. A recommendation of our study is to include strategies that develop EI throughout the therapy curriculum and when preparing students for clinical placements.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is a risky business for universities. WIL is a strategic risk worthy of pursuing by universities in the prevailing higher education environment, which is characterized by competition, changes in funding arrangements and stakeholder demand for WIL. Nevertheless the strategic opportunities that WIL presents cannot be achieved without the university taking on unavoidable and distinct legal risks that may have serious financial and reputational consequences for the university. This article examines WIL through a lens of enterprise risk management. The author describes how WIL is a strategic risk for universities, and identifies the possible legal risks of WIL through a review of empirical studies and case law in Australia. It is argued that risk management involves a balance between the university goals of maximizing the strategic value and minimizing the legal risks in relation to WIL.

Proponents of cooperative and work-integrated education embed critical reflection in their programs to enhance the likelihood of an experience resulting in meaningful learning for students. Theoretically framed guidelines in the literature on how to determine and facilitate critical reflection in practice remains very limited, highlighting the importance of developing ways of improving stakeholders understanding and practice of critical reflection within these complex learning arrangements. Data analysis of a qualitative case study exploring critical reflection in a specific cooperative education context enabled the development and design of a transactional model to illustrate the positioning and functionality of critical reflection. The theoretical underpinnings for this model are derived from John Dewey’s educational writings. To date no published diagrammatic representations have been found to assist with the development and enhancement of our understanding of the complex dynamics and interplay of factors that influence and contribute to the practice of critical reflection, and the consequences of these transactions.

It is important for students to make informed, relevant choices when selecting their Cooperative Education placement organization. When students are required to secure their own placement, identifying organizations to approach is a challenging task, especially due to the diverse range of potential hospitality and tourism placement organizations. Therefore, presenting students with an Industry Placement Classification (IPC) framework provides them with valuable information concerning the activities of potential placement organizations and is a useful tool for institutions that seek to support students in their decision-making process. The IPC framework was created by combining and extending the Australia New Zealand Standard Industrial Codes, Business Industry Codes and the Tourism Satellite Account, to accurately classify organizations. This paper describes a study that resulted in the extension of standard categorization systems, which has led to a greater understanding of the characteristics and structure of Cooperative Education placements undertaken by Hospitality and Tourism undergraduate students.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is considered a key strategy for promoting graduate employability. Graduate employability is a complex concept, one which has broadened in recent years to encapsulate a diverse range of skills, attributes, and other measures such as networks, professional-identity and active citizenship. This special issue presents recent scholarship on WIL and employability, addressing the question of how WIL contributes to enhancing employability outcomes for students and graduates. The importance of embedding WIL experiences in the curriculum so they are effectively supported by appropriate pedagogical strategies is emphasized, as well as the provision of quality assessment to support employability outcomes. Such supports, while critical, have resourcing implications for higher education, including impacts on staff workload which also need to be considered. Employability is considered in relation to the related construct of employment outcomes, pointing to ways in which these two perspectives can be better integrated. Recommendations are made for future research.

Exercise and Sports Science (E&SS) programs at Federation University Australia provide work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities for students to develop, apply and consolidate theoretical knowledge in the workplace. This study aimed to determine the influence of WIL experiences on achieving common graduate attributes for E&SS students. From a larger study cohort (N=80), semi-structured interviews (n=4) delved into participant perceptions of graduate attributes and the impact of positive and negative WIL experiences. Using constant comparative analysis, interviews were coded and arranged into lower and higher order themes using the Graduate Employability Skills publication as a framework and the process validated by a WIL colleague. Results showed three out of four essential graduate attributes were developed during all WIL experiences regardless of whether they were positive or negative. These findings have implications for E&SS higher education providers and WIL agencies in ensuring the development of key graduate attributes during all WIL experiences.

If work-integrated learning (WIL) is intended by universities to meet the demand for work-ready graduates, identification of skill requirements for development on placements is a critical part of the learning process. Health services management specific employability skills perceived to be important by managers and recent graduates working in the field and their perceptions of skills they need to improve are not readily available in the literature. This research acknowledges the context specific nature or employability skills. Senior managers and recent graduates working in health services management were identified from a placement data base used at a NSW university, and were emailed a common questionnaire. A total of 38 senior managers and 42 recent graduates completed emailed surveys, rating importance and skills observed for 44 employability skills items. Items were informed by the literature and content analysis of advertisements for graduate health management positions. There was strong agreement between the two groups on important employability skills, and the top seven items on which they agreed were all generic in nature. Skill gaps were also revealed, many of which recent graduates did not appear to recognize.

This paper presents students' perceptions of the benefits to employability of a suite of courses that incorporate both work-integrated learning (WIL) and career development learning (CDL). Field Project A and Field Project B are elective courses in the Bachelor of Exercise Science at Griffith University. These courses engage students in active and personalized learning experiences that have been designed utilizing the principles of the SOAR model (Self -awareness, Opportunity awareness, Aspirations, Results). Four students who completed both courses participated in semistructured interviews. Data was collected using thematic analysis of student responses. Results indicated that employability was enhanced as students developed realistic aspirations based on sound information and WIL experiences that can help achieve their personal career goals as they transition into the workforce. The courses provide a practical model for university academics and career development practitioners to work collaboratively. Importantly, they give students a competitive advantage, enabling them to become more proactive, confident and motivated in maximizing opportunities to manage their careers and lifelong learning.

Universities are increasingly focusing on the employability of students after they graduate from their studies. While practicums is one way of enhancing students' employability, the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice embeds employability throughout its degree programs using a range of strategies. These methods are based on the student lifecycle approach embedded into the Employability Framework. Therefore, students are able to undertake activities that enhance their employability as they transition into university, transition through their degree program and then transition out of university and into the workforce. Alumni are involved within approaches located in the transition up and back stage of the student lifecycle. This paper uses the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice as a case study for how employability can be scaffolded throughout an undergraduate degree program. It clearly indicates that students can begin to develop their understanding and skills in the area of employability within criminology before they start their degree, throughout their studies and after they graduate.

Increased graduate employment is an aspiration of Australian universities who are adopting new and innovative approaches to ensure that all students have opportunities to develop the employability skills much sought after by employers. Placements have been a traditional means for developing such skills but because these are not available to all students other non-placement activities such as industry and community projects, and simulated learning environments have become alternative ways of assisting students become job-ready. These authentic work-related activities enable students to apply and practice disciplinary learning in workplace contexts as well as develop graduate capabilities. A study at an Australian University investigated 1,500 assessments from 40 courses across four Faculties to determine the nature and extent to which authentic assessments were being embedded in courses. This paper presents the development of an authentic assessment framework and typology that was employed to conduct the action-in-research investigation and to illustrate the investigative outcome, as well as holding prospects as a curriculum development tool and student engagement and development tool.

Assessment of student learning is a crucial part of quality work-integrated learning (WIL), yet presents some significant challenges for WIL practitioners. Assessment of WIL differs to assessment in classroom based courses because of the complexities of assessing the more holistic nature of learning in WIL, as well as (in many cases) managing the involvement of an external partner in the assessment process. This paper investigates academic workload implications of WIL assessment for staff at an Australian university. Over two years 34 WIL courses were surveyed, with 30 staff interviewed over a wider three-year period. Analysis of survey data reveals assessment of student learning is the largest single contributor to academic workload in WIL courses, with qualitative data providing some insight into the reasons for this. This paper reports findings from the study, noting implications and recommendations for practice, policy and future research.

Graduate attributes and course learning outcomes are an integral part of higher education in Australia. Testing the performance of graduates in the workplace with regard to graduate attributes and course learning outcomes is a not a common occurrence. This study has road tested the graduate attributes and course learning outcomes of a bachelor degree in environmental science via students participating in a work-integrated learning (WIL) placement. Comparisons of importance and perceptions of students' skill level between host-supervisors, students and teaching staff were made. On the whole teaching staff perceived students' skills as "adequate" while the students and host-supervisors perceive students' skill level to approach "proficient". Students on WIL placements appear to meet hosts' expectations and there appears to be no significant gap in the curriculum. Road testing graduate attributes and course learning outcomes has led to changes in the curriculum. A recommendation is made to define the skill level of a work-ready graduate that is quantifiable rather than use terms such as "well-developed".

Universities are adopting institution-wide projects to increase student work placements and work-related learning across all subject disciplines. However, there are large variations between programs in uptake, with limited evidence explaining why this might be the case. This study uses identity theory (Stryker, 1980) to explore student perceptions of placement and work-related learning. Students involved in an institution-wide graduate employability project, including curriculum development with new employability-focused courses, were invited to express their attitudes to work-related learning through in-class surveys. The survey was completed by 103 students across three different programs. Students drew on resources for identity work, including role models and imaginings of themselves in a working environment. However, while they were found to have used developmental networks to support decisions about university courses, many had limited access to networks that could support their career decisions. Finally, the study highlighted that many students lacked awareness of the new courses as opportunities for work-related learning.

The notion of employability is gaining importance as an essential outcome of many degrees in institutions of higher education throughout Australia. This paper aims to determine the effects of an Exercise Science course, which includes elements of both career development learning and work-integrated learning, on six dimensions of employability -commencement readiness; collaboration; informed decision-making; lifelong learning; professional practices and standards; and integration of knowledge/ theory and practice. The course components examined by the presented study included fieldwork placements, workshops and related career development assignments. Work Readiness Scales were administered prior to and on completion of the course. Students also rated the extent to which they considered any changes in their abilities were the result of each of the course components. Furthermore, responses to an openended questionnaire were analyzed to determine common themes affecting student development of each of the six dimensions. Comparison of pre- and post-work placement scores on the Work Readiness Scales demonstrated statistically significant differences in all the dimensions of employability except informed decision-making. Student ratings suggested that placements had a more significant effect on the changes in their abilities than the course workshops and assignments, however all three course components contributed to the development of workplace competencies. Student responses indicated that the course increased their awareness of personal strengths and weaknesses in relation to employability, as well as their knowledge of specific occupations relevant to exercise science.

Many retailers argue that university students do not have the practical experience and skills required in the workplace when graduating. This paper reports on research undertaken to address this issue and to identify a model to guide development and implementation of a retail store, on a university campus, to be used for work-integrated learning. A literature review was undertaken before a qualitative survey was conducted with 22 respondents, including retail lecturers, retail chain staff and other learning and retail experts. Data collection was via questionnaires, administered during semi-structured interviews. Lecturers provided details on activities and assessments used for practical assignments. Peer feedback via focus groups critiqued the findings once analysis was complete, increasing the trustworthiness of findings. A model was proposed that best suited the needs of retailers, learners and the university. Suggestions for further research are provided.

Professional and Community Engagement (PACE) at Macquarie University offers undergraduate students experiential learning opportunities with local, regional and international partners. Through PACE, students work on mutually beneficial projects that both meet the partner's organizational goals and enable students to strengthen graduate capabilities while gaining credit towards their degree and contributing to positive social change. This paper will outline findings from the Student Experience of PACE Project, which investigates the perceived impact of PACE on students' graduate capabilities and career aspirations, specifically addressing the following research question: Does PACE offer any distinct motives for learning? The findings bearing on distinctive motivators, such as personal and professional development, practical experience and constructive social action align with the literature in affirming the importance of these factors for achieving not only educational, but also lifelong learning objectives.

Graduate capability and employability are regarded as critical success factors for degree programs by universities, industry, and the students. Furthering work-based experiences for academic credit within degree programs is being increasingly explored to assist employability. Effective work-based experiences are reliant on good partnerships between university, industry and student. Such successful relationships assist communication and understanding important for meaningful, quality work-based learning experiences and assessments. Collaborative governance is a finely nuanced arrangement that is dependent on commitment, shared understanding and building trust across university, industry and student guided by the student learning outcomes. Collaborative governance is presented in this paper as an effective framework to guide and organize the structures and processes of university, industry and student to facilitate work-based learning that supports student capability through the attainment of desired outcomes.

Building on the work completed in BC that resulted in the development of a WIL Matrix for comparing and contrasting various forms of WIL with the Canadian co-op model, this paper proposes a Global Work-Integrated Learning Framework that allows for the comparison of a variety of models of work-integrated learning found in the international post-secondary education system. The Global Framework enables researchers, practitioners, and other WIL stakeholders including students and employers to better understand the key goals and outcomes of each model as well as explore the commonalities and differences between the various models based upon identified attributes of quality experiential education programs. This Framework also provides a means for situating or developing new models of WIL intentionally designed for specific experiential learner outcomes and program impacts. At the institutional level, the Framework provides a mechanism for rationalizing the many, and often independently designed and delivered, WIL offerings by connecting them through their shared attributes and providing a way to differentiate them through their unique processes and outcomes. The proposed Framework is based upon high impact practices for experiential learning as identified in the literature and allows users to map WIL programs directly to the academic agenda through learning outcomes.

Cooperative and Work-integrated Education (CWIE) programs have been widely accepted as educational programs that can effectively connect what students are learning to the world of work through placements. Because a global quality standards framework could be a very valuable resource and guide to establishing, developing, and accrediting quality CWIE programs, this study was aiming at the development of a global standards framework, implementation strategy and a quality evaluation model for CWIE programs. A focus Group comprised of practitioners and researchers of CWIE programs in Thailand, South Africa, Namibia and Canada came together to develop such a framework using Activity Theory. Content analysis and text data mining methods were employed to establish the evaluation model. The authors believed that this standards framework and a well-tested quality evaluation model could act as a valuable resource and guide, as well as a tool, for CWIE practitioners and administrators across all disciplines on a global scale.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) enables the embedding of relevant real-world learning into curriculum resulting in students that are better prepared to enter the workforce and meet demands of employers seeking work-ready graduates. Research confirms students who undertake WIL as part of their degree consistently achieve better employment outcomes. Industry's role in WIL is critical and, therefore, engagement with industry partners is essential to determine what is required to support their engagement and contribution to WIL. This Office of Learning and Teaching funded research project, aimed to determine the topics, format and mode of resources industry perceives as most useful. The project used a mixed methods approach to gather data from a range of sources with findings confirming industry are seeking resources on assessment, feedback and supervision of students as well as information on clarification of roles and negotiating partnerships. The project outcomes informed the development of user-friendly and accessible resources for industry.

Post-secondary institutions spend considerable resources on programs, such as study abroad and international workintegrated learning, which involve students' participation in international experiences. One significant impetus for these programs is the hope that through exposing students to international settings these students will be better prepared to be successful in global workplaces upon graduation, in essence be more "global-ready". However, simply having an international experience does not necessarily lead to the development of capabilities that result in global workplace success. In addition to the knowledge, skills and abilities required for any workplace, being successful in these global workplaces also requires intercultural effectiveness. This paper presents the findings of a study that examined the development of cultural intelligence (CQ), the ability to be effective in intercultural encounters, in students participating in a Canadian-European exchange program (CANEU-COOP) where the European students had a study term in Canada and the Canadian students had a co-op work term in Europe. The study found that while both groups of students developed CQ, there were differences between the groups. These findings reaffirm the importance of intentionally structuring international experiences to include curriculum about and assessment of intercultural effectiveness.

The following study utilizes an ePortfolio platform to examine desirable employment competencies during an introductory level professional development course for cooperative education students at a large, research intensive institution. The researchers created course activities allowing students to demonstrate essential learning outcomes derived from the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) LEAP Report (2008). While it is recognized that the student learning outcomes identified in the LEAP Report are intended to be examined through summative analysis at the conclusion of one's undergraduate experience, this study proposes that these learning outcomes can be promoted early during students' undergraduate careers through formative feedback in an ePortfolio development process. The results of this study suggest that ePortfolios could be used as a medium to encourage student confidence with respect to employment preparation. Further research should be conducted to longitudinally evaluate students' understanding and ability to demonstrate the LEAP Report's essential learning outcomes within the context of a cooperative education curriculum.

Professionalism is not easily defined for newcomers to the workforce. While much of the work-ready research focuses on desired graduate attributes and skills, the larger issue is the ways in which students conceptualize professionalism from their observations and experiences of others, and how these conceptualizations affect their professional identity construction. Twelve Canadian and six Swedish students enrolled in WIL programs were asked how they think they learn to become a professional. Participants described similar experiences of continually renegotiating their sense of self in an effort to construct a hoped-for-possible professional self. Rich Pictures (RPs) were also used to explore how students visually conceptualized the process of becoming "the professional". Participants from both countries emphasized the importance of self-management and self-censorship in terms of knowing how to look and sound like a professional. Participants used the RPs to visually depict their hoped-for possible self in contrast to the feared for self.

On the basis of the role and the social exchange theories, this research investigated the direct and indirect antecedents of three dimensions of team performance (proficiency, adaptivity, proactivity) developed through cooperative education. The theoretical model examined how proactive socialization behaviors led to team socialization and team performance, and how team socialization mediated the relationship between proactive behaviors and team performance. Results from multiple linear regressions on a sample of 2905 student-workers involved in cooperative education programs globally supported the model. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as limitations and propositions for future research, were discussed.

The notion of work self-efficacy is significant as the self-efficacy beliefs of an individual have considerable influence on his/her level of motivation and performance in the workplace. This paper aims to determine the effects of the learning activities of a work-integrated learning course in Exercise Science in relation to students' perceived work self-efficacy in industries relevant to their studies. Comparison of pre- and post-course scores on the Work Self-Efficacy Scale demonstrated significant improvement in students' perceived work self-efficacy in all seven dimensions, as well as their perceived skill levels in thirteen important aspects of the work environment. The results suggested that all three course components (the work experience placement, career development workshops and presentations from practicing lecturers and professionals) provided important contributions to students' development. The factors that were considered to be most influential included feedback from supervisors, personal motivation and involvement, and regular workplace experience.

Pre-registration nurse education includes both conceptual and practical elements to prepare graduates for the transition to clinical practice. Workplace learning plays an important role in developing students' confidence, clinical skills and competency. This paper explores the, perhaps overlooked, centrality of self-efficacy to all areas of influence on students' and graduates' nursing practice, and proposes that clinical practice, in fact, lies at the intersection of selfefficacy and knowledge of core concepts. The potentially significant implications for both nursing education and clinical practice including the need for greater consideration of the pervasive influence of students’ self-efficacy in future curriculum development, are discussed.

The role of industry in the higher education system is becoming more prevalent, as universities integrate a practical element into their curricula. However, the level of development of cooperative education and work-integrated learning varies from country to country. In Germany, cooperative education and work-integrated learning has a long tradition, due to vocational institutions having strong links with industry. In contrast, the work-integrated study models in Asia, such as in Thailand, offer limited levels of practical experience, as part of the higher education curricula. In addition, Thailand continues to experience a lack of skilled graduates, who are exposed to work-integrated learning during their studies. The study on which this paper is based seeks to benchmark study models in Thailand, against the German Duale Hochschule Baden-Wuerttemberg (DHBW) study model, in order to identify development opportunities in the Thai model, focusing on the aim of meeting the needs of industry. The Office of Higher Education Commission in Thailand hopes to address the inherent issues, through implementing the recommendations made in this paper.

The Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University was the first higher education institution in Germany to combine on-the-job training and academic studies. The study model integrates theory and practice, both being components of cooperative education. The success of this university is based on its cooperation with over 10,000 companies. Students are employed and remunerated for the duration of their studies by their partner company. In South Africa and Namibia, while cooperative education programs have a rich history, the study models developed lack the commitment from industry to invest in work-integrated learning. The present study models involve students taking up unpaid practical semesters, in order to achieve the transfer of theoretical knowledge into a practical work-related setting. This comparative study outlines how universities of higher education, in Germany, South Africa and Namibia, in cooperation with industry, can further develop their model, in order to achieve financial stability and employment security for their students.

This study discusses and tests a conceptual model of co-op work-term quality from a student perspective. Drawing from an earlier exploration of co-op students' perceptions of work-term quality, variables related to role characteristics, interpersonal dynamics, and organizational elements were used in a multiple linear regression analysis to predict co-op students' perceived work-term quality. A survey of co-op students (n = 1,937) measured their perceptions of selected variables following a recent co-op work-term. Results show that the variables explained a large percentage of variance (51.4%) in the outcomes variable, suggesting the conceptual model does explain students' perceptions of quality. Implications for practice and for future studies are discussed.

Canadian universities aim to increase student participation in international learning experiences through mobility programs such as international co-op and academic exchange. According to the Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE), 97% of Canadian universities offer education abroad programs, reflecting a pervasive belief that international experiential learning is good for students as well as their home universities. Contrasting with this international orientation, a relatively small percentage of students actually complete international co-op and exchange. Research into what motivates or prevents students to undertake these somewhat risky ventures and knowledge of how to increase students' participation in these programs is limited. Business students at a single western Canadian university were surveyed to gain insight into what motivates or prevents them from participating in international co-op and exchange.

Educational institutions often specify eligibility criteria for student participation in Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) programs including paid industry placement experiences designed to improve student learning and employability outcomes. The criteria may be based solely on the completion of a preliminary stage of course work or include additional academic quality performance measures. Although it is acknowledged that eligibility criteria are required to assist in determining student preparedness for the industry experience, this paper argues that imposing academic quality criteria such as credit or distinction grade averages, in addition to course work completion, may be at odds with the overall objectives of WIL. Using the example of a 12 month paid industry placement program within the health and science discipline areas, this paper examines the implications of adopting this type of quality criterion for the three key WIL stakeholder groups: the university, employers and students.

Proactive dispositions are increasingly becoming a prerequisite qualification for employment across occupations, whilst concurrently internships are increasingly viewed by employers and graduates as a preferred entry point into a range of professional occupations. To date, however, these two contemporary trends have not been examined simultaneously. This study investigates how intern proactive dispositions interact with intern-supervisor exchange relationships, to produce key internship outcomes. The study collected two waves of longitudinal data from both interns and supervisors, representing 303 intern-supervisor dyads (n=303). The findings indicate that an intern’s proactive dispositions predicted high quality intern-supervisor exchange, and consequently this exchange mediated the influence of intern proactive personality on both intern in-role performance and intern-satisfaction. These findings highlight important parallels between interns and newcomer employee’s experiences of organizational life, and advocate the reconceptualization of internships from a host organization perspective as an employee recruitment and selection context.

The success of cooperative education programs depends upon the mutual benefit of the student and supervisor. This study looks to investigate how the workplace environment, including the support and the requirements of the role, can impact the performance and productivity of the co-op student, resulting in greater outcomes for both the student and the supervisor. Through a qualitative case study, the experiences of the cooperative education (co-op) student workers were explored within a specific co-op workplace that has consistently produced high levels of student performance. Interviews conducted with the student workers of the workplace of interest revealed useful insight into how student performance can be improved. Emerging themes such as self-determination theory, organizational commitment, and mentorship were explored with the aim of making recommendations that may be applicable across co-op workplaces. A model to describe the findings is proposed.

This book is Volume 17 of the Professional and Practice-Based Learning book series edited by Billett, Harteis, and Gruber. This Book Series aims to bring together international research on the development of professionals, organization of professional life, and educational experiences. Internationally, there is an increasing focus on work-integrated learning, workbased learning, ongoing professional development, and lifelong learning. Situated within this is the importance of deliberate and intentional approaches for engagement with learning around aspects of being a moral and ethical professional. Volume 17, Educating the Deliberate Professional: Preparing for Future Practices purposely addresses this importance.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is vital for preparing health-work students for practice. WIL activities have multiple stakeholders, each with their own set of expectations and requirements, both explicit and implicit. Negotiations to provide these learning experiences for students happen at many levels and those at the coalface are often unaware of the different expectations of the various stakeholders. By developing their ability to consider multiple stakeholder perspectives, health students and their clinical educators are in a strong position to maximize the benefits, limit the disadvantages, and increase the satisfaction of the multiple stakeholders. Social awareness, communication skills and relationship development and maintenance hold the key to building capacity to manage the WIL experiences more skillfully, leading to better outcomes for all. This discussion paper examines an example from the field that drew attention to the need for a better understanding of the needs of all stakeholders.

Student supervision is a key factor underpinning the success of work-integrated learning programs. Supervisory responsibilities can be shared across a number of stakeholders including university staff and host/workplace supervisors. While there have been attempts to understand the roles played by each of these stakeholders, little research has focused on what each understands about the role of others. University staff and host supervisors (N=57) were interviewed about their own role and that of other stakeholders. Findings reveal that while there is reasonable consensus within each stakeholder group about their own roles, perceptions about the roles of others are mismatched in some fundamental areas. There also appear to be intersecting and complementary roles, which remain largely unexplored and accounted for in research and theory to date. This study is unique in bringing together the perceptions of multiple stakeholders to explore ideas about supervision. Implications for theory, practice and future research are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between co-op students' perceived relevance of their work term, work-related subjective well-being (SWB), and individual performance at work. Data were collected using a survey of co-op students (n = 1,989) upon completion of a work term. Results of regression analyses testing a conditional process model show that perceived relevance has a significant indirect influence on performance through work-related SWB. These findings point to the significant role of connections between students' post-secondary studies and their work. Students who see a greater degree of connection between the work term and post-secondary are more likely to feel satisfied and engaged at work, and in turn are more likely to perform well. These results and their implications for co-op program administrators and organizations that employ co-op students are discussed.

Work integrated learning (WIL) educators using reflective practice to facilitate student learning require a set of standards that works within the traditional assessment frame of Higher Education, to ascertain the level at which reflective practice has been demonstrated. However, there is a paucity of tested assessment instruments that provide guidance for measuring student demonstrations of reflective learning in WIL. This paper provides a preliminary exploration (pilot) of the reliability and validity of a WIL placement rubric for grading reflective practice across an alternate WIL placement-like context, for the purpose of testing the potential transferability of the rubric. The study supports earlier research that suggests that inter-assessor shared understanding of standards are crucial for achieving reliable and valid results. The rubric's value is in providing a foundation set of standards that can support WIL educators to expedite discussions for developing and using assessment tools grounded in reflective practice theory for grading student achievement across a range of WIL placement-like learning contexts.

This paper addresses the work-integrated learning (WIL) initiative embedded in selected tourism training programs in Vietnam. The research was grounded on the framework of stakeholder ethos. Drawing on tourism training curriculum analysis and interviews with lecturers, institutional leaders, industry managers and internship supervisors, this study shows that WIL initiatives exist in the tourism training programs under examinations with various levels of industry engagement at both on-campus and off-campus stages. However, the links between the triad of WIL stakeholders – institutions, companies and students – under the impact of the Vietnamese Government policies in the context of higher education and vocational education and training are appraised as lacking, superficial and unsustainable. Consequently, this WIL process barely equips the graduates with the required knowledge and skills to satisfy the demands of the industry.

This article highlights the central role of collaboration in higher education programs which involve students in 'learning through participation' (LTP). It reports the findings of a project that began with the intention of exploring the range and applicability of online technologies used for enhancing collaboration between the three main groups (students, partner organizations, and unit conveners) in a university-based LTP initiative. A grounded theory approach led us to open up the research focus to investigate important themes of collaboration highlighted by participants. This centrality of collaboration overshadowed our initial concern with online-based technologies, which were found not to be directly correlated with collaboration. We discuss implications of these findings and tease out important distinctions between co-ordination (of activities), communication (of information and between social actors) and collaboration. We discuss the implications of these distinct factors for teaching and learning through participation.

Assessment in work integrated learning (WIL) programs typically involves workplace supervisors rating student performance against criteria based on employability skills. Yet investigations of differences in employer ratings that may impact on student outcomes are rare. This study reports on a pilot study that examined supervisor evaluations of the performance of tourism and hospitality management students undertaking a mandatory capstone internship, either paid or non-remunerated. The descriptive and exploratory statistical analysis examines data derived from over one hundred supervisor evaluation forms. A few significant differences in supervisor ratings of performance in paid and unpaid groups and in the relative importance of skills were found. Overall, the study affirmed that supervisors generally rate students highly on all skills. The skills that students are prepared for and assessed on in our WIL program were found to be of high value to local hosts. Implications for debates regarding supervisory input into assessing student performance are explored.

International work-integrated learning (WIL) is increasingly common in health-related programs in Australian universities. Paramedicine programs are beginning to explore international WIL in line with the globalization of paramedicine as a profession and the national higher education emphasis on outward bound learning experiences. Using qualitative methods, the present study reports the experiences of undergraduate paramedicine students undertaking inaugural WIL placements in either South Africa or New Zealand. The placements, of a 3-week duration, used a placement model that did not include an accompanying academic from the host institution. Key themes to emerge include appropriateness of WIL location, timing of international WIL within an undergraduate program, and the potential to be overwhelmed by the combination of an intense early clinical experience and demands of managing oneself on an unaccompanied placement experience. This research provides valuable information to assist development of international WIL programs in paramedicine courses and other clinical health disciplines.

Research into work-integrated learning continues to show through a variety of small-scale and anecdotal studies, various positive impacts on student learning, work-readiness, personal and cognitive development and other outcomes. Seldom are these research findings strongly generalizable because of such factors as small sample sizes, discipline-specific case attributes, and qualitative approaches that seek richness of detail rather than generalizability of findings. Drawing on a sample of more than 3000 students, the study reported here explored the following questions: What curriculum factors can be validly measured to operationalize work-integrated learning curricula design? What measures validly operationalize the concept of 'employment readiness'? and What predictive relationships exist between these two sets of measures? Measures are based on students self-reporting of both curriculum characteristics and employability skill acquisition. Findings indicate that robust measures of both curriculum factors and employment-readiness factors are possible and that the curriculum factors are associated with students' employment readiness outcomes.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) has become commonplace in many higher education institutions across Australia. Similarly, there has been rapid integration of digital technologies for supporting teaching, learning and assessment in this domain. In the rush to address associated challenges within the sector – such as massification, limited placements, resourcing issues and staff turnover – the time to pause, take care of and meaningfully build upon WIL practices within this new digital context is often bypassed. This paper explores the role of the open educational resources (OER) movement for not only protecting and promoting the practices which practitioners care about in WIL – but also in shaping innovation that is mindful of local institutional contexts, disciplinary heritage and wellbeing. The notion of 'curating work-integrated learning' is introduced to critically reflect upon the OER movement via the lenses of multidimensionality, multimodality and mindfulness. Despite the quick turnover of technologies and shifts in the global educational market, there is a need for 'slow innovation' which invites a more ethical vision for shaping the future of higher education in the digital age.

If work-integrated learning (WIL) improves students' work self-efficacy (WSE), are students who do not participate in WIL disadvantaged? This study answers this question by examining differences in WSE between final-year criminal justice students at Griffith University (Brisbane, Australia) who elected to undertake WIL and those who did not. Contrary to expectations, WIL students did not report higher WSE upon the completion of a work placement compared to non-WIL students. Further investigations revealed pre-existing differences between the two groups, whereby students who elected to undertake WIL had significantly lower levels of WSE prior to placement than students who chose not to undertake a placement. These students were also significantly younger and less likely to have had prior criminal justice work experience. Findings highlight the importance of offering WIL as an elective to give students with lower levels of WSE the opportunity to develop greater confidence in managing the professional workplace.

Students from the Purdue University landscape architecture program undergo a year-long managed cooperative internship between their junior and senior years of enrollment. During this paid internship students experience the realities of a professional design office outside of the protection of the academic classroom. Through surveys of faculty members and students, some areas showed significant differences in student perceptions of abilities compared with what faculty members thought they had taught. The significant areas are those that the professionally accredited Landscape Architecture Body of Knowledge describes as not being vital until a practitioner is ready for licensure, suggesting that in a managed cooperative internship some students have with more advanced knowledge compared to students without such assistance.

Engineering graduates without industrial experience may find that employment is difficult to obtain immediately after completing their studies. This study investigates the impact of two arrangements of work experiences; short term (over 12 weeks, STP) and long- term (over 52 weeks, IBL) on academic grades. This study involved 240 undergraduate mechanical engineering students. Results from the study indicated that students who spent time on work integrated learning or IBL in their penultimate year of their engineering course obtained better grades than those who did not undertake such a placement. The findings of this work have highlighted the relevance of work experience to improved academic grades for engineering students. An additional outcome was that some students were offered ongoing employment at the conclusion of their placement. Limitations of the study include factors external to the industry based work experience which may influence student grades. It is proposed that tertiary institutes embed a lengthy work experience program within the engineering academic syllabus.

This paper reports on a trial of a new model of clinical education designed to increase student clinical placement availability and address workforce constraints on supervision. The University of Sydney deployed the Capacity Development Facilitators (CDF) in selected Sydney hospitals to work with staff to expand student clinical placement opportunities by identifying enablers, barriers and stressors of clinical placements and collaboratively developing solutions, provide organizational and learning support and foster opportunities for interprofessional learning. A mixed methods study was undertaken collecting data from physiotherapy students and their clinical educators (CE). At completion of placement students and CEs completed a survey. This was analyzed for themes about placement structure, productivity, barriers, enablers, stressors and support. Preliminary findings suggest the CDF model increases capacity, provides robust learning experiences and satisfaction with placements from the hospital, university staff and students' perspectives.

This paper investigates how student-workers' performance can be assessed through the notion of work-role performance, on the basis of three behavioral-related dimensions (proficiency, adaptivity, and proactivity), and proposes a definition of performance prior to graduation. By taking into account the accumulation of work experience, this article investigates first whether 1,310 cooperative education (co-op) students develop proficient, adaptive, and proactive performance behaviors toward the task and the team in the workplace and test the effect of the accumulation of work-experience of three cohorts. Second, it examines whether this work-role performance was different between 547 co-op students and 617 non-co-op students both with four months of work experience. Results showed that only team performance proficiency significantly increased with the accumulation of work experience for co-op students. Results did not show significant difference between co-op and non-co-op students with regard to work-role performance' scores.

As the prevalence of service-learning (S-L) within higher education institutions grows across the globe, it makes sense to explore, describe and discuss the recent situation in Spain. As a relatively new pedagogy, S-L has gained prominence in Spanish higher education since its emergence in the early 2000s, and it is increasingly used. This article analyses S-L in higher education in Spain with the purpose of understanding the expression of this promising teaching strategy. The paper is based on documentary analysis of key documents from the last official conference of the S-L that took place in Bilbao (2013). Data was analyzed using thematic analysis and grounded theory, with Atlas.Ti. The process of data analysis was based on a thematic framework of three categories: [1] S-L University Qualifications, [2] S-L Institutionalization status, and [3] S-L Possibilities and Positive effects. This analysis can deepen understanding of the S-L pedagogy, improve practice and create a framework for future research.

This paper reports on the analysis of three years research of undergraduate cooperative work term postings and employer and employee evaluations. The objective of the analysis was to determine the factors affecting student and employer success and satisfaction with the work-integrated learning experience. It was found that students performed better and found co-op placements with an increasing emphasis on leadership in their senior years; however, students rated their first employer the highest. Furthermore, senior students were more successful than junior students in work placements abroad, and extended work terms at the same employer did not increase student satisfaction.

The increasing emphasis on embedding work-integrated learning (WIL) in the higher education curriculum has impacted on teaching and learning approaches. While the benefits of incorporating experiential learning in the student experience are recognized by all stakeholders, additional costs incurred by students have not been identified. At the same time the Australian Federal Government's review of base funding has recommended a detailed assessment of the costs of providing student placements across all disciplines - in particular health and education. Data collected from over a thousand Australian Collaborative Education Network (ACEN) student scholarship applicants indicate travel, accommodation, food, clothing, equipment and loss of income are of major concern especially for students on mandatory, lengthy placements involving relocation. We present a range of data from the five-years of the scholarship to inform discussion of costs from the student perspective which highlighted major concerns. The implications for ACEN are described and recommendations made to improve practice.

Uptake of new scopes of practice by pharmacists has been slow and inconsistent, which the literature suggests may be related to disconnects between pharmacists' established professional identities and the identities needed to adopt these new practices. This study evaluated the use of coaches to help pharmacy students during their cooperative education work terms develop professional identities more aligned with the new scopes of practice. In this longitudinal crosssectional survey, trained pharmacist coaches met individually and in groups with students in the intervention arm of the study. Students and coaches in the intervention arm completed reflective questions and student intervention and control groups completed a self-assessment survey. Reflective comments indicated that both students and coaches identified student gains in career and professional planning, workplace navigation skills, ability to reflect on professional development topics, and contextualizing classroom learning within practice. Work-integrated learning combined with coaching can contribute to students' career and professional identity development.

Internship participation has undergone rapid expansion over the last three decades, to the point where today many interns and host organizations regard internships as the preferred pathway into entry-level professional positions. However, organizational research has largely neglected the investigation of internships as an employment context, thus a majority of established predictive relationships in the workplace remain untested within the context of internships, including, fundamental workplace causal relationships between pay, performance and satisfaction. This study collected data at three time intervals from 303 intern-supervisor matched pairs (n=606), to establish the transferability of these relationships to the unique employment setting of internships. Findings indicated that although payment level influenced intern satisfaction it did not play a significant role in influencing interns' in-role performance, whereas internship satisfaction did positively impact intern performance.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is an essential component of all allied health university courses. In allied health, learning that occurs during WIL experiences and the relationship between academic and WIL experiences are not well understood. Good integration of WIL experiences into the allied health curriculum is key to realizing the full educational worth of WIL experiences and ensuring good student learning outcomes. This paper will use Billett's theoretical framework (Billett, 2009) for the educational value of integrating practice experiences with academic experiences and discuss how his framework could be applied to improve integration of WIL experiences in allied health. Curriculum and pedagogic considerations for allied health academics that need to be considered prior to, during and after the WIL experiences are discussed. The challenges to the integration of academic and WIL experiences that occur inside and outside universities are described. Suggestions and recommendations for better integration of academic and WIL experiences before, during and after placements are provided.

Field Project A is an elective course in the Bachelor of Exercise Science program at Griffith University and includes elements of both career development learning and work-integrated learning. This paper aims to determine the effects of the learning activities and assessment items developed for the course on students' self-efficacy in making positive career decisions. Prior to commencing a work experience placement, workshops were conducted based on the SOAR model (Kumar, 2007), including activities related to the development of the first three phases of the model - selfawareness, opportunity awareness and aspirations. The career decision self-efficacy scale (CDSS) and a questionnaire were administered prior to and on completion of the course. Comparison of scores demonstrated significant differences in relation to students' confidence in self-appraisal, occupational information, goal selection, planning and problemsolving. Students perceived the course increased their awareness of personal strengths and weaknesses related to employability and their knowledge of specific occupations.

This qualitative study sits at the intersection of two trends in vocational education. The first trend is a narrative approach to understanding cooperative education learning; the second is a movement away from career development theories toward the view that individuals use work experiences to help construct their lives. Both trends view learning as situated in social contexts and suggest narratives to discover the meanings individuals make of work experiences. A lifespan approach using interviews at or near retirement was employed to add a long developmental trajectory to the study of how cooperative education learning served one group of students across decades. A grounded theory of cooperative education learning was discovered through analysis of two sets of archived data. The theory explored the phenomenon via causal conditions, attributes, strategies, and consequences. The lifespan approach supports other literature in questioning some current practices in cooperative education and emphasizes some of the important contributions that co-op makes to long-term learning.

Through a collaborative university-hospital partnership, a student-led service model (SLS-model) was implemented to increase student placement capacity within a physiotherapy department of a 150 bed Sydney hospital. This study investigates the perceived barriers and enablers to increasing student placement capacity through student-led services (SLS) and the outcomes for hospital stakeholders and the university. Using mixed methods design, investigators interviewed nine clinical educators and surveyed thirty-four students over a ten month period to identify perceived barriers and enablers, clinical supervision models, experiences, support, and strategic innovations to increase student placement capacity. Content analysis of the interviews and quantitative visual analogue scores were statistically analyzed. Results demonstrate that student placement capacity increased by 212.5% at this hospital. Barriers and enablers included: student and clinical educator characteristics; placement support; workload and SLS-model context. Despite the perceived barriers challenging SLS implementation, enablers facilitated the SLS-model to increasehealthcare service provision and increase student placement capacity for physiotherapy students at this hospital.

Student preparation for work-integrated learning using simulated learning experiences is an under researched field in occupational therapy. In 2013 the Deakin University occupational therapy degree introduced a simulated learning experience for students aimed at preparing them for work-integrated learning experiences. The session gave students an opportunity to practice fundamental skills of the discipline. A Likert scale survey was written and critically reviewed by the authors. Students rated the extent to which they felt that they could communicate effectively, build rapport, safely transfer clients, apply occupational health and safety principles and write case notes, prior to and after participation in the simulated learning experience. A statistically significant improvement was found for all outcomes measured. Students also reported improved confidence and valued opportunities to practice and receive feedback on skills. The results demonstrate that participation in a simulated learning activity improves confidence and skills in arange of areas that are relevant to work-integrated learning placement.

This study was conducted to identify challenges and potential strategies to streamline work-integrated learningplacements for multidisciplinary teams of students undertaking degrees in sustainability. Face-to-face interviews using a semi-structured questionnaire were conducted with 15 academics and senior university staff, from four universities in Australia, who had extensive experience conducting WIL programs for undergraduate students. Key findings were that placing small teams of students was uncommon but partnerships with established specific professional vocational degrees are feasible. Management of multidisciplinary teams require four components: a central portal with a designated person(s) to coordinate and oversee all WIL programs; a university committee with representatives from each school and a chair that rotates between schools to vet WIL projects; a generic work-ready skills program that commences in the first year; and a project-based WIL placement with students self-mentoring and host supervisors providing generic supervision.

Some professionals have a conscious purpose-driven 'professional identity' and others forge an identity over time and through various work experiences. This research draws on the narratives professionals at different life and career stages shared about their professional development. The findings highlight the importance attributed to resilience, among broader themes associated with building professional identity. Vignettes of the stories told by two of the participants are presented here to highlight ways in which resilience can be acquired, for example, by building networks and being adaptable. It is proposed that narrative analysis techniques could be used to build students' awareness and understanding of resilience when participating in work-integrated learning (WIL) experiences. In the same way that a resilience discourse emerged in the narratives of successful professionals, introducing the notion and language of work-related resilience to students may improve their chances of having successful, fulfilling and enduring careers.

Professional and Community Engagement (PACE) at Macquarie University provides experiential opportunities for students and staff to contribute to more just, inclusive and sustainable societies by engaging in activities with partner organizations. PACE International offers a range of opportunities with partners overseas. Underpinning PACE is a commitment to mutually beneficial learning and engagement. To align with this commitment, PACE-related research engages partner perspectives and those of students and academics. The dearth of scholarly research on partner perspectives of community engagement (Bringle, Clayton & Price, 2009) underscores this imperative. Drawing on interviews and focus groups with partner representatives this article examines some of the apparently unexpected benefits of engagement with PACE that community partners report have contributed to their improved organizational capacity. We conclude by speculating that what can be perceived by universities as unexpected and unplanned by-products of student engagement, may actually be intended and strategically planned outcomes of community partners.

A number of different models have been developed to integrate both Vocational Education and Training (VET) and university study with a view to producing work-ready graduates. This paper describes one joint initiative which allows students to integrate their theoretical study and WIL experience by supporting a sequential, embedded accomplishment of qualifications across both VET and university with a single higher education enrolment. Students in the dual-sector degrees have welcomed the skill-based practical work involved with VET education while learning the theoretical concepts of their university education. The need for a more seamless engagement with VET and university study is becoming more urgent and there are a large number of possibilities to explore, particularly relating to the differences in processes and philosophies between the VET and university sectors. This paper identifies some of the key issues and proposes some solutions.

This paper addresses work-integrated learning program issues from the perspective of work supervisors of interns from a foreign university in an offshore market environment -Vietnam. Universities expanding their markets overseas must research all relevant aspects of the local environment when making operational expansion decisions, and continue research activities on an ongoing basis to ensure that program elements meet evolving local stakeholder requirements. At this stage in Vietnam, collaboration and communication between higher education and industry is rare. Therefore, this paper investigated work supervisors' perceptions of the university's WIL program, and their views on their own role in the intern's learning process. Their feedback about how internship processes can be improved can help guide the foreign university in Vietnam (FUV) to continue to deliver effective work integrated learning in Vietnam, as well as offer insights useful for other universities running WIL courses in overseas locations.

This article reflects ongoing research-led teaching in the area of creative industries in higher education. Specifically it reports on key work-integrated learning strategies designed to better prepare graduates for the employment sector. The creative industries sector is complex and competitive, characterized by non-linear career paths driven by the individual. Following contextualization of the key issues, a core creative industries subject and curriculum is described, which requires students to engage directly with industry practitioners via internships or case studies. In order to interrogate the impact of these activities, a sample of final reflections as well as formal student feedback on the subject were analyzed in order to draw out key themes in relation to student learning and understanding. Analysis of these data propose that direct engagement with practitioners assists students in developing new knowledge of the capacities they will require for a sustainable career.

Creating authentic learning experiences that prepare students for their future work in an ever-changing workforce represents a key challenge in higher education. One key way to enable the integration of learning and work is to foster students' capacity for critical reflection and reflexive thinking. This paper seeks to contribute to knowledge of how to foster the integration of learning and work and presents a case-study of a work integrated learning curriculum intervention within the discipline of project management. We explore how to authentically integrate learning and work by creating learning for students that deepens and broadens their critical understandings of their future profession and role as professional practitioners. We apply thematic analysis to students' reflective journals to explore their shifting perceptions of professional practice, and discuss how these findings may be applied to more authentically foster students' preparation for professional practice.

Teaching for work-integrated learning (WIL) competency is largely directed at delivering knowledge based cognitive skills with little emphasis on affective skills. This study looks at empirical evidence of WIL students through their understanding of the cognitive and affective domains. The research is based on a validated employability framework, the work skills development framework (Bandaranaike & Willison, 2009), to assess core employability competencies of 138 WIL students and feedback from 111 employers. Statistical analysis was used to compare variations in the application of cognitive and affective skills. The study concluded that whilst overall students had limited understanding of affective skills, employers emphasized the need for greater affective skills in the workplace. In order to unlock the potential of the cognitive skills and for a deeper understanding of affective skills, this research introduces the concept of emotional work-readiness as a pathway for building work-readiness capacity.

The delivery of research-informed education is a fundamental principle held by universities and is a principle that work-integrated education (WIL) should not be exempt from. In the 1980s and 1990s, critical reviews of the WIL literature suggested WIL research required significant development. Since these reviews were conducted a significant, well-developed body of literature has formed and increasingly WIL models of delivery are relying on research findings to inform program design. However, despite these successes, significant challenges and research gaps still exist. Authors in this APJCE special issue have given attention to a number of areas that present as challenges. The area of negative and neglected research findings are highlighted and the reexamining the nature of the relationship between the student and workplace supervisor has been discussed. A model of enabling transformative learning is presented and an investigation of the influence of WIL experiences on undergraduate student study direction choices has been reported. Other areas in need of further research attention are also discussed.

This paper deals with the lack of attention to negative findings that has been found in cooperative education research and with issues that have been ignored by work integrated learning researchers. A review of the literature, an informal survey, and instances from the writer's experience provided many examples of negative results and under-reported findings. An example of how negative or unexpected results might be incorporated into research and practice is presented. It is argued that a failure to consider the work or job component of WIL programs may be responsible for this neglect of issues and negative results.

Fundamental to cooperative education is a philosophical commitment to learning through the experience of work. The workplace can be viewed as a social environment and provides a context for learning that is very different from that provided within a university. The aim of this research was, through an interpretive case study, to explore the influences on student learning in a sport cooperative education context. Learning in the workplace was influenced by the direct guidance and support given by industry supervisors, as well as the attitude of the student. Academic supervisors facilitated the development of reflective practice and helped students to integrate the knowledge gained in both the university and workplace environments. Yet, through developing relationships and social interactions with workplace colleagues, students were able to learn about the culture and values and contributed towards deepening their understanding of what it means to be a professional in the sport and recreation industry.

This paper explores the idea that the variety of approaches to experiential learning, and the diversity of ways in which learning is accessed and facilitated, is contributing to the conventional world of the university being turned upsidedown. Work-based and experiential learning acknowledge learning derived from outside the classroom; similarly, but differently, the flipped classroom encourages learning to take place elsewhere. This paper examines whether changes to the traditional locus of higher education delivery and to the production, storage and dissemination of knowledge represent philosophical challenges to the status of the university itself. To make formative connections between learning that is taking place through work, experiential and flipped learning, a small-scale research study was undertaken across two English universities. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data derived from deskbased research, electronic survey and semi-structured interviews, the paper demonstrates a range of understandings and applications of experiential learning.

A qualitative study was undertaken that explored the conditions for transformative learning in cooperative education as a form of work-integrated learning (WIL), towards the development of a theoretical model. Four case studies were analyzed based on interviews with WIL students, supervisors and their co-op coordinator. The findings revealed that the enablers most involved in contributing to transformative learning were: opportunities for work and learning, a supportive environment, student capabilities, co-workers, supervisors, and assessment and reflection practices. Furthermore, the integration of these transformative outcomes into the WIL academic program or workplace was dependent upon the time and value given to transformative processes, institutional requirements and a positive emotional environment. The implications of these findings are that WIL theoretical models include considerations of: perspective, socio-cultural context, dialectic and mediated processes, time and creating a positive emotional space to support the critical reflection necessary for transformative learning outcomes. Furthermore, adopting a view of WIL as an interaction between two systems opens up possibilities for innovation and renewal in our WIL programs and workplaces.

This project examined the role of cooperative education (co-op) in changing majors and career certainty in Canadian university students. Career certainty scores were collected using an online questionnaire from students in both cooperative education and non-cooperative education. The frequency with which students changed their major and their reasons for doing so were also collected. Results revealed that while non-co-op students changed their major significantly more often than their non-co-op peers, they did not differ in terms of career certainty. The two primary reasons cited by non-co-op students for changing majors were interest and impact on career. It is recommended that future research expand on this study to determine if the practical experience gained from co-op provides students with the real world practice they need to connect their classroom learning to their chosen career. Implications for the findings are discussed.

This paper reports on a work-integrated learning (WIL) internship program: a partnership between the Australian University of New England (UNE) and the New South Wales (NSW) Parliamentary Internship Program (PiP). In particular, it examines and proposes a tailored partnership or cooperative learning approach between university and industry with the student being central to the partnership so as to achieve the maximum fit and relevance to the environment in which the WIL operates. The paper recognizes and advances a rural-centric approach for rural and regionally based university interns in an effort to contribute to development of consensus of the WIL experience.

Higher education is undergoing generational transformation, as universities adapt to the needs of a 21st century workforce. This study investigated student perspectives of a work-integrated learning (WIL) placement program, firstly in relation to its longer-term worth since they had completed it, and secondly, with respect to its value regarding course relatedness and in enhancing their employability and/or workplace readiness. Participants answered a series of learning and career related questions, both immediately post-placement and six or more months later. Of three learning-related questions, students were generally positive about one and strongly endorsed the other two. Contrastingly, over time, students downplayed the initial value of their WIL with respect to the knowledge gained being relevant to their future careers. Students were in moderate to strong agreement with other career-related questions, notwithstanding concerns about their future employability. Implementation of a work skills development program is recommended to maximize the effectiveness of WIL.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is increasingly identified as essential to helping creative arts students' transition from university into the creative industries workplace. Off-campus activities, such as work placements, play a major role in educating work-ready graduates. At the same time, increasing enrolment numbers in creative arts education put pressure on institutions, in particular on campuses in regional areas where the local creative industry sector is usually small and unable to provide enough relevant work placements. Viable alternatives were explored by investigating on-campus WIL activities in creative arts education and how to offer students the opportunity to develop work-ready skills on-campus. Consequently, community and industry partners in various roles (e.g. client, industry advisor/mentor) were directly integrated into the creative arts curriculum and trialed over a period of two years. The benefits and insights gained by students through undertaking a client-based project and contact with industry professionals were investigated and are discussed in this exploratory study.

Based in a French context, this research investigates the link between the French cooperative education (co-op) system and students' organizational commitment. Following a quasi-experimental design with a control group, in a longitudinal approach, the study focuses on under-baccalaureate, undergraduate and graduate students. Results show that in the French context, co-op is an attitudinal process able to develop students' affective organizational commitment under two conditions. The first is to build co-op as a way to socialize the co-op students with the organization. The second is to support co-op students during their studies and also after graduation. From a co-op research perspective, this study presents another model of co-op and proposes to build a link between co-op and organizational behavior and to think of co-op as an incubator for developing high performers within organizations.

The continued engagement of the professional workforce as supervisors is critical for the sustainability and growth of work-integrated learning activities in university degrees. This study investigated factors that influence the willingness and ability of clinicians to continue to supervise clinical exercise physiology work-integrated learning opportunities and makes recommendations for future supervision engagement. Themes identified from a supervisor survey were: staffing and time availability; administrative processes and support; student quality, knowledge and attitudes; student learning experiences; supporting the profession; service benefit; clinical personal benefit; funding; workplace support; staff qualifications and experience; prior positive experiences; future recruitment; facilities and infrastructure; and supporting the university. The responses resulted in five key recommendations for future enhanced and sustainable placement supervision. These were: adoption of efficient supervision structures; development and use of a competency checklist; enhanced recognition of supervision; standardized placement paperwork and assessment tools; and broadening of placement scheduling.