WIL opportunities are made available via mandatory work placement requirements of the following ACAP courses:
• Diploma of Youth Work
• Diploma of Community Services (Case Management)
• Bachelor of Counselling
• Bachelor of Counselling (Coaching)
• Bachelor of Applied Social Science
• Graduate Diploma of Counselling
• Master of Counselling and Psychotherapy
• Master of Psychology (Clinical)
• Bachelor of Social Work
• Master of Social Work (Qualifying)
Many ACAP Courses are accredited by Professional Associations. The accreditation requirements for the above courses include completing student placements. Placements provide students opportunity to put theory into practice in approved human service organisations. Student placements are also excellent opportunities to develop networks and explore career options and professional pathways. Each course has specific requirements and details are provided when it's time to prepare for placement. Most placements are one day per week for at least 6 months (Social Work is significantly longer – 1000 hours). Placement coordinators at each ACAP campus assist students to arrange their placements as do academic staff. ACAP utilises the placement software, Sonia, to manage placements.
The Work Integrated Learning Policy at ECU states the WIL is described in the following way:
A generic term used to describe organised strategies and practices that integrate theoretical learning with directly related workplace experience in activities that may be required to be undertaken by a student for the successful completion of his or her course of study. Common descriptions of WIL include professional practice, internship, practicum/ field / clinical placements, industry-based learning and simulated workplace practice (for example, moot courts and in-house productions).
WIL at ECU is formally recognised and guided by the Work Integrated Learning Policy and Procedures. Practical resources include the WIL Essential Steps for Staff and the WIL Handbook for Staff.
ECU formally recognises the importance of WIL. WIL is required to be provided in all undergraduate courses, where students may or not have a requirement to participate.
ECU does not record the number of staff dedicated to WIL activities as this is embedded in Schools where staff may be multi-tasking and other Schools have a team of dedicated staff with Co-ordinators. This depends very much on the discipline and the level of industry engagement in the course.
The number of students in 2017 who undertook a WIL Unit was 14,703 which represents 8,584 unique students. Excluding Access, VET, HDR and Offshore students, this represents 33% of all ECU students.
ECU’s WIL Units while diverse in their disciplines are predominantly 1/8 of a full annual student work load. Many WIL Units are formal requirements to complete and be accredited professionally (Nursing, Teaching), with others focussing purely on improving the employability of students. All ECU WIL are formally assessed.
The Curriculum Approval and Publication System (CAPS) provides a generic WIL statement (definition):
Students will undertake, and be assessed on, authentic activities through engagement with industry and community partners.
CAPS WIL Types:
Contextualised WIL statement Definition of contextualised WIL statement
Entrepreneurial WIL Activities where students develop their own enterprise to address a particular community or business need (or gap).
Field experience Students experience an environment where they observe and/or participate in the application of theoretical knowledge and skills in a professional setting, under the supervision of an expert or professional in the field. Examples include study tours, observation, shadowing, fieldwork, industry tours.
Internship, clinical or professional placement Work done in an actual workplace in which the student applies discipline-specific knowledge and skills, supervised by an industry professional.
Online project or virtual WIL Work done in a remote or online location - students undertake an activity in collaboration or consultation with an industry partner but do not spend any time or only a very small amount of time (e.g. 1-2 short visits) in an actual workplace.
Project Students undertake an activity in collaboration or consultation with an industry partner but do not spend any time or only a very small amount of time (e.g. 1-2 short visits) in an actual workplace.
Service learning activities Students undertake work in an off-campus or virtual environment which is focused on the student applying non-technical skills to meet a community need, supervised by an industry or community-based professional.
Simulated work environment Students are provided with opportunities to use equipment or practice that is standard in industry.
Where a course does not have a specific WIL component, students may have professional practice embedded into their courses, or be offered Study Tours, Internships or Specific Projects.
All vocational courses (that are accredited by a Professional body) include WIL.
The School of Business and Law (SBL) are currently developing a service learning WIL opportunity that will be open to all students including those outside of the School. The SBL WIL practicum and internship units were offered as electives with selection criteria and minimum WAM (weighted average mark) as prerequisites. The new Bachelor of Commerce now embeds WIL as final year units for their courses accessible to all students. Students have a choice of off-campus WIL placements or internships, or on-campus project-based work experience under supervision from lecturers. Information on the SBL's WIL program can be found at: http://www.ecu.edu.au/schools/business-and-law/industry-community-and-alliances/work-integrated-learning
Students who arrange their own unpaid work experience activities, relevant to their study area, have access to university personal accident or liability insurance cover - upon request.
The School of Medical and Health Sciences advise that a number of disciplines have pre-practicum clinical skills programs in a simulated learning environment which students participate in prior to external placements, to give them an introduction to basic clinical skills prior to working with patients.
The School of Nursing and Midwifery have a pre-practicum preparation process and checklist which students have to provide evidence of having complied with before they can undertake clinical placements; requirements include mandatory vaccinations, police certificates, criminal history checks, up-to-date CPR certificates, and others.
Griffith University has long been highly regarded across the sector as a leader in work integrated learning scholarship, research and innovative practice, with a significant number of national award winners and grant holders in the area, and Australian Collaborative Education Network leadership representation.
The University is host to a large number of highly distinctive and effective instances of WIL. For instance, the University’s recent response to the Minister for Education and Training’s request for information about its WIL strategies and actions included 14 in-depth cases of exemplary practice drawn from across the University. Several work integrated learning models (WIL) are included in the Academic Plan 2017-2020 as subcategories of capstone experiences (including placements), projects (including industry-partnered projects and research projects), and other types of professional practice. Simulations and entrepreneurship learning/start-up experiences are also included in most published WIL typologies, and Griffith also engages in sector-leading practice in both of these areas. Although WIL is included among the capstone experiences for which Griffith has Academic Plan targets, and it is most often associated with final-year studies, different forms of WIL can be used throughout the student lifecycle, and many of Griffith programs do this with excellent outcomes.
Two examples are presented below.
Community Internship: All Griffith University students have a unique opportunity to participate in the innovative Community Internship, course achieving personal and professional transformations through volunteering in not-for-profit organisations, while studying a purposefully designed curriculum with a focus on human rights, citizenship and social equality. The course has designed an academic support model which ensures students of all capabilities and capacities can succeed in their internship. This approach results in graduates of influence who continue contributing to their community as volunteers after the completion of the course. The course provides a sustained and demonstrably effective, whole-of-university approach to concurrently enhance students’ employability and their on-going civic engagement. This highly accessible university-community partnership has facilitated transformative personal and professional development of a diverse range of students and achieved high levels of engagement and contribution from community organisations.
Since 2012, the program has achieved significant impact, with over 2300 students engaging in structured personal and professional development, while contributing a minimum of 120,000 volunteering hours to almost 400 Community Partner organisations. The course has grown from availability as a free-choice elective; to be included as a core or listed/recommended elective in over 70 discreet undergraduate or postgraduate programs. The innovative approach has attracted significant interest across the sector as an exemplar of transformative work integrated learning.
The Community Internship program received a 2017 Australian Award for University Teaching (AAUT) Award for Programs that Enhance Learning in the Student experiences and services supporting learning, development and growth in higher education category. The team also received an AAUT Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning in 2016. Virtual Pharmacy. Virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR), and augmented reality (AR) have been developed and deployed across courses in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmacology since 2014. The healthcare journey of a patient has been captured by panoramic photography and presented to students in flexible mode (large wall projection, tablet, PC, or VR). Students are able to walk through ambulances, hospital wards, treatment rooms, hospital pharmacies, community pharmacies, and pathology services prior to work integrated learning. VR video is used to demonstrate correct operation of machinery and robotics not readily available to students at an undergraduate level. MR and AR demonstrate correct processes when counselling patients on high-risk medications. Integration of these technologies into lectures, workshops, and tutorials facilitates inquiry-based learning that is connected to contemporary and future workplaces. Coupling these technologies to simulation and gamification provides engaging and rich learning environments early in the student lifecycle.
QCA Enterprises: LiveWorm, LiveImage, LiveLab, LiveSpace. At QCA, students have the opportunity to work on projects for real clients in one of our four commercial studios: LiveWorm, LiveImage, LiveSpace and LiveLab. Students build portfolios and make critical contacts and networks through work integrated learning programs and key industry links. Through LiveWorm, design students gain valuable work-integrated-learning experience interacting with live design projects in a mentored studio environment. With studios based in South Bank and the Gold Coast, LiveWorm has been providing a successful bridge between the Queensland College of Art and the design industry for over thirty years. LiveWorm is one of the longest running design studios in Australia, and a flagship experience for multiple generations of QCA design graduates.
LiveLab is the commercial arm of Griffith Film School and operates as an in-house production studio, the only one of its kind in Australia. LiveLab offers students a unique opportunity to work in industry whilst studying. Emerging filmmakers solve creative screen-based challenges for clients, while gaining valuable work-integrated learning experiences. LiveLab Creative Director Richard Fabb says it is vital to offer students year-round opportunities to gain industry experience during their studies. “LiveLab is about providing a chance for students to learn from industry mentors, work with real clients and produce work that finds an audience,” he said. LiveImage is the commercial element of the Queensland College of Art Photography Department offering a unique suite of cost effective professional services including: photographic-quality printing, colour management services, and photo retouching.
The LiveSpace Studio centres on socially and environmentally responsible design through a vibrant, collaborative studio based within the Queensland College of Art. LiveSpace projects provide opportunities for students to work on cross-disciplinary design projects within the broader community. By working closely with–and learning from–other students, lecturers, consultants, trade and industry representatives, and community members from a broad range of backgrounds, students are able to gain insight into the complexity of the whole of design process
Yes, WIL opportunities made available to all students.
ICMS has a dedicated WIL Office which includes WIL Manager (1), WIL Placement Facilitators (4), WIL Assessment Facilitator (1) and an Administrator (1).
All UG and PG students undertake a compulsory and assessable WIL Placement (nine months in the middle of the UG degree and six months at end of PG program). Each year the WIL team will prepare and secure WIL Placements for up 750 UG and PG students.
Furthermore, ICMS subjects embody an industry perspective including industry speakers, industry site visits, industry case studies and industry inspired lecturers that present across all course levels. A number of subjects also have a practical / work focus by their very nature (i.e. hospitality students will learn in our Grand Dining Room and Events students will plan and deliver on-campus functions).
Additionally, WIL related activities are shared with all students which include the volunteer, part-time job and project opportunities that are forwarded to ICMS from our extensive industry network.
All HE students, approximately 300 per year across three campuses, complete WIL units within their course of study. To support students, the Industry Engagement Discipline employs 19 FTE staff, of which 10 are directly involved with the delivery of Higher Education WIL units: 1 Head of Industry Engagement 3 WIL Lecturers (two for Bachelor and one for Masters) who develop and jointly deliver workshops with Industry Engagement representatives before students commence the WIL placement. They also provide ongoing academic support including one onsite visit. Lecturers also complete WIL assessment marking.
Industry Engagement staff who are directly involved with Higher Education students, with 7 directly involved with Vocational students. The Industry Engagement representatives’ roles include: - Sourcing a diverse range of WIL placement opportunities - Jointly delivering workshops with WIL Lecturers - Providing additional 1:1 support to students developing career communication skills - Support students applying for WIL placement roles, including providing advice on options available
Provide examples of WIL related activities currently available to students, including duration, timing (level of study), assessed or non-assessed and whether this is optional or mandatory for students?
WIL units are mandatory for Masters’ and Bachelor students. All Bachelor degree program students, regardless of their major, complete 12 months in an industry placement. This is separated into two WIL units (six months in duration) which are completed in years 1 and 2. All Masters’ students complete one WIL unit (six months in duration) at the end of their degree program. Learning outcomes include reference to employability and are assessed in summative assessments. Bachelor students complete workshops and online learning in the semester prior to commencing their WIL101 unit and WIL201. These workshops integrate the DOTS model enabling students to develop career management skills. Masters’: Workshops are currently undertaken, although this unit is currently under review to make employability more explicit to students.
In Australia, Macquarie University is unmatched in the scale at which work integrated (WIL) opportunities are made available to its students. Since 2012 through the PACE program more than 3,400 industry and community partners have formed learning partnerships with the University through one of 84 PACE academic units that now span the University's five Faculties and almost every academic discipline. In 2018 alone over 8,000 students will participate in WIL through PACE.
Full-time equivalent WIL dedicated staff PACE has a distributed organisational model with a total of 49 (FTE) dedicated PACE staff – both academic and professional – contributing 100% of their workload to the program. Five faculty-based PACE teams are embedded in each of the University’s Faculties: Arts, Business and Economics, Human Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, and Science and Engineering. Led by Academic Directors of PACE and Faculty PACE Managers, and comprising a team of Faculty PACE Officers, the role of these teams is to lead the implementation and integration of PACE into the Faculty's academic strategy and operations. In doing so the Faculty teams engage directly with students, partner organisations and academic unit convenors to deliver PACE activities within 84 PACE units.
The PACE ‘Hub’ is made up of 5 teams: PACE International, PACE Program Support Services, Business Applications and Systems, Research and Evaluation, and Internships and Co-op. These teams are responsible for: coordinating the collaborative development of systems and protocols to support front-line delivery across the multitude of different PACE units and activities (e.g. academic development, information technology, risk management, insurance, legal agreements, student travel and equity of access supports, marketing and communications); international PACE and Co-op placements; coordination of strategic and budgetary planning, and research and evaluation; and integration of PACE into the governance and policy frameworks and administrative systems of the wider University.
In addition, there are currently 84 PACE units taught by Department-based academic staff; in any one year there would be up to 80 unit convenors involved in teaching PACE units, all of which incorporate assessment of student learning. These academics are discipline-based and spend a minimum of 10% of their workload on PACE teaching; in some cases, this may be up to 40%.
PACE is unique in Australian higher education in extending Work Integrated Learning (WIL) experiences to all undergraduates irrespective of their discipline of study. In most other universities, WIL opportunities are confined to relatively small numbers of students in specific professional disciplines or to the select few whose networks and academic grades enable them to secure highly competitive industry internships. By contrast, the overriding purpose of PACE is to engage all Macquarie students in mutually beneficial learning with industry/community partners.
• How many students currently participate in WIL related activities each year?
In 2018 over 8,000 students are enrolled in PACE through some 84 PACE units.
Macquarie also supports students seeking extra-curricular work experience activities undertaken outside of a unit; for example: work experience and volunteering opportunities supported by our Global Leadership Program, Widening Participation Unit, the Office of Indigenous Strategy, Walanga Muru and the Macquarie University Incubator.
• Provide examples of WIL related activities currently available to students, including duration, timing (level of study), assessed or non-assessed and whether this is optional or mandatory for students?
Quality standards and benchmarks established by the University’s Academic Senate for the accreditation of PACE units play a key coordinating role in the PACE program. These standards articulate Community Engagement and Learning & Teaching criteria that all PACE units must meet. They define a set of graduate capabilities encompassing personal, interpersonal, social and cognitive capabilities required to achieve the program’s intended outcomes of enhanced graduate employability and engaged citizenship. As part of the L&T criteria, the Senate standards require all PACE students undertake a minimum of 30 hours of work integrated-learning (the vast majority experience significantly more than this minimum standard.
The Senate standards also outline the components of PACE unit design to ensure that students are well prepared, supported, and debriefed on their engaged learning experiences, including scaffolding for skills development in ethical and reflective practice. The resulting quality framework articulates into the development of learning outcomes, curriculum and assessment structures at unit level. Similarly, agreed principles, criteria and protocols have been collaboratively developed to ensure effective and coordinated development and management of industry/community partnership across the trans-disciplinary program.
What types of PACE units are there? 1. Discipline-specific PACE units PACE units are offered across multiple academic disciplines in all Faculties. Students usually undertake their PACE unit during the second or third year of their degree program. 2. Faculty PACE units These units allow students to engage with organisations in local or regional activities. Faculty PACE units are available to students from all disciplines. In some cases, students are responsible for finding their own host organisation and negotiating a suitable PACE activity, but in the majority of others the partners and activities are sourced by University staff. 3. PACE 360 - seeing, thinking and doing PACE internationally PACE360 offers students a curriculum-embedded PACE activity in an international context. Students may source their own host organisation and activity or participate in group based community development projects facilitated by PACE International staff, or in Faculty-led group-based professional experience placements.
How many hours are involved in the PACE activity? The minimum hours for the experiential component of a PACE unit is 20%. i.e. For a 3 credit point unit, the minimum is 30 hours for the activity. For a 6 credit point unit, the minimum is 60 hours activity, though in practice most PACE units exceed these standards – some by a considerable amount. See criteria for PACE units and activities.
What types of PACE activities are there? PACE activities include: - Co-op and cadetships - Internships - Formal practicums or professional placements (e.g. clinical or teaching) - Other in situ professional or work experience - Service based, peer assisted learning or other student mentoring - Community development, research, quality assurance projects - Community and business reference panels
PACE activities can be undertaken individually or in groups; in a workplace, in the field, remotely/virtually or on campus.
Where are PACE activities located? 1. Locally Most PACE students will undertake an activity within the Sydney metropolitan region. These activities are usually held either on campus or at the host organisation's work premises. The nature of student contact and engagement with the host supervisor varies depending on the organisation and the nature of the activity. In some cases, students remain on campus but interact with host organisation staff via online technologies such as Skype. 2. Regionally or interstate PACE offers a diverse range of regional WIL activities across many disciplines with host organisations around Australia. Previous regional activities have been held in areas such as Western NSW, Orange, Gloucester and Wagga. 3. In a remote location around Australia Remote PACE activities are less common but have included WIL activities and teaching practicums in the Tiwi Islands and Arnhem land in the Northern Territory. 4. Internationally PACE International connects Macquarie students and staff with organisations located overseas, with a particular focus on the Asia Pacific region but also throughout the Americas and Europe. All PACE International activities are developed collaboratively between PACE International staff, unit convenors and the overseas organisation’s staff to ensure they are mutually beneficial to the organisation and student and that they meet the academic requirements of the PACE unit.
PACE International offers group activities with both corporate and community development partners overseas. Community development partners are located in developing countries and their activities are driven by community priorities and aligned with national and international sustainability and development goals. For students who are interested in global issues but who are not able to travel overseas, some on campus group activities are also offered via online technologies such as Skype. Some students may choose to arrange their own international PACE activity in conjunction with the PACE International team.
What type of organisations are PACE Partners? Of the 3,400 partner organisations that have engaged with Macquarie through PACE since the program’s inception - 63% are from the private sector, - 23% are from the Not for Profit sector - and 14% are from the public sector
The Careers and Employment Service also supports student WIL opportunities. Students can apply for internships and vacation work through CareerHub, an online jobs database which has around 3,500 opportunities annually. This database has recently been upgraded to a provisioning model which means that all students will be automatically enrolled, enabling access and opportunity at scale.
SAE Students enrolled in a Bachelor Program must accumulate at least 80 hours of Work Integrated Learning. Further details are provided in the following attachments.
Work Integrated Learning Policy Work Integrated Learning Module Guide
WIL examples are included below: See copy of table as separate attachment - this contains more details (but table would not copy into this box).
It is difficult to provide exact numbers of WIL staff as roles may overlap and vary across Schools and professional and academic roles. Many staff are casual and sessional, adding to the complexity. Additionally, SCU also uses the broader term Community Engaged Learning (CEL), to incorporate service-learning, WIL, professional experience learning, clinical placements, internships, practicums, community-based learning, fieldwork education and project-based learning. All CEL units have the potential to support employability skill development in students. Approximately 133 CEL units were identified (Rapid Appraisal of CEL,2018).
SASS – Further comments and details The School of Arts and Social Sciences includes some units where there is authentic assessment with a brief from partner organisations but not direct placement, but this is not exhaustive. In addition, units have been excluded where there is authentic assessment but not from community partners (e.g. units in music which require performance at a profession in-house venue or recording studio, or where art and design students prepare for a professional standard group exhibition at the Grad Show). The scalability of units is possible but, in some cases, would require a new model for operations and managing the cohort. For example, the advanced unit COM30001 Community Engagement Project is currently being tested and is designed to be available to any student at SCU. It is a collaboration between SCU Engagement and SASS). Some unit information is attached, including a case study (Community Engagement Project - info for partners; Community Engagement Project - students; Hannah Rowles story). This unit could be scaled but would require some operational rethinking depending on projected cohort size. Non-assessed volunteer opportunities are provided to students. For example, each year media and creative writing students write a blog for the Byron Writers Festival and also act in other voluntary capacities. Opportunities also exist for music students to volunteer at Mullum Music Festival, Bello Music Festival, at the Plaza in SCU Lismore campus and at Open Days at each campus, or work as technicians. In 2017 the BContempMus had an all-day Industry Forum. In 2018 Art and Design students submitted plans to the Innovate:Situate SCU Design Prize.
The Professional Placements team, in partnership with academics, students and industry, is responsible for the delivery of high quality industry placement programs for students. The team aims to facilitate a broad array of high quality placement opportunities for Swinburne’s students, to enhance Swinburne’s reputation for employability and to position placements as a decisive factor when prospective students choose their tertiary destination.
The Professional Placement team is responsible for the following WIL programs:
- Professional degrees* - Professional placements* - Professional internships - Master of ICT internships (Postgraduate) - Accreditation placements (Law) *(students studying through Swinburne Online (SOL) or Open Universities Australia (OUA) are not eligible) Please note accreditation placements in Education and Health are administered by the Faculty of Health Arts and Design. Programs include Education, Psychology, Occupational Therapy, Counselling and Nursing. Education and are offered in online study mode (Swinburne Online). Industry-linked projects are managed by the relevant Faculty. Industry-linked projects may be an accredited study option or requirement. Industry-linked projects are normally undertaken as a unit of study during the final year of the course.
Professional Placement Team has 16.8 equivalent full time WIL dedicated staff currently.
Number of students commencing the following WIL activities in 2017 was 499 (a breakdown is provided in Attachment 2)
Undergraduate WIL programs coordinated by the Professional Placement team Professional placements (as detailed under 1.5)
Undergraduate students in most Swinburne courses have the option to undertake a 12 month Professional Placement Co-major or a 6 month Professional Placement Minor as an integrated feature of their course. Professional Internships (as detailed under 1.5)
Professional Internships incorporate part-time work experience over one semester (16 to 19 days total and are normally unpaid). They can be undertaken intensively during the summer or winter terms. Law (as detailed under 1.5)
Bachelor of Laws students must complete three 20-day professional experience placements over the course of their degree. Swinburne Law School focuses on innovation, creativity and intellectual property, equipping students for the future workforce. A Swinburne law course could lead students to a future in law firms, local and county court settings, policing, government departments, educational organisations and more. Students are enrolled in three units of study which are assessed.
Postgraduate WIL program coordinated by Professional Placement team Master of ICT internships are currently available for students undertaking masters courses in information technology or information systems. Master of ICT internships are offered over a semester (24 days total) and commence during the first week of a semester. Students are enrolled a unit of study which is assessed. Postgraduate WIL program offerings is a focus area for Swinburne. In partnership with Swinburne Research, a PhD placement program is being implemented in 2020. Similarly, Swinburne is currently investigating the placement gaps for Masters Students.
FTE WIL professional staff:
• Art & Design: 1
• Arts and Social Sciences: 7
• Built Environment: 0.5
• Business School: 14
• Engineering: 9
• Law: 0.6
• Medicine: 0
• Science: 1
• Central: 8
Total: 41.1
FTE WIL academic staff:
• Art & Design: 1
• Arts and Social Sciences: 4
• Built Environment: 2
• Business School: 8
• Engineering: 8
• Law: 1
• Medicine: TBC
• Science: 3
Total: 27 Total staff = 68.1
At this point in time WIL opportunities are not available to students in all programs. The newly introduced Work Experience Scheme is a strategy to address this, however it is currently being managed by a small team with limited resources (Careers 2.6 FTE), so scaling this availability up is challenging at present.
WIL opportunities are scalable as per the WIL Integrated Learning Academic Policy below, however, practice is spasmodic, not systemic or consistent across the institution:
4.1 Work integrated learning (WIL) is an umbrella term for a range of approaches and strategies that integrate theory with the practice of work within a purposefully designed curriculum (as provided in The WIL Report by Carol-Joy Patrick et al 2009).
4.2 Within this definition the University recognises three categories of work integrated learning:
- Workplace and industry PLACEMENT “ immerses a student in a workplace related to their discipline or career goals. Ideally, placement combines both class-based learning and structured and supported workplace activity with opportunities to reflect on learning and seek timely feedback on performance. Examples include: Internships, work placements, practicums, clinical placements, work shadowing, supervised professional experience, co-operative education, cadetship, traineeship or service learning.
- Workplace and industry COMPONENT “ aspects or components of the workplace are applied to the learning situation of the student, thus integrating work-based experiences with University-based learning. Examples include: applied research projects, workshops, case studies, simulation-based learning, role plays, gaming, virtual business learning, project-based learning or work-related problem-solving projects.
- Workplace and industry INTERACTIONS “ interactions which take place to expose and engage students with work practices or with workplace or industry experts. Examples include: field trips, site visits, guest lecturers from industry, practical or work experience, or mentoring.
A recent change to Coursework Curriculum Design “ Academic Policy effective 1 June 2018 states “all bachelor degree programs, must provide an opportunity for students to develop and improve their employability skills by including one or more employability/WIL experience courses. The implementation of the Coursework Curriculum Design - Academic Policy and Coursework Curriculum Design - Procedures will be phased in, with full compliance expected by Semester 1, 2021.
Note: All data hereon in is provided by Faculty: Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering (FoSHEE), Faculty of Arts, Business and Law (FABL)
FABL
4.2 FTE dedicated to WIL for the professionally accredited disciplines of Social Work and Human Services,
1.00 FTE dedicated to WIL for the professionally accredited discipline of Counselling
0.3 FTE for all the business disciplines
2.5 FTE staff who are responsible for undertaking all the ‘back-end’ administrative work required to manage our WIL compliance obligations. This includes risk assessments and completion of contractual paperwork with host organisations and occurs after other Faculty staff have done the work of ‘matching’ students to the most appropriate WIL opportunity.
In addition to the dedicated WIL staff listed above a large number of academic staff in diverse disciplines (such as journalism, design, criminology) coordinate the matching of students with an appropriate host organisation for an internship placement. These are teaching staff who undertake the WIL work as a responsibility related to their teaching in terms of enabling opportunities for students in their discipline to have relevant industry experience prior to graduation.
FoSHEE
18.1 FTE
Evidence:
1.8a FTE WIL Dedicated Staff
1.8b Student participation in WIL related activities
1.8b Faculty commentary on WIL related activities
Victoria University has a strong history of working with Industry to provide students with practical learning experiences that can be traced back to its Footscray Technical School foundations. More recently, in 2010 the University committed to a program of Learning in the Workplace and Community (LiWC) that mandated for 25% of all assessments to be in undertaken in the Community or Workplace. This initiative created the basis upon which the current WIL program operates.
Each academic college employs staff responsible for teaching WIL subjects and sourcing and administering placements. There is also a central WIL team responsible for managing the InPlace system.
There are 829 units of study at Victoria University that utilise Work-Integrated Learning. These range from internships-in-industry to simulations undertaken in campus laboratory. There are five categories of WIL that are utilised in undergraduate and postgraduate courses currently.
Total number of higher education students (with at least one placement in 2018) is: 4927 Total units at undergraduate level with WIL: 583 Total units at postgraduate level with WIL: 246
Types of WIL at VU
1. Industry Placements - are one of the key ways that students experience the realities of their future profession and develop practical knowledge and skills in preparation for the world of work. Industry placements are resource intensive for the institution with the majority of placements sourced by staff rather than students.
Placement programs (examples)
Business - In the College of Business the hallmark work-based learning program known as ‘Co-operative Education’ or ‘Co-op’ has been in offered at VU for more than 50 years; it seeks to engage students as fulltime employees in related entry-level roles for at least 5 or 10 months. This program is optional for all Bachelor of Business degree courses.
Psychology - Master of Psychology students are required to complete a total of 1000 placement hours, which typically comprises either three placements, each of approximately 350 hours, or four placements, each of approximately 250 hours. The first placement occurs in the Victoria University Psychology Clinic (which is an APAC requirement). The further placements occur in external placement agencies. While most students undertake placement 2 or 3 days per week, a placement can be structured in any way that suits both the placement agency and the student.
2. Industry Projects (examples) Sport - Bachelor of Sport Science (Physical Education- Secondary) undertake an aquatics unit of study and as part of this program the students deliver a swimming program on campus for the Western Region English Language Schools.
Sport History - Dr Fiona McLachlan and Associate Professor Rob Hess from the Sport, Heritage and Cultures research group (ISEAL) have being working with Netball Victoria for the past 3 years to help the organisation research, preserve and celebrate the history of netball in Victoria. The NV/ISEAL oral history project introduces undergraduate and post graduate sport management students to the practical challenges of collecting and curating sport history.
Law - The Hon. Michael Kirby Contract Law Moot Court Competition is hosted by Victoria Law School in the College of Law and Justice at Victoria University (VU). This four-day annual competition is open to teams across Australia. It is the largest moot court competition in Australia, and has been running since 2011. Winners of this competition win prize money and usually go on to compete in international mooting competitions. Mooting is the oldest form of legal training for law advocates. At VU, mooting competitions can be selected as an elective unit in our undergraduate law degree.
3. Simulations (example) Chemistry - Bachelor of Science (Chemistry Stream) students undertake a subject called Drug Testing and Analysis. The unit is focussed on modern and topical aspects of Drug Testing (workplace, sport, clinical and forensic) and Drug analysis (trace component and impurity profiling). Laboratory exercises link theory with practice and students gain 'hands-on' experience with state-of-the-art instruments and techniques including sample preparation and the investigation of complex samples including pharmaceutical products and drugs and metabolites in biological fluids. The activity is delivered in partnership with NMI (National Measurement Institute).
******* Supporting documents: VU WIL Briefing - Industry Roundtable VU WIL framework
Excellent examples of scalable WIL models are offered at Curtin University across all disciplines. WIL approaches vary across the disciplines and is more evident in some teaching areas in comparison with others. This is largely due to varying staff expertise, workload, support, reward and recognition, and links with industry/community. Some examples of WIL initiatives are available at https://acen.edu.au/innovative-models/
There are very few staff fully dedicated to embedding the broader notion of WIL which encompasses authentic and industry/community engaged activities. Staff who support the traditional model of WIL (placements) where students are placed in a work-based environment for a specific duration, are employed across the universities. Titles, position descriptions, and responsibilities vary across faculties and schools.
National priorities, University strategic directives, and the WIL Strategic Project initiatives have inspired central areas and Faculties across the University to implement organisational structures that support teaching areas to incorporate WIL, including placement, into the student experience. An overview of how each of the faculties administer WIL placements is outlined below. The approach of central areas who carry a responsibility for aspects of fieldwork is also explained.
Central Roles and Responsibilities
Careers and Employment
One of the responsibilities of the Careers and Employment Office is the management of co-curricular WIL placements. The Manager Employment Engagement is responsible for actuating co-curricular WIL placement opportunities for students. This role is supported by a Career counsellor and an Employer engagement officer.
Curtin International
The Global Mobility Office sits within Curtin International. The strategic focus of this area is to expand global mobility, both inbound and outbound, at Curtin University. Several key operations are covered within this remit, one of which is managing and supporting faculties with international placement activities. The Manager of Mobility and Sponsorship Development oversees this area with the support of a team leader and four administrative staff. This area incorporates many tasks and responsibilities including sourcing and facilitating global partnerships and opportunities and works closely with faculty staff in optimising the benefits of these partnerships through international placement opportunities. New Colombo Plan (NCP) grants are also administered through this office. Global mobility fieldwork includes both curricula and co-curricular opportunities.
Curtin Learning and Teaching
CLT is the owner of the quality and the Governance Framework for WIL and has oversight of policy, compliance, implementation and ongoing development. A CLT staff member is listed on the website as the point of contact for supporting staff. This role does not have a specific title that denotes reference to WIL and there is no position description within CLT that includes reference to responsibilities associated with WIL. Ensuring quality curriculum design, national and international benchmarking, and collaborating with national organisations also resides with CLT.
Faculty Roles and Responsibilities
Faculty of Humanities
A Director of Student Engagement (DirSE) in the Humanities Faculty has the responsibility of growing WIL across the Faculty and ensuring compliance with policy and governance processes. Schools within the Faculty of Humanities have different approaches to embedding WIL in the student experience. The School of Education has a long tradition with placement WIL as accreditation requirements mandate that students have workplace experiences in each year of their degree. The School of Education employs a Team Leader Professional Experience and Open Universities Australia who leads a group of Placement Administrators. Several Placement Coordinators who are experienced classroom teachers are employed to act as a liaison between the University and primary and secondary schools. The School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry in the Faculty of Humanities appointed an inaugural Practicum Program Coordinator at the beginning of 2018. The position liaises closely with the CLT representative. Remaining schools in this Faculty have not appointed a formal position to support WIL initiatives.
Faculty of Business and Law
The DirSE in the Business and Law Faculty is responsible for all WIL in the Faculty and is the line manager for the central team which actively engages with industry partners to provide students with placement opportunities. A newly appointed academic position, Manager Stakeholder Engagement (line managed by the Pro Vice Chancellor of the Faculty), works across the Faculty in supporting teaching areas to liaise and negotiate with external partners to ensure rigour and integrity in WIL. The central team comprises a manager of Industry Engagement and two placement offers. The team is responsible for running a cross-faculty placement unit with a multi-disciplinary focus. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry Western Australia (CCIWA) are partners with the Faculty and the key conduit between the University and industry organisations who host students.
Faculty of Health Sciences
A Practice and Interprofessional Education Office positioned within the Faculty is run by a director and supported by two administrative staff. This office conducts research on interprofessional education, facilitates the Faculty-based Fieldwork Education Committee, and monitors the quality of WIL placement education in the Faculty. Teaching areas in the Faculty of Health Sciences are responsible for negotiating and managing WIL units within the relevant disciplines. Clinical education is overseen by a Director of Clinical Education in each School. This position is supported by fieldwork coordinators who arrange placements for students, provide support, and conduct student assessments.
Faculty of Science and Engineering
The Faculty of Science and Engineering employs a DirSE who has oversight of WIL in the Faculty. With no central office, the Faculty has a more dispersed model of industry engagement opportunities for students. There are excellent models of industry and community engagement across the Faculty which contribute to both research and learning and teaching initiatives. However, with no central office, the number and impact of these activities are difficult to quantify. A Partnership Coordinator is employed to negotiate placement arrangements with industry partners, manage governance processes, induct students prior to placement, and monitor students’ well-being while on placement. With the national focus on STEM, there is an appetite for embedding WIL initiatives across the science disciplines, but staff and infrastructure are required.
Centre of Aboriginal Studies
Responsibility for WIL and resides with the Dean of Learning and Teaching (DLT) at the Centre of Aboriginal Studies (CAS). The course coordinators or/and unit coordinators oversee the WIL components of a degree with support from administrative staff as required. Many of the CAS students are employed in the fields in which they are studying, so WIL requirements are met and measured in the context of their employment.
It is not possible to capture reliable data around student participation in all models of WIL. The table attached shows a sample of the data around placement WIL and project-based WIL.
Table 1.
Fieldwork Profile: Curtin University, 2017
Type of WIL Activity Number of Students Number of Subjects
Fieldwork
21,499 303
Industry-based Project 9,743 66
This table does not reflect all the innovative and engaging approaches to WIL that are implemented by Curtin staff.
Case studies from Curtin University are included in the link above and in Attachments 7 and 8. Duration of WIL activities vary some run across the whole semester and others are a penultimate activity. Both UG and PG students engage in WIL and increasingly, HDR students are participating. To be considered WIL, it must be assessed as this evidences the students' capacity in employability. Just to experience WIL is not sufficient, it is the evidence of skill acquisition that is important. WIL cannot be optional when embedded in a unit.
Work Integrated Learning at UQ refers to engagement with industry which is assessed, credit bearing (or a mandatory program requirement) which foregrounds employability development. In 2017, six common types of WIL at UQ were identified. These are: Industry Placements Industry Projects Field Experience Work Simulation Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Reflection on Current Employment
Provision of quality Work Integrated learning is a priority for UQ and is articulated as a goal as part of Initiative 1 of the UQ Student Strategy. To this end, the university is working towards making WIL available to all students at some stage during their degree program.
Currently students in accredited professional degrees such as those in Medicine, Allied Health, Education and Engineering have opportunities throughout their degree for placements/clinical rotations and other engagement with industry. Students in more generalist degrees have more limited opportunity to engage in WIL and this will depend on their study plan and the availability of WIL electives.
With the exception of programs that require students to engage in placements for accreditation requirements, and a few others, it is not mandatory that students engage in WIL. In non-accredited degrees, there are instances of rigid program structures, prerequisites, and GPA requirements restricting student uptake of many WIL opportunities.
It is well recognised that the administration of placements is particularly resource intensive, and as such UQ staff are encouraged to explore other WIL options and to be innovative in their approach to industry engagement in the curriculum. Non-placement WIL allows for more students to be exposed to industry while reducing the pressure on placement administrators to find suitable opportunities in a competitive local environment. It also enables WIL activities to accommodate larger class sizes and flexible engagement modes.
It is difficult to provide exact figures of staff involved in the teaching and delivery of WIL programs as often staff work on the administration of WIL in addition to other duties. UQ currently has approximately 27 staff working specifically on Work Integrated Learning activities. Most of these staff are involved in the administration and facilitation of placements at a Faculty or School level.
In 2017 the number of students engaged in all types of WIL across the 6 Faculties was: Business, Economics and Law = 1591 students Engineering, Architecture and IT = 1886 students Humanities and Social Sciences= 2242 students Health and Behavioural Sciences = 4299 students Science = 2926 students Medicine = 1873 students
WIL is an integral aspect of the University’s curriculum renewal process, which was approved by Academic Senate on 29 August 2016. It has also been a focus areas for research and for the establishment of Communities of Practice. The University has recognised that while it has robust policies and procedures for WIL, these are predominantly placement-focused and do not currently capture the wide range of WIL opportunities available to students. It has been agreed that review and revision of current policy and procedures will be undertaken as part of a comprehensive review of WIL across the University.
The Office of Quality and Performance has this data as it was collected in a recent WIL survey. However, it is not available at the time of this report. In addition, we have developed a WIL Matching Service for Schools to engage with Industry Partners, which is launching in 2019.
No, the University does not make scalable WIL, but intends to do this in the future. The data collection on how many students are participating in WIL is limited and the collection is not consistently done through a central mechanism; however, relevant colleges would track this annually when WIL opportunities are part of a course of study. It consists of communication with staff we know who are working in WIL and manual data collections. There isn’t a system that collects this information automatically and in consistent, timely way. The experiences students have are highly distinctive in terms of duration, level, whether formal or informal, compulsory or not. The University needs to develop more systems to have a better understanding of the overall picture of employability outside of programme and courses offered.
There are work integrated learning opportunities available in every undergraduate course that is taught at Murdoch University, and many of the postgraduate coursework degrees. However, many of those opportunities (eg. placement units) are only available to students who achieve a minimum GPA – often meaning that 50-60% of students are ineligible. The key issue is that these are not readily scalable. In a number of courses, we have been working on both workplace simulation and client-consultancy approaches to WIL. These are better to suited to being scaled, but still present challenges in quickly growing cohorts – eg. MBA.
Full-time WIL dedicated staff:
The total number of full time staff dedicated to WIL activities is approximately 12. However, of these 5 staff work exclusively in the School of Education, 3 in the School of Health Professions (nursing), 1 in the School of Psychology and Exercise Science, 1 in the Vet College, and the remaining 2 offer WIL Support to all other discipline areas.
High-level student participation in WIL related activities in 2017:
- 3,930 unique students completed at least one WIL experience in 2017 - 2,470 students had only one WIL experience in 2017 - 1,460 students had multiple WIL experiences in 2017 - 270 students had multiple types of WIL experience in 2017 (ie. a work simulation and a placement) - 2,760 unique students completed a work placement in 2017 (total of 4,360 work placements) - 520 unique students completed a client-consultancy project in 2017 - 540 unique students completed a workplace simulation in 2017
Examples of WIL related activities:
This is a difficult question to answer succinctly because the range and variety of student experiences are so broad. There are students completing mandatory placements in courses like nursing, education, exercise science etc. These usually range across all years of the course, with an accreditation-based requirement to complete a set number of hours (eg. 800 hours for nursing) prior to graduation In non-accreditation courses, placements in industry are optional, usually in the range of 80-240 hours, completed in the final year. Some are assessed by ungraded pass, others by standard grading. Client consultancy projects are usually available to 2nd or final year students, with large scale offerings in Creative Media, Communication, Business, and Information Technology in particular. Usually a semester in duration, with students contributing ~100-200 hours to the project – depending on the unit. The nursing and education disciplines use simulation as a form of WIL. The university also runs a students as partners program that allows students to propose and lead projects that aim to create change at Murdoch University. Students can receive credit for participating in the program through a ‘Real World Learning’ unit. This unit also allows students to gain credit for a range of other cocurricular programs and volunteering opportunities.
At this point in time WIL opportunities are not available to students in all programs. The newly introduced Work Experience Scheme is a strategy to address this, however it is currently being managed by a small team with limited resources (Careers 2.6 FTE), so scaling this availability up is challenging at present.
WIL opportunities are scalable as per the WIL Integrated Learning Academic Policy below, however, practice is spasmodic, not systemic or consistent across the institution:
4.1 Work integrated learning (WIL) is an umbrella term for a range of approaches and strategies that integrate theory with the practice of work within a purposefully designed curriculum (as provided in The WIL Report by Carol-Joy Patrick et al 2009).
4.2 Within this definition the University recognises three categories of work integrated learning:
- Workplace and industry PLACEMENT“ immerses a student in a workplace related to their discipline or career goals. Ideally, placement combines both class-based learning and structured and supported workplace activity with opportunities to reflect on learning and seek timely feedback on performance. Examples include: Internships, work placements, practicums, clinical placements, work shadowing, supervised professional experience, co-operative education, cadetship, traineeship or service learning.
- Workplace and industry COMPONENT “ aspects or components of the workplace are applied to the learning situation of the student, thus integrating work-based experiences with University-based learning. Examples include: applied research projects, workshops, case studies, simulation-based learning, role plays, gaming, virtual business learning, project-based learning or work-related problem-solving projects.
- Workplace and industry INTERACTIONS “ interactions which take place to expose and engage students with work practices or with workplace or industry experts. Examples include: field trips, site visits, guest lecturers from industry, practical or work experience, or mentoring.
A recent change to Coursework Curriculum Design “ Academic Policy effective 1 June 2018 states all bachelor degree programs, must provide an opportunity for students to develop and improve their employability skills by including one or more employability/WIL experience courses. The implementation of the Coursework Curriculum Design - Academic Policy and Coursework Curriculum Design - Procedures will be phased in, with full compliance expected by Semester 1, 2021.
Note: All data hereon in is provided by Faculty: Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering (FoSHEE), Faculty of Arts, Business and Law (FABL)
FABL
4.2 FTE dedicated to WIL for the professionally accredited disciplines of Social Work and Human Services,
1.00 FTE dedicated to WIL for the professionally accredited discipline of Counselling
0.3 FTE for all the business disciplines
2.5 FTE staff who are responsible for undertaking all the ‘back-end’ administrative work required to manage our WIL compliance obligations. This includes risk assessments and completion of contractual paperwork with host organisations and occurs after other Faculty staff have done the work of ‘matching’ students to the most appropriate WIL opportunity.
In addition to the dedicated WIL staff listed above a large number of academic staff in diverse disciplines (such as journalism, design, criminology) coordinate the matching of students with an appropriate host organisation for an internship placement. These are teaching staff who undertake the WIL work as a responsibility related to their teaching in terms of enabling opportunities for students in their discipline to have relevant industry experience prior to graduation.
FoSHEE
18.1 FTE
Evidence:
1.8a FTE WIL Dedicated Staff
1.8b Student participation in WIL related activities
1.8b Faculty commentary on WIL related activities
No, but while many of the embedded activities are scalable (guest lectures, assessments where students are required to work with industries across undergraduate and postgraduate and so forth) there is no central mechanism to scale these activities across the institution. Currently out of 95 majors that UWA has 64 of them have a WIL activity and 55% of them are core units. In addition with a drive for WIL provisions at UWA, LinkedIn Learning provides an online solution via video content taught by industry experts in software, creative, and business employability skills. This initiative also allows staff/students/academics to stay ahead of competition and relevant.
Students are also required to undertake compulsory practicums in faculties such as Engineering, Health Medical Sciences (HMS) and Education. The students in HMS and Education receive assistance through their unit coordinators and support teams. However, there is at least one placement officer to render assistance for the process and progress of students in each faculty. Moreover, UWA is currently in agreements with Chamber of Commerce and Industry Western Australia (CCIWA) for an additional of 500 practicum opportunities for students.
The breakdown for full time staff for WIL is as follows: - HMS: 8 to 10 - FABLE: 2 - Science: 1 - Engineering: 1 - Education: 1 - CCIWA: 3 to 4
The placement officers places students in Science (142 students), FABLE (237 students) and EMS (500-550) in a span of a year.
Examples are as below: