Work-Integrated Learning in the 21st Century: Volume 32

Work experience is increasingly seen as an important complement to traditional higher education. There are a variety of forms of these educational programs, such as internships, sandwich programs, field work, and cooperative education, that are referred to generically as Work-Integrated Learning (WIL). As yet, however, there is relatively little research on the concept of work experience and considerable inconsistency in its definition and measurement. This chapter describes some of the research and writing from the industrial and organizational psychology field and its relevance to WIL. Based on the previous work, a model of work experience, specifically developed to aid our understanding of the role of work experience in WIL, is proposed. Three dimensions are suggested: level of specificity (task, job, organization, and career), measurement mode (number, time, relation to program, density, timing, and type), and version of WIL (cooperative education, sandwich, etc.). The model also includes individual factors and contextual factors as influences on work experience. Both immediate and secondary outcomes are described. Finally, the applicability of the model to several examples of WIL research are discussed and suggestions for future research are offered.

This chapter outlines four specific challenges that graduates of higher education face as they transition from school to work in the new millennium: (1) The myth of a linear connection between studies and career options; (2) the purported gap between the skills and knowledge learned in school and the skills and knowledge needed in the workplace; (3) the challenge of preparing for multiple careers over a lifetime; (4) the need for lifelong learning. Learning how to transfer skills and knowledge across multiple contexts, and the ability for effective self-direction, are proposed as two important ways that job seekers themselves can effectively respond to these challenges. Higher education institutions are challenged to explicitly incorporate more reflection and other metacognitive practices into their curricula. They are also challenged to provide many (and varied) opportunities for students to transfer what they know and can do across multiple contexts, both in and outside of the classroom. Learners are encouraged to engage in greater self-direction of their academic and career trajectories and more fully understand how to create and find work by mobilizing their transferable skills in a variety of contexts, beyond those that are traditionally affiliated with their studies.

This chapter deals with aspects of the overall criticism in regard to higher education and its growing discrepancy between theory and practice, and the meaning of problem-based and authentic learning. The chapter is based on two specific cases that illustrate how higher education is organized in Sweden, and how education could be organized to correspond to the demands of authentic learning and a new form of knowledge production. Work-based learning started as an alternative to the ordinary three-year nursing program at a university college in the western part of Sweden. One main finding was that the students experienced the relation between the different types of teaching in the program as weak, and the different learning contexts in the program as being separate from each other. Higher Vocational Education (HVE) is a market-oriented vocational higher education program with close cooperation between an educational provider and working life. Work-based learning is a cornerstone of HVE, and authentic learning in a real-life setting constitutes a single course governed by its own syllabus. One main finding, was that students experienced a lack of progression in the work tasks and the subject content of the school-based education was not advanced enough. Workplace learning can serve as a structuring resource in education, but it can also be problematic because knowledge is inherent in routines and technologies.

In a service-led, knowledge-based economy, employers increasingly expect universities to deliver a workforce suited to this environment. This emphasis is evident in contemporary Australian higher education, which is shifting to an acquisition of vocational outcomes. However, vocational outcomes are not traditionally viewed as outcomes of liberal arts programs. Balancing new expectations with traditional perspectives generates a tension between assuring graduates employment outcomes and maintaining the integrity of the Bachelor of Arts (BA) as a liberal arts program. Getting it wrong can result in fragmented and unstable curricula. One of the many ways that Australian BA programs are grappling with this problem is through the provision of work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities for liberal arts students. In professions-based programs such as engineering or dentistry, the shape and nature of these courses may be obvious. It is less so in the generalist BA. Australian BA programs offer students the opportunity to engage with WIL in a variety of ways. Evidence from national studies investigating the Australian BA between 2008 and 2016 highlight common features of practice – such as the objectives, activities, and structure, and indicate that two approaches to providing WIL opportunities in the BA are evident. In order to meet the goals and aspirations of both economic and social purposes of higher education, liberal arts programs tend to adopt either a transactional or a transformational model. Each model has particular characteristics and approaches to practice that can inform the development of new programs and policies more globally.

This chapter considers the disruption in employment and job growth due to the pervasive adoption of cognitive technologies that substitute for or augment humans. The educational system, which operates on regulated and prescribed practices for many academic majors, will be tested by rapidly changing requirements to be gainfully employed. Disruption, due to technological advances of cognitive systems, will be a constant in graduates’ professional life. We make a case for the adaptive innovator or T-shaped professional as the individual best suited to adapting to disruptions and constant change. Emphasis is placed on the importance of internships and co-ops as the strongest learning strategy institutions can use if they adjust their program practices for longer, continuous learning periods, and higher outcome expectations.

In this chapter, we present the Mobile Technology Capacity Building (MTCB) Framework, designed to enhance students’ appropriate use of personal mobile devices (PMDs) in workplace learning (WPL). WPL is a concept that denotes students’ learning that occurs in workplaces as part of their university curriculum. The workplace provides an environment for university students where learning and working and theory and practice are entwined. As such, WPL is an in-between or hybrid space where traditional roles, identities, and cultures are fluid and in transition. In the 21st century, where PMDs are more and more intricately interwoven into everyday personal, educational, and professional practices, learning with mobile technology offers new opportunities and possibilities to enhance WPL. The MTCB Framework for WPL focuses on cultivating agency and thoughtful consideration for practice contexts. Its development is underpinned by three sets of theoretical ideas: agentic learning, activity-centered learning design, and the entanglement of technology, learning, and work. Its design also draws on empirical data derived from surveys and interviews from 214 participants, including students, academics, and workplace educators that highlight the importance of considering workplace cultures. We conclude that the MTCB Framework addresses an urgent need for all stakeholders in WPL to build their capacity to use mobile technology effectively to contribute to enhancing WPL. Without a shared understanding of the role of mobile technology in WPL, it will remain difficult for students to make the most of the learning opportunities afforded by the use of PMDs in WPL.

Social media, network capabilities, and digital communication technologies are changing the nature of work for individuals in WIL programs; further challenging the connections between industries and universities in their efforts to ensure individuals are work ready. However, digital technologies have provided new resources to help individuals socialize into the workplace and develop new skills for meeting the challenges of the information age that will also impact on how they get a job, and then do that job. The current literature on WIL, organizational behavior, and remote working, provides a theoretical framework for identifying the key points on the transitions experienced by individuals through WIL using the prism of social media, digital technologies, and the changes in work culture through remote working. Key issues in relation to transition are illustrated using two examples: one French and the other Canadian. The French study examines the effects of social media and digital technologies on individuals in WIL programs in relation to developing work readiness skills and communicating with supervisors and coworkers. The Canadian example examines the challenges internship students face when their workplace is predicated on remote working. The impact of social media, digital and communication technologies present new challenges for fulfilling the objectives of WIL programs and ensuring students are ready for work now and in the future.

The unemployment rate in South Africa (SA) has reached levels that require urgent intervention from all training institutions responsible for developing employment skills and preparing students for industry. While the South African Government has launched initiatives such as the National Development Plan and the Skills Development Act to facilitate employment, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have Cooperative Education programs such as Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) to facilitate student placements within industry, to enhance and promote student exposure, and introduce them to academic programs within the career placement context. The SA government also initiated the National Skills Authority, Sectorial Education and Training Authorities, and the National Skills Fund to collaborate on partnerships with industry and HEIs. The initiatives of the SA Ministry of Higher Education include placement of students in industry. Universities have prioritized placement of students as a critical measure of their success. The realization of industry is to select individuals for placement based on practical experience, not just academic qualifications. Factors such as decolonization of WIL have become part of the academic landscape for HEIs and other training institutions that require more sensitivity when considering the operating environment for industry. HEIs would also benefit from career planning and job analysis in their cooperative education programs. The job-analysis phase should follow the career development phase, which is a core part of WIL that needs to diversify cooperative education policies. HEIs need to upgrade, modernize, and adapt curricula to SA conditions for industry.

Canadian postsecondary institutions are increasing their emphasis on internationalization, sending many students abroad and welcoming students from far and wide onto their campuses. Also, Canadian organizations and multinational corporations have an increasingly diverse workforce. These trends require postsecondary institutions to prepare students adequately for this global village of the 21st century. At the University of Victoria’s (UVic’s) Co-operative Education Program and Career Services, we have created a strategy to help develop global ready graduates using a framework derived from Earley and Ang’s work on cultural intelligence (Earley & Ang, 2003). Cultural intelligence (CQ) is defined as an individual’s capability to function and manage effectively in culturally diverse settings (Ang & Van Dyne, 2008). A recently completed research project to measure the development of cultural intelligence of students participating in the UVic’s CANEU-COOP program formed the impetus for developing this CQ strategy (McRae, Ramji, Lu, & Lesperance, 2016). The strategy involves a framework that includes curriculum for inbound international students, outbound work-integrated learning (WIL) students, and all students preparing to work in diverse workplaces. In addition to developing specific curricula for these audiences, the strategy includes tools to assess the intercultural competencies that students gain during their WIL experiences, as well as helping students use these competencies to transition to the 21st century global village. This strategy and the Intercultural Competency Development Curriculum (ICDC) are discussed in this chapter.

Much rhetoric around the construct of a work-ready graduate has focused on the technical abilities of students to fulfill the expectations of the future workplace. Efforts have been made to extend from the technical skills (e.g., skills in calculation for engineers) to include soft or behavioral skills (e.g., communication). However, within previous models of understanding of the work-ready graduate there has been little done to explore them as critical moral agents within the workplace. That is, whilst the focus has been on being work-ready, it is argued here that in current and future workplaces it is more important for university graduates to be profession-ready. Our understanding of the profession-ready graduate is characterized by the ability to demonstrate capacities in critical thinking and reflection, and to have an ability to navigate the ethical challenges and shape the organizational culture of the future workplace.

This chapter aims to explore a movement of thinking away from simply aspiring to develop work-ready graduates, expanding this understanding to argue for the development of profession-ready graduates. The chapter begins with an exploration of the debates around the characteristics of being work-ready, and through a consideration of two professional elements: professional identity and critical moral agency, argues for a reframing of work-readiness towards professional-readiness. The chapter then considers the role of work-integrated learning (WIL) in being able to support the development of the profession-ready graduate.

Many forms of modern life are united by their fragility, temporary nature, vulnerability, and inclination to constant change (Bauman, 2012). The complex and fluid nature of 21st century society requires expansion of competence and skills focused university curricula. Academic institutions are challenged to rejuvenate curricula to encompass – besides the development of students’ technical and cognitive skills – the development of students’ ability to engage with and drive their own learning, thereby developing graduates who can thrive in a fluid world. Work-integrated learning (WIL) is increasingly being embraced as a possible remedy to answer this call for career-ready graduates (Goulter & Patrick, 2010). Consideration of specific work-integrated learning pedagogies underpinned by situated and workplace-learning theories that privilege student participation in workplace activities is required (Patton, Higgs, & Smith, 2013). The critical contribution of student disposition to the shaping and reshaping of workplace learning spaces and the central position of students in driving – not just receiving – workplace learning must be part of the pedagogical change. Building on my doctoral research that used photo-elicitation techniques to explore physiotherapy students’ learning in clinical workplaces (Patton, 2014), as well as contemporary literature, this chapter introduces visual spaces as a pedagogical strategy to assist students to drive their own unique learning in workplaces.

Mental illness amongst students in higher education has increased in recent years. Several contributing factors have been identified, including the growing number of students with pre-existing problems who are pursuing university and the fact that emerging adulthood is a time of developmental vulnerability to social pressures. Other key factors include academic pressure, the financial burden of student debt, and increasing uncertainty around making a successful transition to the workplace. These pressures are often more pronounced for minority students – in particular ethnic and sexual minority students. Peer support and connectedness to school have been identified as key areas for building protective factors for positive mental health outcomes and lower rates of health-risk behaviors. Many higher education institutions also offer work-integrated learning programs (WIL) to help ease students’ financial burden and increase their level of employability. However, participation in WIL may impact on students’ academic and social support networks. For instance, programs in which students participate in off-campus work placements (i.e., cooperative education) can cause disruption in students’ connectedness to school and their perceived level of social support. This chapter examines the intensification of mental health problems on campus and explores the importance of sense of belonging and social support as protective factors. Furthermore, the chapter explores how WIL can both protect and hinder students’ mental health and wellbeing and examines current evidence for interventions that can help students prepare for their school-to-work transition.