22 May, 2019
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
12 Wally’s Walk, Level 8, 801
Despite recognition that work-integrated learning (WIL) is a valuable strategy to prepare graduates for their futures, not all students who want, or need, a WIL placement gain access to one.
This presentation offers key findings from an Australian study into accessibility in the placement model of WIL, exploring the role organisations and their employees play in this challenge. Findings show a complex range of interconnected factors and forces at organisational, occupational and individual employee levels that influence decisions about which students to host. Individuals with specific influence over student access are identified as organisational ‘WIL gatekeepers’ and their decisions are shaped by a range of normative, instrumental and situational factors. The notion of inclusion may be affected by a focus on equal opportunity and merit, or shaped by a lived experience of marginalisation by the Gatekeeper. Purposes for WIL that focus on ‘talent spotting’ and getting work done, create expectations about an ‘ideal intern’ and influence which students are included/excluded. The study offers a framework to explicate the complexity of organisational and employee intentions and actions in relation to WIL students, and a set of conditions to help organisations build their inclusive WIL culture and capacity. The study argues that universities and industry need to work with intentionality and a shared sense of responsibility to remove barriers so the full potential of WIL can be realised for students, employers, the economy and society more broadly, now and into the future.
Bring your lunch and come along to connect with PACE colleagues, participate in the discussion, and support the connection of research and teaching in PACE.
Please register below to come along, do share with others who may be interested, and if you have any queries, or ideas for future PACE CoP workshops, please get in touch.
Matalena Tofa
Lecturer Learning, Teaching & Research, PACE
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