Work Integrated Learning: Challenges, Strategies, and Satisfaction

This literature review synthesizes three articles focusing on Work Integrated Learning (WIL) in Australia. The review begins by defining WIL as a university initiative encompassing fieldwork, internships, practical knowledge, and part-time jobs, aimed at enhancing graduate skills and addressing unemployment. It highlights the importance of collaboration between higher education providers, students, and employers to develop career-readiness programs. The review then explores the relationship between student satisfaction and WIL, referencing a survey conducted at Macquarie University that identifies industry engagement, employability skills, and academic factors as key contributors to satisfaction. Finally, the review discusses the challenges and strategies in assessing WIL, based on a survey of undergraduates. The review concludes that WIL is an effective solution for tackling unemployment and that the Professional and Community Engagement (PACE) initiative is appropriate for fostering collaboration between universities and employers.

Running head: INFORMATION SYNTHESIS
Information Synthesis
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1INFORMATION SYNTHESIS
This paper intends to discuss about the Work Integrated Learning and provide an
overview of the topic. It would focus on the Work Integrated Learning for the students enrolled
in a degree after the completion of the respective degree. WIL is the readiness of the employee,
student and authority of university toward the employment. The central idea of this paper is to
provide Professional and Community Engagement (PACE) initiatives of the Macquarie
University. The paper would be efficient in explaining required the aspects of the work
integrated learning and PACE.
The article ‘Developing graduate career in Australia’ is concerned about the growth of
WIL in universities of Australia. Work Integrated Learning is considered as the initiatives of the
universities which includes specific initiatives like field work, internship, practical knowledge
and part time jobs. It is the strategy for enhancing the skills of graduates and making them ready
for the working environment. The initiative comes under the National Strategy for International
Education 2025 (Jackson 2018). The background of this initiative is increasing rate of
unemployment and underemployment. The reasons are considered as the growth in the number
of students and lack of the skill at the graduate level. The mitigation would require collaborative
co-operation of the higher education (HE) providers, students and employers. The development
of the career- readiness program is likely to be achieved by the university with the help of WIL.
The employers are seeking for the employees having creativity, digital literacy and
entrepreneurialism. The findings have proved the advantages of this program as self-confidence,
professionalism and skill enhancement of the students (Jackson 2018). This program is intended
to make student aware of realities of workplace and making them acquainted with the future
opportunities available to them. It can be concluded that WIL platform can work effectively by
the collaboration among the employers and the universities.

2INFORMATION SYNTHESIS
The article ‘Work integrated Learning and Satisfaction’ is concerned about discussing
the relationship between student satisfaction and the WIL. The demand for the satisfaction of
student has increased with the increase in the attention to the work integrated learning. The
faculty of business and economics of Macquarie University have conducted a survey through
PACE unit to assess the satisfaction of student in the WIL. The aim of this article it to find the
contributing factor which leads to increase in satisfaction of the student. It provides the details of
the survey conducted on the relevant topic in the year 2011-2012. The sample for the data
collection was taken from both the student and the full-time employees. The methodology used
in this survey was face to face interview of 21 people for about 25 minutes (Carter and Romero
2014). The findings from this survey suggest that the themes for student satisfaction were
engagement of industry and employability skills, awareness of the approaches utilized in WIL,
academic factors and word of mouth. The results revealed that the 90% of student agreed with
the practicality of the WIL and 50% student found the unit to be interesting (Carter and Romero
2014). The facts and findings from the survey leads to the conclusion that incorporation of these
WIL aspects would increase the satisfaction of the students.
This article is concerned about discussing the Challenges faced and strategies used during
the work integrated learning. It discusses the different forms of assessment in work integrated
learning with the help of the student assessment and good practice and principle. The challenges
while assessing the work integrated learning are discussed in this paper as the role of the
supervisor, inappropriate templates for evaluation and indifferent rating scales and variations in
the context. The survey conducted on the 213 undergraduates between 2015 and 2016 is
explained in this paper. The method use for assessment was rating on a scale of five points. The
grading was 1 as very poor, 3 as average and 5 as excellent (Jackson 2018). The students had to

3INFORMATION SYNTHESIS
mark the WIL as based on this marking criteria. The outcomes of this survey revealed that the
student are interested in the practical knowledge provided with the help of work integrated
learning. It also describes a 17 capabilities provided by the survey in a tabular form. It can be
said that this survey and article is appropriate in providing the relevant aspects of WIL and
PACE.
It can be concluded from this paper that Work integrated Learning (WIL) is efficient
solution of tackling the prevailing unemployment in the Australia. The collaboration of the
university and employer for the sake of employment of the student is found to be effective by the
student and the relevant evidence is provided with the help of surveys in this paper. It can be
concluded that the initiate of Professional and community engagement is found to be appropriate.

4INFORMATION SYNTHESIS
References
Carter, L.M. and Romero, A., 2014. Work integrated learning and student satisfaction: a
qualitative study in a business school.
Jackson, D., 2018. Challenges and strategies for assessing student workplace performance during
work-integrated learning. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 43(4), pp.555-570.
Jackson, D., 2018. Developing Graduate Career Readiness in Australia: Shifting from Extra-
Curricular Internships to Work-Integrated Learning. International Journal of Work-Integrated
Learning, 19(1), pp.23-35.