FROM WORK INTEGRATED LEARNING (WIL) TO WIL-ELEMENT

Well-being in the society and improvement of people's life standards are linked to sustainable development in society. Stimulation of the individual's learning, competencies and career development contributes to community development and hence promotion of the sustainable development of our society in the future. Therefore it is of great importance to discuss different learning concepts and developing theories of learning and work integrated learning (WIL).

University West vision is a work integrated learning, as approach and method. Discussion and debate about what WIL is and how it should be applied in education and courses is going on constantly on the university and has largely been made since the university was founded. On the syllabuses of different courses on basic and advanced level, stats that the work integrated learning elements should be mentioned. On the guidelines presents examples of what WIL-element can be, leaves to those who plans the courses to identify what such a moment can be. My view is that; as definition and identification of such moments are, left to every employee, there is an uncertainty in what WIL-element actually is. Different disciplines can define the concept differently and thereby the uncertainty is high about what really WIL-elements can be. That is why, I believe it is of great importance to discuss what WIL is?.

Purpose of the study is to identify what the colleges at university west, consider to be WIL-elements and how it is applied in practice in courses. The study's purpose is also to contribute to the theoretical development of WIL and theories of learning.

Part one is introduction. Part two deals with description of WIL, theoretical foundations for the study. Work-integrated learning has been defined differently and in different ways. But what is common is the combination of theory and practice or academia and work/workplace.
In part three discusses approach and survey’s design and empirical presentation. In part four presents some facts from reality, ie, empirical facts.

Part five is about discussion and conclusions. When discussing WIL, often is focus and emphases is primarily on the workplace and experiential learning. While on University West, is focus on theoretical learning in the first place, not on the workplace. The focus is on the learning that happens at the university and how it should be linked to practice and workplace. This means that the starting point is from the opposite side. Another aspect is that, the perception of WIL, is vague and not precise.