Abstract:

There is an increasing demand in today's society to engage students in learning to learn, enabling them to become lifelong learners and continually develop their skills and competencies throughout their careers. Work-integrated learning (WIL) provides diverse learning environments that help students bridge and integrate experiences from academic and workplace settings, and thus, comprises a crucial component in preparing students for the complexities of modern working life and fostering lifelong learning skills. In the higher education sector, WIL has been developed in several colleges and universities worldwide, and countries like Australia and Canada have designed prominent examples of quality assurance for specific WIL activities. However, there are few national initiatives that combine various stakeholder's perspectives and there is a lack of knowledge about the quality dimension of WIL-based learning in both higher education and working life.

This paper builds on experiences from the strategic and qualitative development of Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) at University West in Sweden. It is part of ongoing research that aims to develop a quality framework to support collaboration and communities of educators in the understanding, design, and application of WIL in both higher education and professional working life. In a previous study, we have identified and provided knowledge underpinning the understanding and application of WIL from a multi-perspective approach involving both educators, researchers, students and strategic partners. Initial findings indicate that fostering collaboration between academia, industry, and society can generate insights, solutions, and mutual development to address societal challenges. Through creating a quality framework for WIL, it becomes evident that through interaction with colleagues and stakeholders the impact of WIL on education and lifelong learning becomes more visible for all stakeholders. In this qualitative study, we take the point of departure specifically from the strategic partner perspective, with the aim to understand WIL in the practice of education according to lifelong learning in a workplace context. We pose the following research question: How can a quality enhancement framework be collaboratively applied in real-world scenarios to enhance WIL quality?

Data collection activities include workshops and interviews with participants from target groups at the partner organization. The paper will discuss the application of a WIL quality enhancement framework, with a focus on how it can support designing and applying WIL initiatives effectively in a work-life setting.

References:
[1] Billett, S. (2014). Mimetic Learning in and for Work. In Mimetic Learning at Work (pp. 1-21): Springer.
[2] Jaldemark, J. D., Håkansson Lindqvist, M., Mozelius, P. D. & Ryberg, T. (2021). Editorial introduction: Lifelong learning in the digital era. British Journal of Educational Technology, 52(4), pp. 1576-1579.
[3] Lundh Snis, U., Vallo Hult, H., Smidt Södergård, H., Linder, J., Carlén, U., Johansson, K., Fredriksson Larsson, U., Påsse, M. & Tano, I. (2023). Enhancing work-integrated learning (WIL) through strategic stakeholder collaboration. In ICERI2023 (pp.1298-1302). 13-15 November, 2023, Seville, Spain.
[4] McRae, N., Pretti, T. J., & Church, D. (2018). Work-integrated learning quality framework. Work-Learn Institute, University of Waterloo.

Keywords:

Work-integrated learning (WIL), strategic partnerships, pedagogical design, competence development and lifelong learning.