2.1 Internships
2.1.4 Internship as Work-Based Learning (WBL) and Work-Integrated Learning (WIL)
Various researchers acknowledge the organisation of internships by HEIs as the working out of an institutional mechanism to help students’ transfer from university to work (Dhakal et al., 2018). I present these learning strategies used by HEIs as work-based learning (WBL) and work- integrated learning (WIL). It details these strategies in sections 2.1.4.1 and 2.1.4.2.
2.1.4.1 Work-Based Learning
Work-based learning (WBL) is an educational, elaborate and systematic plan of action that allows students to take advantage of the practical work experiences in a workplace as opposed to the academic world-life. In the workplace, students can apply whatever academic knowledge and technical skills they have learned in classrooms, developing their employability (North Carolina State Board of Education, 2000-2017). WBL entails a recorded planned programme of study that uses the workplace environment for student learning. WBL programmes may be formal, non-formal, informal, structured, or strategic (UNESCO, 2012; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2016). Employers train staff, coordinating their work and occasionally allowing them to meet other community members (Keevy & ChaKroun, 2015).
Dhakal et al., (2018) agrees that work-based learning units’ theory with practice and the tacit forms of understanding. Earlier research suggests that in the WBL experiences, the employer may or may not allocate an allowance to interns and the training is career-oriented (Prikshat et al., 2018). During WBL, students find motivating opportunities to engage in and increase their learning. WBL’s experiences may include apprenticeships, internships, business or industry field trips, job shadowing, entrepreneurial experiences, cooperative education, school-based enterprises, and service-learning (Dhakal et al., 2018).
Employers respect work-based learning because the competencies gained by graduates are those that employers need in the workplace. For example, to earn a degree or a professional
23
certification, various professional people in domains such as health, legal, and educational, complete a compulsory internship.
2.1.4.2 Work-Integrated Learning
The study of Dhakal et al., (2018) found that Work-integrated learning (WIL) uses the same principles and methods of instruction as for the pedagogy of practice. Students incorporate experiences gained in educational and workplace backgrounds. Many studies point out that work-integrated learning makes for more intense learning and development of the students (Kennedy, Billet, Gherardi & Grealish, 2015; ICEF Monitor, 2017). The curricula include the employability skills of work-based learning in the workplace. Another study refers to the published curricular learning in the place of work (Fong & Lin, 2017). The same research points out that WIL provides students with a chance to combine theory and practice in a real working environment (Lin & Ho, 2015). Work-related talents deepen and enhance the students’
knowledge and understanding. Students, therefore, develop their skills and knowledge through authentic experiences in a professional discipline-specific practical context (Tsukamoto, 2016).
WIL aims to develop students’ employability skills and knowledge in the workshop. Orrell’s (2011) comments seem to be a fundamental supposition that academics/lecturers cannot teach soft skills in the classroom. Thus, the motive for graduates from all courses is to be work-ready by developing their soft skills (Business Magazine and Verde Frontier Employability Survey, 2016). There is a consensus among researchers that the prime force behind the increase of WIL programmes is the Government-driven agendas (Jackson, 2016). Policymakers wish that academics/lecturers and employers would discuss the shortages of skills to make sure that students gain work experiences and their readiness. The role of the employer in supporting WIL is to admit pre-work incorporated learning actions, for example, the recruitment, and WIL actions. During the WIL experience, the roles of employers can be as helpers, supervisors, mentors, and assessors (Montague et al., 2018). Researchers working on the WIL find an increase in students’ experiences with employment and the place of work (Puthucheary, 2017). WIL improves the students’ employability or soft skills by making them work-ready.
Many of the current literature on WIL pays particular attention to interpreting the term “work- integrated learning” (PhilipsKPA, 2014; Pilgrim & Koppi, 2012). More recent attention has focused on the provision to insert internships in study programmes by HEIs. I conceive the ideas as learning experiences having the essential qualities for connecting theoretical knowledge and practice, involving active participation experiences (Employability and Career Forum
24
Employability, 2017). The critical pedagogical relevancy, grounded on the assumption that internships produce open contextualised learning, promotes both professional development and students’ self-pride and pro-activity. During their internships, graduates have the opportunity of new networking with professionals in their fields (CTI, 2017; Priyono & Nankervis, 2018).
Earlier researches report that a significant undiscovered part of the employability of graduate concerns the purpose and aptness of work-based learning (WBL) or work-integrating learning (WIL) experiences through internships are lacking (Jackson, 2015). WEF (2017) asserts that within a planned curriculum that integrates theory with practice, the term “work-integrated learning” (WIL) relates to an array of approaches and strategies. The term “WIL” is difficult to fix as they have used various terms in various fields to make plain and comprehensible having the same or almost the same characteristics (Dhakal et al., 2018). While other subjects use the term “WIL” in the discussion of different programmes. The acronym “WIL” is also often used with “work-integrated or work-integrated learning, The Co-op or The Co-op education, The Co- op or The Co-op learning, cooperative or cooperative education, cooperative learning, work- based learning, workplace learning, service learning, experiential learning, experiential education, practicum, field practicum, field placement, internship, practice-based learning,” to name but a few (Sattler, 2011: 5). The survey carried out by PhillipsKP (2014) reports that only 50% of employers are genuinely familiar with the term “WIL.” The study of Nankervis et al., (2018) reports the great debate and discussion among institutional key witnesses about a common concise explanation of the meaning of the term “work-integrated learning.” They agree on more or less the hope of reaching unanimity on the definition offered by Billet (2009b). Billet (2009b:
v) defines WIL as “the process whereby students come to learn from experiences in educational and practice settings and integrate the contributions of those experiences in developing the understandings, procedures, and dispositions needed for effective professional practice, including criticality. Work-integrated learning arrangements include the kinds of curriculum and pedagogical practices that can help give and integrate learning experiences in both educational and practice settings.” (Peters, 2017).
However, most employers are used to specific types of WIL, placements, and internships.
Placements include internships and other forms of WIL. We can integrate the internship into the curriculum, varying in length, full-time or part-time, paid or unpaid. Students may arrange for their placements with employers, and placements are organised by HEIs (Montague et al., 2018).
I consider the placement model as the most effective form of WIL because the students are learning in the workplace (Nankervis et al., 2018). Industry projects are a common form of WIL
25
involving the various industry-linked projects undertaken in the workplace (Yimie, 2018). When industry placements are not available, WIL organises learning experiences in an educational setting (Rothwell & Rothwell, 2017). Such approaches cannot be used to make a complete or perfect real-life work experience. WIL has proved very successful and is now viewed with great favour in higher education (Smigiel, Macleod & Stephenson, 2015). The following section addresses employability.