Issues and Challenges Identified in the Development of a Broad Multidisciplinary Work Integrated Learning Package

Work integrated learning (WIL) units can be discipline specific and constructed for majors or degrees with a strong vocational orientation. This paper describes an undergraduate unit with its genesis in a public relations internship. The original unit enjoyed strong support from industry partners and was instrumental in many graduates securing employment. The school owning the public relations major also offers other majors and degrees and sought to capture the eagerness of students to engage in workplace participation, but against an institutional imperative to consolidate teaching activities The challenge was to create sufficient universality without diluting the success enjoyed by the PR internship program or detracting from the need for effective WIL outcomes. The result was a set of processes, assessments and management practices that could be efficiently and readily adopted by any participating discipline. The unit could run every semester and separate disciplines could opt in or out. Efficiencies were to be optimized while still delivering the outcomes desired by students, industry partners, and the academics involved.