A review of work integrated learning in Australian engineering education

Work integrated learning (WIL) has increasingly been becoming an important part of engineering higher education. This paper analyses the major research that has occurred primarily in the last decade in the area of engineering WIL. Research studies have identified industry and community needs and revealed the shortage of skilled graduate engineers in the Australian industry owing to the scarcity of industry-ready graduate engineers. This situation has resulted from a mismatch between the requirements and the number of skilled engineering graduates from Australian universities. The authors identify that the duration of WIL available for Bachelor of Engineering programs is very short. Thus, engineering students are not receiving adequate workplace learning opportunities to develop industry-readiness. Current WIL for engineering students is not effectively coordinated due to the absence of an effective framework. Students often need to organise their placements because many universities provide minimal support to individual students. The authors explore the research on WIL and its impact on engineering education quality, industrial productivity and graduate employability. There is a substantial need to increase the weightage of WIL and improve the outcomes of engineering education via a more effective work integrated approach. This paper emphasises the necessity of appropriately structuring WIL in empirical learning practice and propose an enhanced WIL (EWIL) framework to address the gaps in the effectiveness and quality outcomes of engineering education