As the demands of the contemporary workplace continue to grow, the value of Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) at South African higher education institutions has never been more clear. Over the last couple of decades, universities have been tasked with the responsibility of producing work-ready graduates who will not only meet the expectations of the working world, but also introduce new knowledge, innovative solutions and forward-thinking technologies to their newfound milieu. Like other parts of the world, South Africa has struggled to bridge the gap between “the skills graduates are equipped with and those that are required in the workforce” as Professor Francis Peterson, Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free-State, wrote for the 2020 Mail & Guardian in 2020.
In response to these challenges, HERESA has ensured that WIL forms a significant part of its mandate. Our WIL Community of Practice is a space in which members can discuss matters related to building industry relationships, officialising WIL at their institutions and the responses from students regarding their learning experience. For the HERESA Café, titled “The Evolution of WIL: Are we ready?”, our colleagues from Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK) expanded on the development of WIL in the Finnish higher education system, raised some of the issues they have encountered and discussed how best to create synergies between industry, educators and students.
To get a sense of what was spoken about in this Café, we spoke to Jiri Vilppola, Senior Lecturer in Pedagogic Innovations and Culture at TAMK about the difficulties of defining WIL, the lessons that traditional universities could learn from vocational universities regarding industry relationships and learning in workplace, as well as the benefits of WIL for industry, educators and students.
Khanya Mtshali for HERESA: How would you define Work-Integrated Learning (WIL)?
JV: This was the first question on your list and I have to say, I was a bit overwhelmed because it’s a wide question so it’s hard to keep it short. A couple of days ago, I Googled “workplace learning” and there were over three million hits. So it’s clearly a widely discussed topic and if you read all of those hits, you get a variety of definitions. But for many educators and teachers, the basic breakdown for Work-Integrated Learning is that people learn while doing work which has been a constant since the conception of the modern workplace. Humanity has always learned by working and doing and we have done with and without formal education. However, if we narrow that original definition for educators, teachers, it is the collaboration and corroboration between educational institutes and workplaces.
H: In a HERESA podcast episode on our WIL Community of Practice, Dr Henri Jacobs from CUT (who also serves as the chair for this WIL chair), outlined the tripartite relationship between industry, educators and students that’s necessary for the running of a WIL programme. Could you unpack the role of each party within that relationship?
JV: I think the most challenging one to unpack is the role of industry and workplaces because it brings both challenges and opportunities. In Finland, we tend to ask, “what is this organisation’s primary mission?” and usually, industry’s primary mission is not guiding students. It’s typically serving customers, generating profits or keeping their businesses running, for example. So they are not as involved in the educational degree programmes. I think the role of educators, besides guiding and teaching students, is devising good systems which incentivise industry and workplaces to collaborate [with higher education institutions] because it’s not mandatory for them to engage in WIL programmes. In our education system, WIL is mandatory, legislatively speaking, for schools. It’s not mandatory for workplaces. As educators, we need to come up with motivating practices that provide industry a reason to collaborate with us on WIL programmes. And of course, students are there so we’re in the middle trying to get them through their degrees, but we find that they usually want to learn in workplaces if that is enabled for them.
H: This might appear obvious, but could you tell us what are the benefits of WIL for students?
JV: Like I said, usually students prefer “learning by working” than sitting in a classroom and learning theory. I’m not sure if that’s true in all countries, but we certainly have that kind of situation in Finland. We find that approach gets them motivated because they learn to adopt more working life skills like how to arrive at work on time, how to deal with customers, how to handle complicated situations at work and so on. That way, when they graduate, they are more prepared to step into their working lives than they would be if they just spent their time in a classroom.
H: The benefits of WIL might be clear for students, but could you tell us the benefits of WIL for employers and educators? I appreciated the point you made about earlier about the need for educators to incentivise industry to participate in WIL because it is really the first step before setting this kind of learning in motion.
JV: So I’ll speak from a Finnish educational point of view. We have tried to construct a system which benefits workplaces. The way those benefits play out is that we position our students as an additional source of labour or resource at no cost to that workplace. In addition, we emphasise that students can bring up-to-date knowledge and practices to workplaces. If the schools provide students with modern skills and competences then the workplace benefits from the presence of those students. In that setting, the student can develop and build on those practices in order to bring new insights to that workplace which, in my view, is value for money.
H: Thank you for that. You have given us a sense of how WIL functions in the Finnish higher education system. However, could you expand upon how it operates at your institution, TAMK?
JV: I think overall, I can say we are going in a better direction in terms of WIL. What we have noticed is that we are learning better practices from our vocational institutions. In Finland, vocational education is very strongly tied to workplaces through legislation. For us who work in higher education, we have learnt helpful and informative practices from them. The vocational students who are placed in the workplace come from different educational backgrounds and levels and the workplaces are used to working with schools. For example, if you look at hospitals, there are cleaning personnel and practical nurses which are vocational professions. Then there are nurses who, in Finnish higher education, study at universities of applied sciences and of course, you have doctors with university degrees. Hospitals have a long history of working with schools and educators. So that’s one aspect of it. The other aspect is that we are becoming better at “Studification” which is a university course that has competence goals and you can get credit for the course by attending lectures, handing in assignments and so on. But you can also get the credits by working and demonstrating that you are developing those same competencies by working. I think that’s one thing we’re really focusing on developing. Studification is a new and interesting development in higher education, especially.
H: Correct me if I’m wrong, but Studification sounds rather similar to instances where universities,especially in the United States, treat internship and apprenticeship opportunities as part of a student’s accreditation. For the people who may not be familiar with WIL, could you explain whether that is or is not different to WIL? What do institutions require for work placements to be considered WIL-like?
JV: I think that is one part of WIL and that is a solid practice. Like with all forms of WIL, you cannot necessarily say that it is a good method or a bad method. It depends on what students can do or accomplish at workplaces. Working can really help students develop competences but in some instances, it can also hold them back. So when you ask about the requirements for these work placements to be considered as part of WIL, students must be involved in goal-directed work and the content of that work must be aligned to the goals of the curriculum degree programme of the student.
H: Based on your experiences, how would you advise institutions or educators to approach industry for WIL partnerships? Earlier you mentioned that a vocational university, for example, is more inclined to have a stronger relationship with industry based on the nature of what they teach. However, how would you suggest those in higher education institutions foster those relationships with industry for WIL partnerships?
JV: I would say that institutions and educators have to take the initiative to make those relationships with industry a reality. As I said earlier, offering learning opportunities is not the primary mission of a workplace. It is the primary mission of schools and teachers. In Finland, what has motivated workplaces to work with higher education institutions is that educators have taken the initiative to come up with suggestions for collaboration. Sometimes when you approach workplaces and simply ask if they can work with your institution, the answer is usually no because they will tell you that they don’t have time. But if educators contact a workplace, explain the advantages of WIL to them and emphasise that they don’t have to do too much in terms of handling the students, then it won’t be too challenging for them to take on. I think that it is a better way to motivate workplaces to engage in WIL partnerships. However, schools and educators need to take the responsibility of collaboration. They have to take it upon themselves to lead and monitor WIL partnerships so that everything goes as planned.
H: Recently, THENSA launched WIL-SA which will, amongst other things, work towards officialising WIL in South African higher education. How critical is it for WIL to receive that kind of support from the higher education system? Especially when it comes to funding?
JV: Well, I think it is almost mandatory! In my Finnish experience, in higher education, WIL is not suggested by legislation which means that it is rather scarce in some of our institutions in comparison to vocational universities, as I mentioned, where the funding and legislation strongly suggests that there must be provision for workplace learning for students which influences the whole system. So when you ask how important it is for WIL to be officialised, my answer is that it is crucial because it is not aligned to the mission of workplaces. It is aligned to the mission of institutions and educators. We have to devise these roles alongside workplaces and we have to consider their priorities and needs. So it is a question of balancing our priorities with theirs.
Interview and Article: Ms Khanya Mtshali
