Purpose: Work integrated learning (WIL) activities, especially internships, are essential for career preparation and development. This paper applies career adaptability and capital theories to examine how international internships help undergraduate business students in their career exploration, preparation and development.…

Purpose: Responding to increasing external pressure, universities are developing new strategies to illustrate the impact of their degrees on graduate employability. This paper investigates how alumni regard the development of their professional networks during their tertiary education in relation to employability and the associated pedagogical…

The notion of employability has become a focal point of higher education in many countries' strategies to prepare students for employment. Responses to this notion can differ largely from country to country and from university to university, based on their historical, political, and economic contexts. However, very little has been researched in…

This article explores the perspectives of participants from a partnership established between Western Sydney University (WSU) and the National Rugby League (NRL), a large and multifaceted international sporting organization. Ten students from WSU's Pasifika Achievement to Higher Education (PATHE) initiative took part in an internship program with…

Over recent years, much has been said about the quality of Australian initial teacher education. Concerns about the preparation of pre-service teachers and the capacity of graduates to meet the demands of the classroom have re-emphasised professional experience as a fundamental component of high-quality teacher preparation. Simultaneously, this…

In the ten years since Australia's first large-scale scoping study of Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) there has been a rapid increase in WIL research and undergraduate WIL opportunities. Though well-established in undergraduate degrees, WIL in postgraduate research degrees is relatively unexplored. Less than half of PhD graduates in Australia are…

In this paper, the extent to which a compulsory non-placement work-integrated learning (WIL) activity, in the form of a simulated internship, in an Australian undergraduate accounting program, created learning outcomes for students with different levels of prior work-experience is assessed. The paper extends prior, theoretically based literature…

Previous scholarly work has elaborated on challenges faced by Chinese international returnees at Chinese workplaces. However, limited research has captured to what extent such challenges have involved Chinese Australian graduates in gaining employment in China. Hence this study investigates the challenges involved in obtaining successful…

This exploratory study seeks to obtain the views of strategic decision-makers surrounding the implementation of Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) Accountancy programs in Australian universities. Using an online questionnaire with mainly open-ended questions, the results showed most respondents perceived WIL programs as important and should be offered…

This paper discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic can shift the conversation of paid and unpaid placements from an economic to a pedagogical and goodwill perspective. During the pandemic lockdown many placements were cancelled or postponed. Some continued as agreed but with students working from home, while other placements became unpaid. We build on…

A presumption behind work-integrated learning activities such as internship programmes is that student thinking will shift as a result of exposure to industry practice. We wondered if all students experience this change in the positive sense that teachers expect. To examine this presumption we asked to what extent and in what ways students…

Studies on internships within initial teacher education have existed in literature since the early 1900s, they have espoused the benefits of experiential learning or critiqued the variance available in terms of structure, length of time and purpose. However, little research on teacher internships has been reported within a policy context. This…

There is broad acknowledgement that higher education should produce career-ready graduates and the role of practical experience--such as part-time employment, unregulated extra-curricular internships and work-integrated learning (WIL)--in achieving this. WIL is critical for developing the non-technical skills, disciplinary expertise and career…

Internships are becoming more relevant to universities as they provide students with practical skills that can be aligned with their career aspirations. Typically, successful undergraduate internship programs depend on the efficiency and design of the university internship program; the student commitment to the internship; and host organization's…

Increasingly those working in higher education are tasked with targeting their teaching approaches and techniques to improve the "employability" of graduates. However, this approach is promoted with little recognition that enhanced employability does not guarantee employment outcomes or the tensions inherent in pursuing this agenda. The…