The role of Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) in enhancing employability skills: graduate perspectives.

Abstract

This paper investigated the role of WIL in enhancing students’ employability skills in one comprehensive university in South Africa. It explored which employability skills graduates perceive to be enhanced as a result of participating in a WIL programme. This was achieved by utilizing a qualitative research approach in collecting data. Thirty recent graduates who completed a National Diploma in Small Business Management (ND: SBM) with a compulsory component of WIL at the end of 2015 were interviewed and two focus group discussions were conducted. While it has been reported that WIL is an important feature that assists learners to be work-ready when they complete their qualifications, there is paucity of published work that is based on students’ perspectives in this area. A lot of research on graduates’ employability based on the perceptions of employers and those of academics have been published. The present work attempts to fill that gap. All graduates interviewed believed their self-confidence, communication skills, teamwork skills, time management, and professionalism have improved significantly due to their participation in a WIL program. It is hoped that findings from this review will provide an opportunity for academics to understand the learning that has occurred during students’ WIL experience. This work is therefore related to Tourism and Hospitality as the students from these disciplines also undergo WIL. The findings are thus also relevant to them.

Keywords

• Work-integrated learning
• employability skills
• graduate employability
• work placement
• work-ready