Chapter 20: Stakeholders Voices – The Integration Gap: An evaluation of work-int
Chapter 20: Stakeholders Voices – The Integration Gap: An evaluation of work-integrated learning in professional practice
Kevin Burns
Kevin Burns, Dundalk Institute of Technology
Abstract
Increasingly, programs in universities are being positioned as exemplars of ‘higher vocational education’, with expectations that graduates will enjoy smooth transitions into professional practice. Aligned with these expectations, is the need to provide authentic work-integrated learning (WIL) practice, and with these being effectively integrated into the higher education curriculum. While WIL attempts to address this issue, it is questionable how successful this really is if students are not adequately prepared prior to their placement. This chapter highlights the issues involved and explores them through a qualitative evaluation from the perspectives of key WIL stakeholders within a higher education hospitality department in Ireland. Findings revealed that both university and employers need to enhance curricula and pedagogic practices to ensure authentic experiences, integrative learning and alignment.
Introduction/Rationale
The fundamental purpose of quality higher education is to enhance the skills of students and ultimately to prepare them for employment after university (Harvey & Green, 1993). Today’s tertiary institutions, including universities, are in transition where greater emphasis is placed on systems with close industry partnerships. Increasingly both industry and government are seeing the purpose of universities as ensuring that graduates are “job-ready” when they graduate. Higher education institutions, in turn, must respond to demands for practical, real world education that is relevant, current, and translates theory to practice. To address this outcome, higher education institutions are embedding work-integrated learning (WIL), or practical placements into the curriculum to provide students with an authentic learning experience. WIL is acknowledged as developing generic or professional skills and improving the employability and work readiness of students (Patrick, Peach, Pocknee, Webb, Fletcher & Pretto, 2008), with the professional nature of Hospitality studies ideally suited to such practices (Smith, Clegg, Lawrence and Todd, 2007). While accepted as an important feature of many programmes, surprisingly little research has examined their effectiveness.
This chapter reports on a study that sought to evaluate how WIL ready students are for placement, identify the gaps that exist between current provision and stakeholders’ expectations, and ascertain and integrate key indicators for good practice to strengthen and improve work integrated learners’ employability. Its objectives are to identify gaps that exist between pedagogical provision and stakeholders’ expectations in preparing students for their placement. The study concentrates on the WIL programme at a hotel management school in Ireland, based in a progressive higher education institution