Why the interest in WIL?
The current interest in WIL in higher education is closely linked to governments’ and industries’
concern with lifting workplace participation and productivity, addressing skills and labour
shortages and keeping pace with increasing demand and intensifying international competition.
Australia is facing major labour and skills shortages but has near to full employment with record
low unemployment. In addition, an aging workforce means that there is an increasing need to
keep the skills of employees current and relevant while they continue working.
All sectors of education are being asked to respond to Australia’s labour and skills challenges.
WIL has long been used as a pathway for work-readiness in professional education.
Increasingly, however, WIL is being positioned as one of the key opportunities for improving the
work-readiness of all graduates even in areas that have not traditionally been linked to clear
employment outcomes.
A number of studies from the last decade have raised concerns about the work-readiness of
graduates not in terms of graduates lack of disciplinary knowledge but in terms of their generic
employability skills (ACNielsen Research Services 2000; ACCI/BCA 2002). A more recent
Business Industry and Higher Education Collaboration Council (BIHECC) report which sought
to provide advice to the Commonwealth Government on ways to improve employability skills
observed that: