An integrated model for the evaluation of work placements

A fundamental purpose of university education is to enhance the skills of students. Recently there has been an increasing focus within the Australian higher education system to embed a greater amount of work-integrated learning (WIL) into the curriculum. The evaluation of different types of WIL is important, as is its improvement through evidence-based decisions. Researchers and theorists have been able to extend and develop theories (such as constructive alignment) and processes (such as the triangulation method) to inform work placement evaluation. These methods are not always used concurrently, and the complexity of work placements, and the large variation within these, may be reasons why no consistent evaluation measure has been refined. A neglected key stakeholder in formal evaluation process of work placements (particularly when the goal is graduate employability) is the recent course graduate. Here, we propose an integrated framework for evaluation of work placements that incorporates involvement of recent graduates.

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