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Center for Engaged Learning

What is work-integrated learning.

by Julia Bleakney

September 13, 2019

Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) is a well-theorized pedagogical practice that facilitates students’ learning through connecting or integrating experiences across academic and workplace contexts (Billett, 2009).  Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario’s 2016  Practical Guide for Work-Integrated Learning  offers a helpful introduction and resources for mentors .

[Also see our Work-Integrated Learning Resource Page !]

Various versions of WIL are in place in post-secondary educational contexts in Canada, Australia, South Africa, the U.K., and Europe, and WIL functions as an umbrella category for some types of experiential learning common in the U.S. and other contexts. Examples of this learning-practice integration include work placements, work-terms, internships, practica, cooperative education (co-op), fieldwork, work-related projects/competitions, service learning, entrepreneurships, student-led enterprises, applied projects, simulations (including virtual WIL), etc. (International Journal of Work-Integrated Learning; see Figure 1 below, from HEQCO 2016, 34).

Universities support WIL pedagogy in ways that are similar to support for service learning in US-based universities; for example, Murdoch University in Perth, Australia , provides support to staff with: (a) designing WIL learning activities and assessment items; (b) managing some of the processes associated with internships; (c) student preparation workshops and online modules; (d) a resource library; and by (e) facilitating a community of practice. In another example, at the University of Wollongong, the Careers Central office offers a variety of credit-bearing courses and programs in career-readiness tailored to different student populations or work contexts. Despite the wide variety of different WIL models, many are grounded in a focus on intention and integration–intentional approaches to blending workplace and curricular learning, and the integration of theory and practice ( Sachs, Rowe, and Wilson 2016 , 10).

Forms of WIL (HEQCO 2016, 34; based on O’Shea 2014)

Elements of WIL

Sattler (2011) identified three approaches or models for WIL: the first is what she terms systematic training , in which the workplace is “the central piece of the learning” (such as an apprenticeship); the second is structured work experience , in which students are familiarized with the world of work within a postsecondary education program (e.g., field experience, professional practice, co-op, internship); and the third is institutional partnerships , which refer to “education activities [designed] to achieve industry or community goals” (e.g., service learning) (Sattler 2011, 29; HEQCO 2016, 6). 

Dimensions of WIL (Ontario 2010, 6)

Cooper, Orwell, and Bowden (2010) developed the outer nodes on this Dimensions of WIL wheel (see above), highlighting dimensions that help with the planning and success of WIL. To these dimensions, Cantalini-Williams (2015) added the “CANWILL” framework for developing effective work-integrated learning experiences: CANWILL (curriculum, assessment, networking, workplace, integration, learning, and logistics) focuses on the delivery of WIL experiences. 

WIL and Learning Theories

Researchers have identified several theories of student learning that help explain the benefit of WIL and that also provide a framework for assessing its learning outcomes. Summarized by Sattler (2011) and Keating (2006), these include situated learning theory, action theory and boundary crossing, pedagogy of the workplace, and critical education theory. Additional theories include action learning, transformational learning theory, and the “Turning Experience into Learning Framework” (Boud, Keogh, and Walker 1985). Finally, Ontario uses Kolb’s modes of experiential learning. 

WIL and Writing

Based on a key-word search of articles published in the International Journal of Work-Integrated Learning (until 2016 titled Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education ), I found that writing intersects with WIL in a couple of key ways. First, reflection is often used as a tool for students to process learning; while students can use different modes for reflection, reflective writing is one important mode (see Edgar, Francis-Coad, and Connaughton 2013, who examine whether reflective writing is relevant for professional practice). In addition, writing is identified as a key competency in studies of employer expectations (e.g., Hodges and Burchell 2003). Finally, case study articles of an institution’s WIL that focus on student learning outcomes will often include written communication as an outcome (e.g., Alanson and Robles 2016). 

Opportunities for Future Research

As an institutional practice, WIL provides an established framework grounded in learning theory to support students’ learning in and through workplace settings. The WIL scholarship has not drawn from studies of workplace writing or writing knowledge transfer that have emerged from writing studies contexts, although of course the writing studies field has focused on internships and other workplace writing contexts (e.g. Anson and Forsberg 1990; Baird and Dilger 2017). However, case study assessments of WIL initiatives or studies of employer expectations that focus specifically on writing may provide important insights into how writing is both a tool for learning in – and a competency of – WIL.

Works Cited

• Alanson, Erik R, and Richard A Robles. 2016. “Using Electronic Portfolios to Explore Essential Student Learning Outcomes in a Professional Development Course.”  Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education  17, no. 4: 387–97.
• Anson, Chris M., and L. Lee Forsberg. 1990. “Moving Beyond the Academic Community: Transitional Stages in Professional Writing.” Written Communication 7 , no. 2: 200–231.
• Baird, Neil, and Bradley Dilger. 2017. “How Students Perceive Transitions: Dispositions And Transfer In Internships.” College Composition and Communication 68, no 4: 684-712
• Billett, Stephen. 2009. “Realising the Educational Worth of Integrating Work Experiences in Higher Education.” Studies in Higher Education 827-843.
• Boud, D., Keogh, R., & Walker, D. (1985). Reflection: Turning Learning into Experience . New York: Routledge.
• Cantalini-Williams, M. 2015. “Teacher Candidates’ Experiences in Non-traditional Practicum Placements: Developing Dimensions for Innovative Work-integrated Learning Models.” In The Complexity of Hiring, Supporting, and Retaining New Teachers Across Canada , by N Maynes and B E Hatt, Canadian Association.
• Cooper, Lesley, Janice Orrell, and Margaret Bowden. 2010. Work Integrated Learning: A Guide to Effective Practice. London: Routledge.
• Edgar, Susan, Jaqueline Francis-Coad, Joanne Connaughton. 2013. “Undergraduate Reflective Journaling in Work Integrated Learning: Is it Relevant to Professional Practice?”  Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education 14 no. 3: 147-156.
• Hodges, Dave, and Noel Burchell. 2003. “Business Graduate Competencies: Employers’ Views on Importance and Performance.” Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education 16–22.
• Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (“HEQCO”). 2016. A Practical Guide for Work-Integrated Learning: Effective Practices to Enhance the Educational Quality of Structured Work Experiences Offered through Colleges and Universities. Ontario: Queen’s Printer for Ontario.
• Keating, S. 2006. Learning in the workplace: a literature review. Victoria University. Retrieved from http://tls.vu.edu.au/PEC/PEC_docs/PEC%20LIW%20literature%20review%20final.pdf 
• Murdoch University. “Work Integrated Learning.” Accessed June 27, 2019. https://www.murdoch.edu.au/Work-Integrated-Learning/Staff/.
• O’Shea, Annissa. 2014. “Models of WIL.” In Work integrated learning in the Curriculum. Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australia guide , by Sonia Ferris, 7-14. Australia Collaboration Education Network Ltd.
• Sachs, Judyth, Anna Rowe, and Michael Wilson. 2016. “2016 Good Practice Report–Work Integrated Learning.” Australian Government Department of Education and Training. Accessed July 23, 2019. https://research-management.mq.edu.au/ws/portalfiles/portal/3559753 4
• Sattler, Peggy. 2011. Work-Integrated Learning in Ontario’s Postsecondary Sector. Toronto: Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario.
• University of Wollongong. “Work Integrated Subjects.” Accessed July 23, 2019. https://www.uow.edu.au/student/careers/work-integrated-learning/

Julia Bleakney is director of The Writing Center in the Center for Writing Excellence and assistant professor of English at Elon University. She is co-leading the 2019-2021 research seminar on Writing Beyond the University: Fostering Writers’ Lifelong Learning and Agency.

How to cite this post:

Bleakney, Julia. 2019, September 13. What is Work-Integrated Learning? [Blog Post]. Retrieved from https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/what-is-work-integrated-learning/

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Chapter 1: Work-Integrated Learning (WIL)

1.1 What is Work-Integrated Learning?

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is an opportunity for you to participate in career-focused experiential education. This means that there is a combination of classroom learning and a work placement. You literally gain work experience while you go to school! A WIL experience will help you to connect what you are learning in-class to experiences you are having at work. It gives you an opportunity to apply the theory you learn in school to your real life and your future career. At the same time, WIL also helps you to reflect upon and better understand work through the safe space of a classroom. The goal of WIL is for you to plan for career development and self-directed learning. Basically, you will learn how to monitor your career development through engaging in self assessment, setting goals, and evaluating your progress.

Did you know that work-integrated learning is linked to an increased prospect for student employment after graduation (Galarneau, Kinack & Marshall, 2020)? Students who participate in WIL benefit from taking part in a genuine real-work environment or project and experience the nuances that go along with culture, interpersonal skills, critical thinking, and conflict resolution that are a part of working life. Taking part in a WIL experience will help you to understand what you need to do and how you need to prepare to enter the Canadian workforce.

Co-operative and Work-Integrated Learning Canada (CEWIL), describes WIL as:

A model and process of curricular experiential education which formally and intentionally integrates a student’s academic studies within a workplace or practice setting. WIL experiences include an engaged partnership of at least: an academic institution, a host organization, and a student. WIL can occur at the course or program level and includes the development of learning outcomes related to employability, personal agency and life-long learning (CEWIL Canada, 2020).

The work-integrated learning process requires a level of commitment from you, your instructor, and your employer. You will work together to help advance your career development. At first, you will spend time preparing for the work placement opportunity by developing employability skills, competencies, and knowledge that can be applied alongside their studies within the workplace. Then, you will get to work! You will gain practical experience in a developing career and put your acquired knowledge from classroom into practice at work.

What is Experiential Learning?

Work-integrated learning is a form of experiential learning. The word “experiential” highlights that your learning is occurring through experience. The structured process of WIL guides you through a cycle of learning. David Kolb (1984), a psychologist and educational theorist, developed a theory that outlined the cycle of experiential learning. He suggests that you work through stages that build upon one another based on the experiences that you have and how you think about them afterward. Kolb’s cycle, based on Lewin’s experiential model, links together four continual stages: experience (feeling), reflection (watching), conceptualization (thinking), and active experimentation (doing) (Kolb, 1984, p. 30). Figure 1 shows how you move through the cycle.

Use the following activity to explore each of the stages in Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle.

• An event, situation, or behaviour that made you go hmmm. In this stage of the learning cycle you pull from your experiences, whether current or past.
• Taking a step back to think about the bigger picture and how the experience made you feel. In this stage of the learning cycle you to dig into your experiences and ask questions for deeper understanding and learning.
• What can be applied from what you learned in class. Fitting what you’ve just learned into everything that you already know. In this stage of the learning cycle you are tying in concepts and forming conclusions based on your experiences and learning.
• How will you put what you have learned into practice? In this stage of the learning cycle, you apply your conclusions and new knowledge into practice towards new experiences.

Watch the video David Kolb’s Experiential Learning (5 minutes)

Media Attributions

• “Figure 1.1 Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle” by Deb Nielsen, Emily Ballantyne, Faatimah Murad, and Melissa Fournier is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 licence . Based on Kolb’s learning theory.
• “ David Kolb’s Experiential Learning ” video by Begrepen be is licensed under the Standard YouTube licence.

Getting Ready for Work-Integrated Learning by Deb Nielsen; Emily Ballantyne; Faatimah Murad; and Melissa Fournier is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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A framework for teaching work integrated learning projects

A framework for structuring work integrated learning (WIL) projects to train students in problem solving and creative thinking, from Nguyen Hoang Thuan and Pedro Antunes, based on their research and lecturing experience

Nguyen Hoang Thuan

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Work integrated learning (WIL) is a pedagogical approach that helps to prepare students for work and life by enabling them to apply what they have learned during their academic studies in a workplace context. WIL is therefore incorporated into most undergraduate programmes and helps to familiarise students with professional practice, fosters industry engagement and develops graduate employability. But what steps can we follow to structure WIL projects so they train students in the problem solving and creative thinking they are likely to need in the workplace?

We use design science , which seeks to enhance human knowledge via the creation of innovative artefacts or solutions, for structuring WIL projects across different courses, using the lecturers’ experience and insights. We found that four key elements make up an effective framework for teaching WIL projects:

• Establishing an authentic problem;
• Framing the problem;
• Framing the solution;
• Designing the solution

Authentic problem

To start, students should identify an authentic problem in which they are interested. Our experience shows that allowing students to select their own problems to work on leads to better engagement in the project. But lecturers must make sure the problem chosen is challenging, impactful and grounded in a real-world context. Examples of authentic problems identified by students include “negative impacts of humans on the environment”, and “seeking to improve healthy lifestyles”.

To help students explore the authentic problem, we can:

• Introduce students to real-world challenges that are relevant to the course;
• Invite guest speakers to talk about current difficulties in the field;
• Invite industry partners to become the project clients;
• As a lecturer, share previous success ful WIL projects;
• Allocate mentor times for the whole class or groups of students to consult on their WIL projects.

Problem framing

Problem framing is crucial to gaining a proper understanding of the problem by analysing it and coming up with clearer, more focused, definition. It helps students to understand that problems can be ill-defined, do not immediately lead to expected outcomes, and can be symptomatic of other problems.

During problem framing, students identify a set of constraints, requirements, causes and effects, all of which further define the problem. A starting point is to look at the cause-effect relationship, so, for example, for “negative impacts of humans on the environment”, the problem may, in part, be caused by low levels of recycling. This means that the problem can be framed as “negative impacts of humans on the environment due to a failure to recycle more”. Constraints might be related to a specific demographic or location, where recycling levels are particularly low and look at possible reasons. So, the focus then turns to how to solve the problem within this more focused framework, rather than a very broad problem with no one practical solution.

Once students have specified their problem, here are some tips to help them frame it:

• Ask students to interview relevant project “clients” for their pain points and the impacts of the problem on their lives or their businesses. In some cases, other students may play the client role in the interviews
• The Six Thinking Hats technique, which encourages students to consider a problem from different angles, can be used;
• Ask students to construct an empathy map, which offers a visualisation of how different groups may be affected by the problem;
• Encourage students to discuss the problem in groups;
• Encourage students to share their problem framing with the class and gather feedback.

Solution framing

Next, students should explore and frame satisfactory solutions for the problems. As there are always multiple potential solutions for a defined problem, several solutions may be identified and described during solution framing. Regarding the environmental recycling problem, for instance, students may explore the idea of “ smart ” recycling bins that can talk to people in order to encourage proper recycling behaviours, or recycling bins that can detect when they are full and autonomously move to empty themselves. Students should consider the expected properties, requirements and values of the identified solutions, in order to contextualise and justify their chosen solutions. Taking the smart recycling bins as an example, a key property to consider would be their default language; a requirement would be that the bins must adhere to required recycling rules in the country or region; a value would be that it must increase recycling rates.

Steps to enhance solution framing include:

• Encourage students to propose multiple solutions;
• Ask them what-if questions regarding expected properties, requirements or values of the identified solutions;
• Encourage students to search for relevant solutions from other disciplines;
• If students already have one solution, ask for alternatives;
• Encourage students to improve upon existing solutions.

Solution design

The framework finishes with solution or artefact design, which involves a cyclic design-evaluate activity. Ask students to design a prototype for their solutions and evaluate it. One way is to perform an in-class demonstration, where students show the prototype and explain how it addresses the problem. This can be done using a variety of techniques, such as storytelling, storyboarding and role-playing. They can then refine and improve their solution according to the class response and feedback. This cycle stimulates reflection-in-action and learning by doing. The project does not need to result in a complete and perfect solution but a proof of concept. Examples relating to the smart recycling bin include a prototype application to support the talking functions, an interactive interface for the bin, or a video showing a small-scale recycling bin autonomously moving to empty itself. These proofs of concept help demonstrate the feasibility of the solution, and how they will help boost recycling levels.

Here are some tips for prototyping:

• Introduce students to different digital design tools that can support prototyping, including Figma, Evolus Pencil or Justinmind Prototyper;
• Let students choose their prototype tools;
• In-progress evaluation during the prototype building process is helpful from peers and any relevant industry partners acting as clients for the project;
• Multiple cycles of build and evaluate can be completed.

These tips to improve the teaching WIL projects, based on design science, should be adapted to different university courses to ensure maximum impact on students’ learning and satisfaction.

Nguyen Hoang Thuan is senior programme manager for digital business at the School of Business and Management, RMIT University Vietnam. Pedro Antunes is associate professor in University of Lisbon, Portugal.

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Center for Fired Learning

What is work-integrated learning.

until Julia Bleakney

October 13, 2019

Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) belongs a well-theorized pedagogic practice is facilitates students’ learning through joining or integrating experiences all academic plus workplace contexts (Billett, 2009).  Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario’s 2016  Practical Guide for Work-Integrated Learned  offers a helpful introduction and resource fork mentors .

Various releases of WIL are in place in post-secondary educational contexts inbound Canada, Australia, South Africa, the U.K., plus Worldwide, and WIL functions as an umbrella category for some types of experiential learn common in the U.S. and other contexts. Examples of this learning-practice integrate include work place, work-terms, internships, practica, cooperative education (co-op), fieldwork, work-related projects/competitions, favor learning, entrepreneurships, student-led enterprises, applied projects, simulations (including practical WIL), etc. (International Journal of Work-Integrated Learning; see Figure 1 below, from HEQCO 2016, 34). Work-integrated learning is a pedagogical practice whereby collegiate ... Work-integrated learning is emerged as a ... with a written submit.

Universities support RANDOM pedagogy in ways this are similar to supporting for technical learning inside US-based universities; to example, Murdoch University in Perth, Australia , states supports to staff with: (a) designing WIL scholarship activities and assessment items; (b) managing some regarding the processing associated with internships; (c) student preparation workshops and online modules; (d) a resource public; and by (e) facilitating a community of practice. In another example, at the University of Wollongong, of Careers Central our offers an variety of credit-bearing courses and programs in career-readiness tailored to different student peoples or work contexts. Despite the wide variety of different WIL models, many are grounded in ampere focal about intention and integration–intentional approaches to blending workplace and curricular scholarship, and the integration of theory and real ( Sack, Rowe, also Wilson 2016 , 10).

Forms of WIL (HEQCO 2016, 34; basic on O’Shea 2014)

Elements of WIL

Sattler (2011) identified three approaches or models for WIL: the first-time is what yours terms systematic learning , in which the your can “the central pcs of the learning” (such as einer apprenticeship); the back lives systematic work experience , in which students are familiarized to the world of work from a postsecondary education program (e.g., field experience, professional practice, co-op, internship); both the third is institutional partnerships , which recommended in “education activities [designed] to achieve industry or community goals” (e.g., service learning) (Sattler 2011, 29; HEQCO 2016, 6). 

Sizing of WIL (Ontario 2010, 6)

Cooper, Orwell, and Bowden (2010) developing the outer nulls on aforementioned Dimensions of WIL wheel (see above), highlighting dimensions that help with which programmierung and success off WILLING. To these dimensions, Cantalini-Williams (2015) added the “CANWILL” framework for evolve effective work-integrated learning experiences: CANWILL (curriculum, assessment, networking, workstation, integration, learning, real logistics) concentrates on of delivery of WILLE experiences.  Abstract: This article explores ways that the field of rhetorische and writing studies ability gain from intentional engagement with work-integrated learning ...

WIL and Learning Theories

Explorer can identified several theories for student learning that help how the benefit of WIL additionally that also provide a framework for assess its learning outcome. Summarized by Sattler (2011) and Keep (2006), these include situated learning teacher, action theory and limiting crossing, pedagogy of the workplace, plus critical education theorie. Additional theories include action learning, transformational learning theory, and the “Turning Experiential into Learning Framework” (Boud, Keogh, and Walker 1985). Finally, Ontario uses Kolb’s modes of experiential learning. 

WILLS and How

Based switch a key-word search of product published by the International Journal of Work-Integrated Learning (until 2016 titled Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperatively Education ), I find that writing intercepts with WIL in a mating concerning key pathways. First, thought is usually secondhand as a tool for students to process learning; while students can use different modes for reflective, reflective writing is one important mode (see Edgar, Francis-Coad, and Connaughton 2013, who examine whether reflective writing is relative for professional practice). In addition, writing lives identified as a key competency in reviews off head expectations (e.g., Hodges and Burchell 2003). Last, kiste study product of an institution’s WIL so focus upon student learning sequels will often include written communication while an outcome (e.g., Alanson press Robles 2016). 

Opportunities since Future Research

As an institutional practice, WILDNESS provides an built fabric geschliffen in learning theory to support students’ learning in and through workplace settings. The WIL scholarship has not drawn from studies of your letter oder writing knowledge transfer that have emerged from write studies contexts, if of direction that writing studies field has focused on internships and other workplace print linkages (e.g. Ansone real Forsberg 1990; Baird and Dilger 2017). However, lawsuit study assessments of WIL initiatives or academic of employer expectations that focus specifically on writing may provide important insights into whereby writing is both a tool required learning in – and a competency of – WIL. GOOD PRACTICAL REPORT: Work-integrated learning

Works Cited

• Alanson, Erik R, and Richard AN Robles. 2016. “Using Electronic Portfolios to Explore Essential Student Scholarship Outcomes in a Professional Advancement Course.”  Asia-Pacific Magazine about Cooperative Educational  17, no. 4: 387–97.
• Annon, Chris M., and L. Lee Forsberg. 1990. “Moving Above the Academic Local: Transitional Stages in Professional Writing.” Written Communication 7 , no. 2: 200–231.
• Baird, Neil, the Braidy Dilger. 2017. “How Students Perceive Transitions: Dispositions And Transfer In Internships.” College Composite and Communication 68, cannot 4: 684-712
• Billett, Stephen. 2009. “Realising the Educational Worth of Integrating Work Experiences in Higher Education.” Studies int Higher Education 827-843.
• Boud, D., Keogh, R., & Walker, D. (1985). Reflection: Twist Learning into Get . Recent York: Routledge.
• Cantalini-Williams, M. 2015. “Teacher Candidates’ Experiences in Non-traditional Practicum Placements: Budding Dimensions for Innovative Work-integrated Learning Models.” In The Complexity of Hiring, Supporters, and Keeping New Teachers Across Canada , over N Maynes and B E Hatt, Canadian Association.
• Cooper, Leslie, Janice Orrell, press Margaret Bowden. 2010. Work Integrated Learning: A Guide to Effective Training. Los: Routledge.
• Edgar, Mrs, Jaqueline Francis-Coad, Joanne Connaughton. 2013. “Undergraduate Reflective Journaling the Work Integrated Learning: Is it Relevant at Professional Practice?”  Asia-Pacific Journal of Community Education 14 no. 3: 147-156. Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) is an well-theorized pedagogical practice that facilitates students’ learning through connecting instead integrating experiences across academic and workplace contexts (Billett, 2009). Higher Educational Attribute Council of Ontario’s 2016 Practical Guide available Work-Integrated Learning offers a beneficial introduction and human for...
• Hodges, Dave, and Noel Burchell. 2003. “Business Graduate Abilities: Employers’ Views on Importance and Performance.” Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education 16–22.
• Taller Training Quality Council of Ontario (“HEQCO”). 2016. A Functional Guide for Work-Integrated Scholarship: Useful Practices at Enhancing the Didactic Quality of Structured Work Experiences Providing through Colleges and Universities. Ontario: Queen’s Print for Ontario.
• Keeping, S. 2006. Learning inbound the workplace: a literature review. Victoria Technical. Retrieved by http://tls.vu.edu.au/PEC/PEC_docs/PEC%20LIW%20literature%20review%20final.pdf 
• Murdoch Graduate. “Work Integrated Learning.” Accessed June 27, 2019. https://www.murdoch.edu.au/Work-Integrated-Learning/Staff/.
• O’Shea, Annissa. 2014. “Models of WIL.” In Work integrated learning in the Curriculum. Height Education Research and Progress Society the Australia how , by Sonia Faris, 7-14. Australia Collaboration Education Lattice Ltd.
• Sachs, Judyth, Anna Rowe, and Michael Wilson. 2016. “2016 Good Custom Report–Work Integrated Learning.” Australian Government Department of Education and Training. Accessed July 23, 2019. https://research-management.mq.edu.au/ws/portalfiles/portal/3559753 4
• Sattler, Peggy. 2011. Work-Integrated Learning inches Ontario’s Postsecondary Sector. Toronto: Higher Education Characteristic Assembly of Ontario.
• University of Wollongong. “Work Integrated Subjects.” Visited Jump 23, 2019. https://www.uow.edu.au/student/careers/work-integrated-learning/

Julia Bleakney is general from Which Writing Center in the Center with Writing Excellence and assistant prof of English at Elon Institute. She is co-leading the 2019-2021 investigate seminar about Writing Beyond the University: Fostering Writers’ Lifelong Knowledge and Agency.

Wie to cite get book:

Bleakney, Julia. 2019, August 13. About is Work-Integrated Learning? [Blog Post]. Retrieved free https://oavonline.org/what-is-work-integrated-learning/ Assessment away student outcomes from work-integrated learning ...

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The WIL (Work Integrated Learning) report : a national scoping study [Final Report]

Patrick, Carol-joy , Peach, Deborah , Pocknee, Catherine , Webb, Fleur , Fletcher, Marty , & Pretto, Gabriella (2008) The WIL (Work Integrated Learning) report : a national scoping study [Final Report]. Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD.

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Description

This report provides an account of the first large-scale scoping study of work integrated learning (WIL) in contemporary Australian higher education. The explicit aim of the project was to identify issues and map a broad and growing picture of WIL across Australia and to identify ways of improving the student learning experience in relation to WIL. The project was undertaken in response to high levels of interest in WIL, which is seen by universities both as a valid pedagogy and as a means to respond to demands by employers for work-ready graduates, and demands by students for employable knowledge and skills. Over a period of eight months of rapid data collection, 35 universities and almost 600 participants contributed to the project. Participants consistently reported the positive benefits of WIL and provided evidence of commitment and innovative practice in relation to enhancing student learning experiences. Participants provided evidence of strong partnerships between stakeholders and highlighted the importance of these relationships in facilitating effective learning outcomes for students. They also identified a range of issues and challenges that face the sector in growing WIL opportunities; these issues and challenges will shape the quality of WIL experiences. While the majority of comments focused on issues involved in ensuring quality placements, it was recognised that placements are just one way to ensure the integration of work with learning. Also, the WIL experience is highly contextualised and impacted by the expectations of students, employers, the professions, the university and government policy.

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The role of work-integrated learning in preparing students for a corporate entrepreneurial career

Education + Training

ISSN : 0040-0912

Article publication date: 17 January 2022

Issue publication date: 9 August 2023

In the literature there is limited knowledge about how to prepare students for a corporate entrepreneurial career. The purpose is therefore to develop a framework for understanding the role corporate development projects play in corporate entrepreneurship education, and to examine the potential role of the design of the project. The study defines a corporate development project as a project being part of an academic education to provide students with working experiences situated in an experiential learning process.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on work-integrated learning literature, the authors first develop a conceptual framework. Thereafter, they undertake a multiple case study using data from a Master's Program in Corporate Entrepreneurship. Starting from the conceptual framework, the authors employ deductive thematic analysis in order to analyze data and finally to develop an elaborated framework.

In the framework, the authors identify and label five categories of learning outcomes from the corporate development project. The framework helps understand the interplay between the different learning outcomes in students' learning process and shows how the design of the project shapes the learning process.

Practical implications

The framework can assist educators in designing and integrating the corporate development project as a key module within a corporate entrepreneurship academic program.

Originality/value

Based on the framework, the study develops the knowledge about the design of corporate entrepreneurship education. Future research should test the framework using data from other academic programs in corporate entrepreneurship.

• Corporate entrepreneurship education

Work-integrated learning

• Corporate development project
• Corporate development project design
• Learning outcomes

Winborg, J. and Hägg, G. (2023), "The role of work-integrated learning in preparing students for a corporate entrepreneurial career", Education + Training , Vol. 65 No. 4, pp. 674-696. https://doi.org/10.1108/ET-05-2021-0196

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Joakim Winborg and Gustav Hägg

Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

Introduction

The supply of entrepreneurial education courses and programs has grown tremendously over the last four decades ( Kuratko, 2005 ; Neck and Corbett, 2018 ). To date, much focus has been on entrepreneurial intention research when examining potential outcomes of entrepreneurship education ( Bae et al. , 2014 ; Gedeon and Valliere, 2018 ; Sherman et al. , 2008 ), while less attention has been devoted to how different learning activities result in entrepreneurial knowledge and actual entrepreneurial behavior. Moreover, entrepreneurship education has, to a great extent, been based on scholarly understanding related to the independent venture creation context ( Hägg and Gabrielsson, 2019 ; Lackéus and Williams Middleton, 2015 ; Mwasalwiba, 2010 ), and little attention has been paid to education and training for entrepreneurship in established companies, that is, corporate entrepreneurship ( Byrne et al. , 2016 ; Heinonen, 2007 ). This is problematic as we know that the role of corporate entrepreneurship is constantly increasing and is a likely first career step for graduates ( Kuratko and Morris, 2018 ).

Earlier research indicates that corporate entrepreneurs think differently compared with entrepreneurs in independent new ventures ( Corbett and Hmieleski, 2007 ; Douglas and Fitzsimmons, 2013 ). Douglas and Fitzsimmons (2013) examine antecedents for intention to engage in independent self-employed entrepreneurship compared with intention to engage in corporate entrepreneurship. The findings show that as an antecedent, self-efficacy positively influences both types of intention. However, the findings also reveal differences in antecedents for the two kinds of intention in terms of among others risk-taking propensity and attitude toward independence. Apart from individual differences, we also know from previous research that the organizational context of corporate entrepreneurship and independent (new venture creation) entrepreneurship differs (see for example Garrett and Holland, 2015 ; Sharma and Chrisman, 1999 ). In line with this, Sharma and Chrisman (1999 , p. 18) argue that a distinguishing characteristic of corporate entrepreneurship is that “… an individual or a group of individuals, in association with an existing organization, create a new organization or instigate renewal or innovation within that organization.” Hence, in corporate entrepreneurship, the creation of new opportunities is undertaken in the context of an established organization.

As already mentioned, entrepreneurship education has mainly focused on new venture creation, and in the literature there is limited knowledge about how to design the academic educational process to prepare students for a corporate entrepreneurship career ( Heinonen, 2007 ; Kuratko and Morris, 2018 ). In this study, we take one step in the development of knowledge about corporate entrepreneurship education by examining learning outcomes from a Master's Program in Corporate Entrepreneurship based on experiential learning pedagogy ( Hägg and Kurczewska, 2020 ; Kolb, 1984 ). One main learning vehicle in this program is the so-called corporate development project which provides a bridge between theory and practice. With the help of the project, the students are placed in a real-life working situation focused on entrepreneurship in an established company (corporate entrepreneurship), where they learn through an experiential process ( Politis, 2005 ).

Our definition of a corporate development project is built on work-integrated learning and entrepreneurship education literature. Based on the literature, we have derived two dimensions that we consider fundamental for a project to qualify as a corporate development project: (1) the focus of the project, and (2) the students' influence on/ownership of the project and learning process. Based on work-integrated learning, a corporate development project must be part of an academic education and the project focus must be “geared toward making connections between classroom learning and on-the-job experiences” ( Kramer and Usher, 2011 , p. 2). More specifically, for our definition, the project must hence be explicitly focused on corporate entrepreneurship. Moreover, we build on the guiding assumptions in entrepreneurship education, implying that in order to learn to become entrepreneurial, one needs to experience it hands on to create a bridge between theory and practice as well as being able to handle and cope with uncertainty ( Hägg and Kurczewska, 2020 ; Politis, 2005 ). In this respect, the corporate development project is seen as a main learning vehicle where the learner assumes ownership of the project as well as the learning process. Hence, to qualify as a corporate development project according to our definition, the students must have the opportunity to influence the specific scope of the project, the working process/methods, as well as the outcomes due to the inherent uncertainty that prevails in entrepreneurship.

The study focuses on students' learning outcomes from undertaking the corporate development project. Given our interest in the role of the corporate development project for the students' learning, which integrates university literature and experiences gained from being in a company context, as previously stated we conceptually base our study in the literature on work-integrated learning. According to Kramer and Usher (2011 , p. 2), work-integrated learning is defined as “types of student employment experiences that are usually organized by their institution, related to their field of study and geared toward making connections between classroom learning and on-the-job experiences.” In line with our focus on the role of the corporate development project, one form of work-integrated learning is for students to work on a project for a company or an organization ( Scholtz, 2020 ).

The purpose of the paper is to develop a framework for understanding the role corporate development projects play in corporate entrepreneurship education. Moreover, the purpose is to examine the potential role of the design of the corporate development project in shaping student learning process and outcomes.

The study makes three contributions to the field of entrepreneurship education. Firstly, it describes learning outcomes in the context of corporate entrepreneurship education focusing on the role of work-integrated learning from a corporate development project. Related to this, our study also contributes by developing and suggesting a definition of what qualifies as a corporate development project. Secondly, we develop a framework for understanding the interplay between different learning outcomes in students' learning process when undertaking a corporate development project. Thirdly, the paper examines how the design of the corporate development project potentially shapes the learning outcomes. In terms of design, projects can be divided into two groups: internal and external projects. In internal projects, the students work on solving problems and needs related to improving internal conditions for corporate entrepreneurship in their assigned company, whereas external projects focus on developing and evaluating new business opportunities for the company.

The paper is structured as follows. The next section includes our frame of reference with a foundation in entrepreneurship education literature and research on work-integrated learning. The frame of reference concludes with the development of a conceptual framework, which is then used to categorize and analyze the learning outcomes reported by the students. After the framework, we outline our methodological approach. We then present our data (findings) organized based on the categories identified from the conceptual framework, after which the paper proceeds with an analysis of the role of the design of project for the learning outcomes. Thereafter in our discussion, we present and explain our elaborated framework. Finally, we present the conclusions and discuss implications for theory and practice.

Frame of reference

In the frame of reference, we discuss the literature on entrepreneurship education and integrative learning. In our discussion about integrative learning, we particularly focus on literature about the so-called work-integrated learning. Based on the literature, we conclude our frame of reference by presenting our conceptual framework, which we later use in the analysis to categorize and analyze the data. The conceptual framework is hence an important point of departure for the final elaborated framework that we develop and present in the discussion.

Entrepreneurship education

Over the past four decades, entrepreneurship education has established itself as a discipline, and over time some of the main questions that have been voiced are as follows: What does an education in entrepreneurship provide for students (see for example Martin et al. , 2013 ; Matlay, 2008 )? How can the progress of student learning be assessed (see for example, Hytti et al. , 2010 )? What are the most efficient or preferred forms of teaching, i.e. pedagogical or andragogical methods, (see for example Duval-Couetil, 2013 ; Fayolle and Gailly, 2008 ; Moberg, 2014 ; Scott et al. , 2016 )? There seems to be fairly good knowledge that various forms of entrepreneurship education can increase entrepreneurial intention among students ( Gedeon and Valliere, 2018 ; Sherman et al. , 2008 ), but there is less insight on actual behavior (c.f. Rauch and Hulsink, 2015 ). Currently, the assumption is that entrepreneurship is an experiential process that requires practice, and an experience-based pedagogical approach is needed to learn entrepreneurship ( Hägg and Kurczewska, 2020 ; Jones, 2019 ; Neck and Corbett, 2018 ; Rasmussen and Sørheim, 2006 ). However, entrepreneurship education has, to a great extent, focused on the independent new venture creation context ( Hägg and Gabrielsson, 2019 ; Lackéus and Williams Middleton, 2015 ; Mwasalwiba, 2010 ), whereas little attention has been paid to education and training for entrepreneurship in established companies, so-called corporate entrepreneurship ( Byrne et al. , 2016 ; Heinonen, 2007 ).

At the same time, previous research has provided insights showing differences between entrepreneurs and corporate entrepreneurs in their way of acting and how they think when making decisions ( Corbett and Hmieleski, 2007 ; Douglas and Fitzsimmons, 2013 ; Garrett and Holland, 2015 ). Sharma and Chrisman (1999 , p. 18) explain the difference between corporate entrepreneurship and independent (new venture creation) entrepreneurship, arguing that in corporate entrepreneurship “… an individual or a group of individuals, in association with an existing organization, create a new organization or instigate renewal or innovation within that organization.” Hence, in corporate entrepreneurship, the creation of new opportunities is undertaken in the context of an established organization. It seems fair to argue that this contextual difference must be considered in the design of entrepreneurship education ( Thomassen et al. , 2019 ). At the same time, there is little knowledge about how corporate entrepreneurship competencies can be nurtured and developed in practice ( Byrne et al. , 2016 ), and even fewer clear-cut guidelines for how to design the educational process for a corporate entrepreneurship career ( Kuratko and Morris, 2018 ).

In their study Byrne et al. (2016) suggest an action learning approach that could result in learning outcomes closely tied to the corporate entrepreneurship context, such as gaining multidisciplinary knowledge, organizational knowledge, proactive behavior, self-awareness and network connections. The aforementioned study focuses on corporate employees and how a training intervention can foster competencies for entrepreneurship in established businesses. When addressing academic corporate entrepreneurship education, the research discussion is meager. It has been acknowledged that certain knowledge is needed to take on the position as a change agent within mid-size and large corporations ( Kuratko and Morris, 2018 ). Kuratko and Morris (2018) suggest that the skills and knowledge associated with being entrepreneurial in a corporate setting can be developed by having the students working with cases, providing students with tools to analyze companies, as well as students engaging in internships for gaining work experience. Previous research has also addressed the importance of letting students experience how to perform entrepreneurial tasks by means of, for example, role-play tied to corporate entrepreneurship ( Heinonen, 2007 ). A main argument developed by Kuratko and Morris (2018) is that working with cases and developing the skills to perform an entrepreneurial health audit would enhance the students' ability to understand the internal environment of corporations as well as learn how to analyze the entrepreneurial level in a company. Our argument and position in the present study is that like independent new venture creation education, corporate entrepreneurship education needs real life, first-hand experiences interwoven into the educational process due to the experiential nature of being entrepreneurial ( Politis, 2005 ). We rely on literature on work-integrated learning to bridge the gap between practice and theory in corporate entrepreneurship education and extend existing knowledge. We understand work-integrated learning in line with Kramer and Usher (2011 , p. 2) as “types of student employment experiences that are usually organized by their institution, related to their field of study and geared toward making connections between classroom learning and on-the-job experiences.” In the next section, we will address the theoretical underpinnings of work-integrated learning and the role of integrative learning as an antecedent.

Integrative learning

The interest in how students learn from and connect (or integrate) different learning activities is the core of the literature on the so-called integrative learning (see, for example, Ferren and Andersson, 2016 ; Huber and Hutchings, 2004 ). The connection or integration refers to, for example, integrating learning from two courses at university or across contexts, such as integrating learning from theory with learning and experiences from practice gained from a co-curricular activity in an organization or company ( Barber, 2012 ; Huber and Hutchings, 2004 ). Due to the focus on connecting and synthesizing learning, integrative learning is aimed at assisting students to “see the entirety of their education as an individual creative endeavor” ( Ferren and Andersson, 2016 , p. 34). The ambition in integrative learning is to make the student become an intentional learner. Huber and Hutchings (2004 , p. 6) state that “the idea of making students more self-aware and purposeful—more intentional—about their studies is a powerful one, and it is key to fostering integrative learning.”

Examining the process of how students integrate learning, Barber (2012) concluded that his data could be grouped into three overall categories. The three categories differ in their level of complexity and are labeled as follows: (1) establishing a connection, (2) application across contexts and (3) synthesis of a new whole. The first category refers to the ability to identify connections and similarity between novel and existing knowledge. For example, the student is able to see connections between a new concept and a concept with which she/he is very familiar. The second category refers to the active use and application of an idea or ability in new contexts, for example, the use and application of a concept or model studied at university in a project for a company in a cocurricular assignment outside university. The third category is more abstract and complex compared to the first two and refers to the development of new understanding and skills based on the combination and synthesis of different ideas. To illustrate the difference between application and synthesis, we will use an example. Application refers to how a student demonstrates the application of a concept or model from theory to understand the innovation process in a company, while synthesis of a new whole is the development of a new model based on the theoretical concept or model in conjunction with the student's experientially gained knowledge about the company.

The literature on integrative learning underlines the importance of learning in different contexts such as working on real-world problems in placements in organizations and companies ( Huber and Hutchings, 2004 ), which relates well to the existing assumptions on how entrepreneurial learning within the educational context addresses real-world problems ( Hägg and Kurczewska, 2016 ; Lackéus and Williams Middleton, 2015 ). The interest in students' learning from experiences gained in workplace arrangements within an educational program is at the center of the literature on the so-called “work-integrated learning.” Work-integrated learning is based on the assumption of close integration of university studies and workplace practice in order to promote the use of knowledge from university in work contexts ( Smith and Worsfold, 2015 ). Work-integrated learning enables students to experience their future work context and to develop generic professional skills that positively influence their employability (see, for example, Patrick et al. , 2008 ).

In the literature, work-integrated learning is seen as an umbrella term used for different forms of learning activity that integrate theory with workplace practice ( Patrick et al. , 2008 ). Project work for an organization or company is one form of work-integrated learning ( Scholtz, 2020 ). The project work is based on learning outcomes linked to the student’s academic program, while at the same time the student learns from the interactions in the workplace environment ( Patrick et al. , 2008 ). In the literature, there are terms such as “work-based learning” and “work experience” that seem to be similar to work-integrated learning. However, the two mentioned above should not be confused with work-integrated learning due to the fact that they “have less to do with the application of academic, disciplinary theory to practice and more to do with practice itself” ( Smith and Worsfold, 2015 , p. 23).

Besides potential benefits from work-integrated learning, earlier research has also examined likely challenges involved. One main challenge discussed in earlier research is how to include work-integrated learning in the design of academic programs to achieve the intended learning outcomes ( Jackson and Meek, 2021 ). This more specifically relates to challenges in how to design the workplace assignment as well as how to assess it given the learning outcomes of the program (see, for example, Bilgin et al. , 2017 ; McNamara, 2013 ). Related to the challenge of how to design and include work-integrated learning in academic programs, academic staff and the mentor in the company serving as workplace partner can have different expectations about what constitutes important skills for the student to develop in the work-integrated learning placement in the company ( Winterton and Turner, 2019 ).

Earlier research in work-integrated learning has also underlined that including it in university programs implies that the university needs to ensure resources as work-integrated learning is demanding in terms of time. Jackson and Meek (2021) argue that universities engaging in work-integrated learning need to have a team that continuously interacts and maintains relations with potential partners (companies) for student placements. Universities that have not managed to mobilize the necessary resources can face the challenges discussed by Stanley and Xu (2019) , namely, lack of suitable placements for their students and lack of academic staff that are able and willing to engage in work-integrated learning.

Jackson et al. (2017) examine challenges workplace partners experience when engaged in work-integrated learning. Among the most cited challenges were finding a suitable project in the company for the student to work on, and identifying suitable students for the project. Again, these findings underline the importance of resources for academic staff to be able to collaborate with workplace partners in terms of scoping projects and matching students with the projects.

Development of a conceptual framework of outcomes from work-integrated learning

As already discussed, work-integrated learning is an umbrella term including different forms of learning activities with the aim of integrating theory and workplace practice ( Patrick et al. , 2008 ).

Based on findings from interviews and focus groups, the study by Patrick et al. (2008) concludes that the overall motivation for the student to engage in work-integrated learning is to obtain work experience that makes her/him more attractive as a potential employee. This is in line with Smith and Gibson (2016) who stress that work-integrated learning is aimed to result in improved employability. In the same way of reasoning, Smith and Worsfold (2015) argue that students who are work-ready have developed a range of skills and abilities that make them more immediately employable. Hence, employability is made up of different skills and abilities that will be discussed below.

Patrick et al. (2008) report that students claim the workplace experience made it possible for them to apply and create meaning from university literature. Hence, by using models and concepts in their workplace, the students developed an understanding of university literature in their field of study. In the same way, Smith and Gibson (2016) conclude that an employable student possesses the skill and ability to combine and integrate theory and practice, which, as already discussed, is one form of the so-called integrative learning ( Ferren and Andersson, 2016 ; Huber and Hutchings, 2004 ).

The findings presented by Patrick et al. (2008) show that workplace experience can also result in the development of non–field-specific individual skills and knowledge. They further argue that generic non-field skills include team skills (see also Smith and Worsfold, 2015 ), communication skills, problem-solving skills and networking skills. Smith and Gibson (2016) identified the role of team skills, arguing that a student should possess the skill to be able to work with different people from various backgrounds in an effective and fair manner. Moreover, Smith and Gibson (2016) state that the employable student has developed confidence and self-awareness based on the experiences from work-integrated learning. Finally, the study by Patrick et al. (2008) also shows that gaining experience from being part of a working environment for some time resulted in an understanding and general knowledge about a workplace, including how an organization or a company operates, as well as the role of organizational and company culture.

Based on the discussion above, we have identified different outcomes in terms of skills and advantages from work-integrated learning which we present in Table 1 . This framework of categories of skills and advantages will be used in the presentation and analysis of the data in the upcoming findings section. In the next section, the method will be presented.

Overall design

As stated in the Introduction, the purpose of the paper is to develop a framework for understanding the role played by corporate development projects in the formation of students' learning outcomes. The purpose is moreover to examine the potential role of the corporate development project design for shaping the learning outcomes. To fulfill the purpose, we undertook a multiple case study based on purposive sampling to examine and analyze potential similarities and differences between internal and external corporate development projects and the learning outcomes derived from them (e.g. Yin, 1994 ). In the next section, we present the context of the data collected in this study. This is followed by a section in which we discuss in detail the procedure for the purposeful sampling and selection of internal and external projects. We conclude by presenting the data collection and the data analysis method.

Context of the research

The study is based on data from students in the Master's Program in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Lund University (Sweden). The Master's Program was launched in 2007 and at that time included one track called New Venture Creation. In 2011, the Master's Program was developed to include a second track called Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation. It is the latter that is the focus of this study. The Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation track is a one-year Master's Program (as is the other track). The program requires an undergraduate degree (bachelor of science) and hence is open for students with different educational backgrounds such as business, engineering, humanities and natural sciences. In pedagogical terms, the program is based on experiential learning, meaning that the students are involved in learning activities (assignments) giving them various experiences, which create a foundation for an interplay between action, reflection and theory (see e.g. Hägg and Kurczewska, 2020 ).

The Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation track includes four courses in the first term (autumn) and a course in the second term (spring) in which the students work on a corporate development project during a placement in an established company. This study is based on the students' learning from the corporate development project. The aim of the corporate development project is that the students will develop their understanding of and skills in corporate entrepreneurship by integrating university literature and experiences gained from being on-site and working to solve the problems related to the project and fulfill the needs of the company.

The aim and focus of the project is closely related to the pedagogy advocated in the literature on integrative learning and more specifically literature on work-integrated learning. Hence, the focus of the corporate development project is explicitly based on problems and needs related to corporate entrepreneurship. The process of finding and evaluating potential projects starts with a meeting between the Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program Management and company representative/s interested in engaging students to work on-site in a project for the company. In the initial meeting between the Program Management and company representative/s, questions are asked about the needs and challenges that the company is currently facing. In the following steps, the Program Management seeks to assist the company representative/s to formulate the tentative project aim/s so that it will allow students to apply and use the university literature on corporate entrepreneurship in their project work. Based on the tentative project aim and the needs and challenges outlined by the company, the students use the initial weeks of their placement to question the experienced needs and challenges, based on their understanding from formal and informal discussions in the company. This initial orientation makes it possible for the students to ensure that the project aim and formulation serve to resolve the actual needs and challenges for the company as well making sure that the students have influence on/ownership of the project and process as required per our definition.

Selection of projects

The selection of projects from the Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation track is based on all projects undertaken by two cohorts of graduates from 2018 to 2019. In 2018, there were 12 corporate development projects, and in 2019, there were 11 corporate development projects, giving a total of 23 projects.

As we are interested in how the design of the corporate development project potentially shapes the learning outcomes, we employ purposive sampling based on the categorization of internal and external projects. The categorization is based on the aim/s of the corporate development project. Examples of internal projects include those seeking to solve challenges related to how the company works internally with identification and development of ideas for new products or services or how to work with the evaluation of new ideas in the company. On the other hand, externally oriented projects are, for example, related to identifying new applications and markets for a newly developed product.

In selecting internal and external projects out of the 23 projects, we started by excluding projects for which we did not have complete documentation from both students in the student team. Insights from both students are necessary given that we were seeking to understand the development of dynamics in the team. We subsequently selected two projects that represent an internal project respectively two projects representing an external project, providing us with four projects. We acknowledge that it would have been favorable for the generalization of the findings to have included more than two internal and two external projects. Nevertheless, the four selected projects are mainly used to enrich the original conceptual framework (based on work-integrated learning) in our development of the elaborated framework that is presented in the Discussion section.

We here briefly provide an overall background of the selected internal and external projects and the student team for each project. The aim of the first internal project selected was to give the company recommendations for how to improve the internal conditions for identification and development of new innovations. The students working on this project are females and are 23 and 25 years old, respectively. In the second internal project, the aim was to provide recommendations for how the company can facilitate the generation of radical innovations in the future in addition to incremental innovations. The student team in this project are males and are 25 and 28 years old, respectively.

The aim of the first external project was for the students to identify customer segments and formulate the value proposition for a new solution. The student team is made up of one female and one male and they are 24 and 31 years old, respectively. The aim of the second external project was to give the company recommendations about how the company could establish collaboration with independent entrepreneurs. The students working on this project are females and aged 25 and 26 years old, respectively.

Data collection

Having completed the Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation Master's Program track, the Program track director (the first author of this paper) asks the students to hand in a written reflection each year in which they describe in as much detail as possible what they have gained and learned from undertaking the project and from being on-site in the company. The written documentation handed in by the students is one major source of data used in this study. However, as already mentioned, the first author of this paper is the program director of the Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation Master's Program track. In this role, the first author was directly involved in the initial meeting with company representative/s discussing and agreeing the tentative focus of all projects examined in this study. Moreover, the first author acts as one of two university academic supervisors in the students' working process with their corporate development project. Moreover, having completed the project, each student group presents their project outcomes at a meeting attended by other student groups, their company mentor, mentors at other companies and the two university supervisors. The knowledge possessed by the first author from the initial screening and evaluation of potential projects to the presentation of completed project is very important for the interpretation and analysis of the data in the form of the written reflection documentation handed in by each student.

Data analysis

The data analysis method is a deductive thematic analysis ( Braun and Clarke, 2006 ). In line with this, we initially used the conceptual framework developed in frame of reference (see Table 1 ) to categorize the collected data about students' learning outcomes from their corporate development project. We present the outcome of this categorization for internal and external projects separately (under the heading “Findings”). Hence, following a within-case analysis logic ( Eisenhardt, 1989 ), we initially coded and analyzed internal and external projects separately. Thereafter, we compared the data from internal and external projects to analyze if and how the learning outcomes are related to the type of corporate development project undertaken by the student (internal or external project). Our comparative analysis in the second step is a form of cross-case analysis where we focus on similarities and differences between the cases (see e.g. Eisenhardt, 1989 ; Yin, 1994 ). Finally, based on the findings in the cross-case analysis, we develop our elaborated framework ( Figure 1 ), which is presented in the Discussion section.

In the first subsection, we will present and discuss the learning outcomes reported by the students involved in the two internal projects, and thereafter we present the learning outcomes experienced by the students who engaged in the two external projects.

Internal corporate development projects

The learning outcomes in the two internal projects are presented and organized using the categories presented in Table 1 in the frame of reference derived from the literature on work-integrated learning. Based on these categories, the text is organized under three subheadings discussing creation of meaning and understanding of university literature, generic individual skills and knowledge about how a workplace operates.

Creation of meaning and understanding of university literature

All four students in both internal projects reported learning related to the creation of individual meaning and understanding about the generic literature in their field of study they had obtained from university. For example, student 1 in project 1 explains the learning “… to combine academic knowledge with practical issues …,” and student 2 in the same project states that theory “… cannot be applied per se , it has to be adapted/tailored to fit the situation.” In the same way, student 1 in project 2 comments that seeing “… all what we have learnt in reality truly deepened my corporate knowledge.” The students in the internal projects report experiences and understanding of internal conditions for corporate entrepreneurship. Student 1 in project 2 explains, “I learnt which different things can hinder innovation and entrepreneurial behavior,” and student 2 in the same project states that “I learned a lot about the importance of internal support for change of business models ….” Moreover, student 2 in project 1 says, “I gained a deep understanding of the evaluation and selection process.”

Generic individual skills

When it comes to generic individual skills, all four students stressed that they had developed skills to collaborate with others. In particular, the learning and experiences relate to the collaboration of two different individuals in a team and accepting and embracing diversity in working mode and capabilities. For example, student 2 in project 2 explains this skill as the “ability to successfully cooperate with a partner that has a different mentality and working style.” The experience and skills gained from working in a team appear to lead to an increased self-awareness. In line with this, student 1 in project 1 shares that “This made me very reflective towards the other's and my own behavior …,” and student 1 in project 2 states that “I learnt that which habits of mine can be annoying ….” The self-awareness is in turn related to the skills reported by the students, such as being able to provide and accept feedback and hence able to coach and be coached by each other. Student 1 in project 1 explains, “I feel that we also learned how to coach each other …,” whereas student 2 in project 2 states, “I learned a lot from my partner.”

Moreover, the experience of working on the corporate development project and developing solutions for the company resulted in the development and improvement of problem-solving skills as explained by student 2 in project 2 who expresses that “I learned that deeply reading literature in a specific topic and more important working with it to create your own solutions.” Student 1 in this same project (2) explains that the experience from the project “… taught me how to prioritize tasks and solve problems quickly,” whereas student 2 in project 1 states that “I know now how to use the literature and adapt it to the real-life conditions.” The data on the experience gained from being able to complete the project for the company and the improved problem-solving skills derived from this experience, in turn, indicate that the student is developing self-confidence. Student 2 in project 1 expressed, “I feel now confident in going in another company and redo such a project ….” From the data, the self-confidence also seems to be related to the reported improved ability to accept and deal with uncertainty as explained by student 1 in project 1, “I feel more comfortable in a working atmosphere that is unfamiliar to me …,” and student 2 in project 2 describes learning to handle situations in which no immediate solution can be found, stating that “I learned that it has no benefits to hurry or panic in situations where a possible solution seems far away.”

Knowledge about how a workplace operates

Furthermore, the students report that they have developed knowledge and understanding of the working environment and how a workplace operates in an established company. Student 1 in project 2 argues that working on the project on-site in the company “enabled me to understand company structures, processes, rules, procedures, hierarchy and silos,” whereas student 2 in the same project explains that “I learned a lot about the Swedish way of working in a corporation ….” Using the same reasoning, student 2 in project 1 says that “I got a glimpse in the Swedish working environment and how it works there ….”

External corporate development projects

In the same way as for the internal projects, the presentation and the organization of the findings are based on the framework developed in the frame of reference, and hence the following text is organized under the same subheadings as in the findings on the internal projects.

Among the students who were engaged in the external projects, the creation of meaning and understanding of the literature is also evident. Student 1 in project 1 argues that the work with the corporate development project offers the “… possibility of finding a practical use for the knowledge acquired during the program.” In a similar way, student 2 in project 1 reports the development of individual knowledge and meaning in relation to the literature, saying: “I believe that I can truly use the unique knowledge gained … and apply it to other industries within my future career endeavors.” In project 2, the students also share that, based on their project work, they developed and created meaning and knowledge about the university literature and its potential and limitations. Student 1 says that the experiences from the project “… gave proof to the importance of user involvement in order to ensure meeting customer needs with the corresponding offering.” Hence, the student underlines that the project experience confirms the role of user involvement that is presented in university course literature. Student 2 also reflects on the experience of using university literature in the project and the importance of thinking out of the box stressed in the entrepreneurship and innovation literature, sharing that: “We learn how important outside-the-box thinking is, however, I experienced that if not combined with somebody more systematic, it can be too unfocused.”

Furthermore, the students in the external projects discussed different individual generic skills developed from the experience of working with the development project. Both students in external project 2 and one of the students in external project 1 present experiences and learning explicitly related to teamwork and working with another individual who is different from them. Student 1 in external project 2 states that: “… in the team of two required adaptive behavior from both sides as we started off with two very different working styles.” Student 2 in external project 1 also presents learning from challenges experienced in teamwork, saying: “It will always be challenging to work so closely with one person, however it has taught me that sometimes you must choose when it's a good time to lead or a good time to be the one to take a step back.”

The learning reported by the students underlines that the experiences gained from working closely with another individual also result in a matured self-awareness. This self-awareness is, in turn, fostered by the students' improved ability to give and accept feedback. Student 2 in project 2 explains learning related to how to give feedback, stating: “I learned how to give critique in a very plausible and neutral way,” while student 1 in the same project 2 expresses that: “I learnt from my team partner how to give certain decisions more time before taking action.”

Moreover, the students' responses show that the experience of the project has fostered their skills to explore and solve problems. Student 1 in external project 1 says that the project work for the company “allowed to experience the difficulties associated to the implementation of ideal models in real cases, and the importance of being creative and critical with the models in order to make work.” Student 2 in project 1 explains that the learning from applying models from the university in the project improved her/his ability to be aware and more open to opportunities and solutions, saying: “I am now more conscious in the sense of looking for the benefits, or upper hands, that can be taken from future changing business environments ….” Student 1 in project 2 tells that their work in the project implied that they had to face and deal with uncertainty as seen in the following reasoning “… quickly adapt to changing circumstances, mitigate uncertainties, and fill the blank spaces between our current status and the final result.”

Both students in external project 1 and one of the students in project 2 explicitly reflect on their learning from interactions and networking. Student 1 in project 2 reflects on the experience gained from the interaction with various external actors in the project, stating: “I am sure that in my future role I will benefit from these social skills.” In the same way, student 2 in project 1 underlines that “… learning was the importance of creating interpersonal relationships with the people you interact with.” Student 1 in project 1 shares that the project “… allowed me meet not only the company top managers, but also the heads of the company in the different countries around Europe, their customers and some relevant external partners.”

Both students in project 1 refer to learning related to how a workplace operates. Student 1 from project 1 tells that “… working together with the top management allowed me to get involved with the company, their culture, their mindset …,” and student 2 from the same project reports that “the business development project taught me so much about how a company works internally.” In the external project 2, the students do not explicitly refer to experiences and learning related to the functioning of a workplace.

Based on the presentation of the findings, the next section will analyze them. The focus is on analyzing potential differences in learning due to the type of project (internal vs external corporate development project).

As discussed in the frame of reference, the literature on work-integrated learning focuses on students' development of skills that will foster their employability and hence prepare them for their career. In the study by Patrick et al. (2008) , it is shown that students perceive that their workplace experience fostered their ability to create meaning and understanding about university literature. Using the same reasoning, Smith and Gibson (2016) underline the importance of fostering the students' ability to understand the relationships between theory and practice.

As seen from Table 2 , students in both internal and external projects report learning outcomes, confirming the opportunity to apply and use university literature, where the findings demonstrate how students develop an individual meaning and understanding of the literature. However, there are slight differences between the students in the internal and external projects. Students who have undertaken internal projects all present various examples of how they apply university literature to foster individual meaning and knowledge. The examples given refer to the creation of meaning and understanding related to internal conditions for corporate entrepreneurship based on integrating the experience from the company project and knowledge from the literature. On the other hand, the students in the external projects provide fewer examples of understanding related to internal conditions of the project companies, which seems reasonable given that they undertook an externally focused project. Instead, these students seem to refer to learning and understanding related to the top management perspective (the role of top management and leadership). Hence, the external projects seem to operate on a more aggregate level that creates opportunities for the students to connect university literature to the role of decision-making from a top management perspective. However, the findings from the external projects do not explicitly provide clear insights into whether the corporate entrepreneurship learning experiences are related to other levels of the company apart from top management.

The findings show that the students in both the internal and external projects highlight the problem-solving skills they have developed, thanks to their experiences from the project. Based on the students' responses we see the relationship between the development of problem-solving skills and the creation of meaning and understanding of university literature as discussed in the first category above. In line with this reasoning, the students explain that they learned how to use the understanding of the literature to create and come up with solutions, as presented in the findings. The students also explain the learning from the challenges to implement and use the literature, as well as the need to be creative in order to come up with solutions based on the literature. Our findings, showing the relationship between the students' creation of meaning and understanding of the literature and the development of problem-solving skills, can be interpreted using the three categories and levels of learning discussed by Barber (2012) . The first category discussed by Barber (2012) is establishing a connection and is in our findings represented by the students' recognition of connection between what they experience in their project being on-site at the company and the concepts and models in the literature studied at university. The second category in the work by Barber (2012) is the application across contexts which in our findings is manifested in the experiences the students share about making use of and applying models and concepts learned from university in their project. Finally, the third category discussed in Barber (2012) is called synthesis of a new whole and implies that the student has developed a new understanding based on the ability to synthesize different ideas. Our understanding of Barber's (2012) three learning categories is that they represent increased depth of understanding culminating in the third level with the individual student having managed to create her/his individual meaning and understanding of the literature. Our findings indicate that this profound creation of meaning and understanding of the literature and how to use it is linked with the students' ability to solve problems for the company by working creatively with the literature to adapt and modify it. Hence, as interpreted using the work of Barber (2012) , the student combines and synthesizes the literature and the experienced needs of the company to create a new whole, which refers to a solution to the problem focused on in the project.

Moreover, in line with work-integrated learning literature (see, for example Patrick et al. , 2008 ; Smith and Worsfold, 2015 ), our findings show that all students in the internal projects and three of the four students in the external projects explicitly underline the team skills developed from the collaboration between the two students. More specifically, the students in the internal as well as the external projects stated that they learned to work with individuals who have a different background and working style. This finding is in line with the work-integrated literature (see, for example, Smith and Gibson, 2016 ), which states that the students must accept and understand diversity and be able to work in teams with individuals with backgrounds different from their own. Developing team skills also implies that students must be open to taking in insights from others as well as sharing insights. Hence, team skills include the ability to accept and give feedback. We can also see in our findings the role of accepting and giving feedback among students in both the internal and external projects. However, the students undertaking internal projects more explicitly share learning they have developed in relation to feedback, and one student refers to the development of the ability to coach another individual and learn how to be coached.

Furthermore, in line with Smith and Gibson (2016) , our findings indicate that the work-integrated learning experience based on the company project fostered the students' self-awareness. The students express that the team work experiences made them more reflective about their own way of acting, behaving and thinking. Even though the outcome in terms of developed self-awareness is discussed by students in both types of project, the implications for self-awareness are more explicitly elaborated and discussed among the students in the internal projects. The matured self-awareness seems to be related to the development of ability to give and accept feedback, which, as shown earlier, is more explicitly discussed among students in internal projects as compared to external projects. The students in the internal projects refer to learning “how to coach each other,” in order to identify the weaknesses of another individual and how to help her/him with these.

As presented in the findings, the students undertaking external projects explicitly underlined the importance of learning how to interact and network with external and internal actors, which clearly corresponds to the role of networking skills discussed in work-integrated learning (see, for example, Patrick et al. , 2008 ). The development of skills for how to interact and network was not explicitly discussed by students engaged in internal projects. Although speculative, it seems fair to assume that the experience of interacting with a high number of not only internal actors but also external actors can explain why students in external projects do not explicitly stress the awareness of their own and others behavior to the same extent as students in internal projects. The high volume of interactions thus seems to imply that the time for making the awareness explicit is reduced in comparison with students in internal projects, who more explicitly underline the importance of learning from the interaction within the team.

As a final dimension of generic individual skills, the students also share how they have matured and developed in terms of preparedness and confidence to accept and handle uncertainty and unfamiliar situations. Even though the findings do not show major differences between internal and external projects, the students in the internal projects more explicitly refer to now being more comfortable accepting the unknown and the unfamiliar. Although more speculative, but as discussed earlier, students in internal projects more explicitly describe how they matured in terms of awareness of their own and others’ behavior. This, in turn, can explain why students in internal projects articulate an explicit awareness about their improved acceptance of and preparedness for uncertain and unfamiliar situations.

Finally, in line with Patrick et al. (2008) , the findings in this study show that thanks to their participation in the project, the students gained experience and knowledge about the working environment in terms of how established companies operate and what it is like to work in established companies. Although mentioned by all students, this knowledge is more explicitly discussed among the students who undertook the internal projects. Per definition, the students undertaking an internal project are working on a problem and solution related to how the company operates internally, whereas the students in the external projects are working on, for example, project solutions for how to reach new customers and markets. This difference in the scope of the project implies that the students in internal projects have a more internal focus on information collection and meetings, whereas those in external projects have a relatively greater external focus. This, in turn, can explain why students in internal projects more explicitly stress the knowledge of how a workplace operates internally in comparison with students in external projects. Given the analysis and the synthesis seen in Table 2 , we will further conceptualize the role of the corporate development project and present an elaborated framework in the following discussion.

In this section, we will introduce and explain our elaborated framework. The point of departure was the conceptual framework developed at the end of the frame of reference, and we use the outcomes from the analysis to develop our elaborated framework that is now introduced. The framework shows the students' learning outcomes based on the experiences from working on their corporate development project and being on-site at their company. Our elaborated framework is presented in Figure 1 , and, as can be seen, the learning outcomes identified are grouped in the following five categories based on our frame of reference and the analysis: (1) team skills (2) creation of meaning and understanding of university literature (3) self-awareness, (4) problem-solving skills and (5) preparedness and confidence to handle uncertainty.

As will be discussed in more detail later in this section, the findings indicate that the five categories of learning are related in a learning process consisting of three phases. In the first phase, the students start to work in their team (of two students) and learn from the interaction with their partner, thus developing different team skills. The students also start to apply and relate the literature to the experiences in the company, and more specifically to the project. By so doing, the students create meaning and understanding of the university literature. The team skills developed, in turn, foster the students' awareness of their own and others' behavior and consequently self-awareness. Moreover, the creation of meaning and understanding of university literature is in turn, a prerequisite for the development of problem-solving skills. The problem-solving skills improve the students' confidence in handling unfamiliar situations and, together with the developed self-awareness lay the foundation for the students' preparedness and confidence to handle uncertainty. As indicated in Figure 1 , even though students in internal and external projects share similar learning outcomes, we also identify nuanced differences as well.

As mentioned earlier, the students develop team skills from the interaction between the two students in the team. Fundamental for the interaction between the two students is the learning and insight that teamwork has to be based on the understanding of diversity as well as the ability to accept and be able to work with people who have a different background and/or working style. Moreover, as illustrated in our findings, the students experience the role of teamwork for providing and accepting feedback to learn and to create conditions for the other student to learn as well. As seen from our findings, this is related to developing an ability to coach and learn to be coached.

Furthermore, as presented in the analysis, students in both types of corporate development projects created meaning and understanding of the university literature due to their experiences, which is one important expected outcome according to the work-integrated learning literature ( Patrick et al. , 2008 ; Smith and Gibson, 2016 ). The development of understanding and knowledge about the university literature together with their experiences of being on-site in their company fosters the students' understanding of conditions for and potential barriers to corporate entrepreneurship. Our findings show that the students learned what can hinder corporate entrepreneurship internally as well how the company can engage and collaborate with actors in the environment (for example, potential customers) to identify and develop new offerings, which has been acknowledged in Byrne et al. (2016) as well as underlined by Kuratko and Morris (2018) . At the same time, the analysis indicates that the students undertaking the internal projects highlight the understanding and meaning created in relation to internal conditions, whereas those in external projects more explicitly share that they have developed understanding and created meaning related to the role of (external) user involvement in order to identify and develop new offerings.

As briefly discussed already, the team skills fostered in the students include an improved ability to providing and accepting feedback, which, in turn, positively influences reflection on their own and others' behavior. As seen in our findings and visualized in Figure 1 , the team skills gained from the team work fosters a self-awareness in the student. Our findings related to the role of team work dynamics for the development of self-awareness and reflective behavior are in line with those presented by Byrne et al. (2016) examining corporate entrepreneurship training of employees. In the same way as in our findings, Byrne et al. (2016) find that the maturing self-awareness of strengths and weaknesses was a result of the feedback and interaction with fellow team members.

When it comes to the role of self-awareness, our analysis revealed interesting results when comparing students who undertook internal and external projects. In the analysis, it was shown that the students undertaking internal projects more explicitly refer to the matured awareness of their own and others’ behavior, whereas those in the external projects were not as explicit. As presented in the analysis, the students in the internal projects also explained more explicitly the learning related to providing and accepting feedback, which, in turn, could be one reason for the less prominent role of self-awareness for students in external projects. Another explanation could be related to differences between students in internal and external projects in terms of developing networking skills. As seen in the analysis, the students in the external projects much more explicitly stress the learning of social and networking skills from interacting with a large number of both external and internal actors. This focus on interactions with large number of actors can mean that the students in external projects have less time to reflect and explicitly foster awareness of individual improvements.

As previously discussed, by applying and relating the university literature to the project and specific conditions in the company, the student creates meaning and understanding of this literature. Thanks to the elaborated experiences from applying the literature, the students also develop an understanding of the need to adapt the literature to the specific conditions in their company in order to come up with solutions to the problems they seek to solve in their corporate development project. The understanding of how to adapt university literature to the specific needs of the company project is the key for the student to come up with a solution to the problem to be solved in the project. Using the work by Barber (2012) , we can conclude that upon completing the project for their company, the students have developed an ability to create a new solution by synthesizing and integrating university literature and the specific conditions in their company. Hence, the development of mature creation of meaning and understanding of university literature is the foundation for the problem-solving skills the students state they have developed.

As seen in Figure 1 , the last learning outcome we identify is labeled preparedness and confidence to handle uncertainty . The importance of handling uncertainty is key for all entrepreneurial processes and relates to the need to develop reflective and self-regulated learners (see e.g. Harms, 2015 ; Hägg, 2021 ; Williams Middleton and Donnellon, 2014 ) who can engage in self-negotiated action. The corporate development project provides opportunities for the students to take ownership of the learning process, where they are not fully instructed what to do but are guided in terms of how to create a link between theory and practice. As we discussed in the cross-case analysis, the findings indicate a relationship between the students' development of problem-solving skills and their preparedness and confidence to work with new projects characterized by uncertainty in the future. Hence, as visualized in our framework, based on the learning from the corporate development project, the students have developed problem-solving skills that they feel confident about using in the future, which, in turn, seems to positively influence their preparedness to work in unfamiliar and uncertain future environments.

However, as indicated in the cross-case analysis, the students undertaking internal projects more explicitly share learning referring to preparedness and ability to face uncertain and unfamiliar situations, whereas for students undertaking external projects, this is less explicit (even though they mention it). As discussed already, our findings show that students in internal projects more explicitly refer to reflective behavior and self-awareness in comparison with students undertaking external projects. The more explicit mention of improved preparedness to handle uncertain and unfamiliar situations reported by students in internal projects therefore seems to be a result of the greater role of self-awareness. Hence, the more explicit self-awareness fostered in students who have undertaken internal projects means that these students have more specifically reflected on their strengths and weaknesses and what they are capable of doing in the future.

Conclusions

Existing research on the design and outcomes of entrepreneurship education has focused on the context of new venture creation. At the same time, a major proportion of graduates will take on a corporate career working with assignments related to entrepreneurship in established companies or as consultants in corporate entrepreneurship. However, our knowledge about how to design corporate entrepreneurship education is scant.

The framework presented in this paper develops our knowledge about the role of work-integrated learning experiences for fostering corporate entrepreneurship knowledge and skills. More specifically, we have examined how the corporate development project generates learning outcomes and how the type of project influences these learning outcomes. In so doing, we have taken one step toward understanding corporate entrepreneurship education and training from an action learning framework as suggested by Byrne et al. (2016) . In the paper, we have argued for the key role of the corporate development project for academic educations in corporate entrepreneurship. Based on work-integrated learning and entrepreneurship literature, we provide a definition of what qualifies as a corporate development project based on two dimensions. First of all, a corporate development project is part of an academic education in corporate entrepreneurship, and the project focus must hence be related to corporate entrepreneurship. Second, in order to qualify as a corporate development project, the project must provide opportunities for the students to take ownership of the project and learning process. Hence, the arrangement of the corporate development project must be based on an agreement with all involved parties (university representative, company/company mentor, and the students) stating that the students can influence the scope of the project as well as the process.

We have in the study examined two types of projects, internal and external, and how the type of project in turn potentially influences the students' learning outcomes. Our developed framework shows that students in both types of projects report learning outcomes that represent the following five categories: (1) team skills, (2) creating meaning of university literature, (3) self-awareness, (4) problem-solving skills and (5) preparedness and confidence to handle uncertainty. As discussed in the previous section and visualized in our framework ( Figure 1 ), the five categories identified are related and influence each other in a three-phase learning process.

Furthermore, even though all five categories of learning are reported by students in both internal and external projects as discussed in the previous section, interesting and nuanced differences were found between students in internal and external projects. Based on the findings, it seems fair to conclude that experiences from internal and external corporate development projects will have implications for the students' future career path. We find that students undertaking internal projects explicitly mention how they have developed a greater understanding of internal conditions and potential barriers to corporate entrepreneurship, thanks to the corporate development project. Hence, the experiences from internal projects give students a profound understanding of the internal conditions for corporate entrepreneurship both from interactions with top management as well as with employees in different positions. These experiences from the perspective of different positions in a company can, in turn, be assumed valuable for a future career within established companies in positions related to working on new business opportunities and offerings or as a manager working to create conditions for corporate entrepreneurship. On the other hand, the findings show that students working in external projects explicitly underline the networking skills gained from their interactions and networking with both external and internal actors. The experience of working with different external actors and the social and networking skills fostered seem to be valuable for a potential future career as a management consultant assisting top managers in different companies in various areas related to corporate entrepreneurship.

Implications for theory and practice

The framework developed in this paper contributes to the understanding of the role of corporate development projects for the design of academic education programs in corporate entrepreneurship. More specifically, based on the framework, we can understand students' learning outcomes and the interplay between different learning outcomes in the students' learning process when undertaking a corporate development project. Moreover, the framework shows the potential role of the design of the corporate development project for shaping the learning outcomes. Future research should test the framework using data from other academic programs in corporate entrepreneurship that employ the same pedagogical approach (including a corporate development project), and in so doing examine the applicability of the framework using a larger number of corporate development projects. For possible comparison, future research should adopt the same definition of a corporate development project as developed and used in this study.

Besides the implications for entrepreneurship education focused on corporate entrepreneurship, the paper also contributes to the discussion in the work-integrated learning literature. One important challenge discussed in this literature is how to include work-integrated learning in the design of academic programs ( Jackson and Meek, 2021 ) and how to design and arrange the assignment (project) undertaken for the workplace partner. The study contributes a nuanced understanding about the integration of this kind of learning in academic programs, and more specifically the potential role of the design of the project.

The framework ( Figure 1 ) has the potential to be valuable for program directors, guiding them how to design and integrate the corporate development project as one module within an academic program in corporate entrepreneurship. Our framework shows how the different learning outcomes are related and how they progress over time. Even though the framework provides several specific implications for how to plan and design a corporate development project, our data and the framework show that the team skills developed in the team work act as an important foundation for the learning that the individual student gains from the project experiences.

Our framework also shows differences in terms of learning outcomes for students undertaking internal as compared to external projects. These differences should be considered by program directors in their work with planning and designing corporate development projects for the students and considering the implications for their future career. Hence, as previously discussed, internal and external corporate development projects seem to prepare students for different career paths. Students undertaking internal projects are exposed to various experiences related to internal conditions and barriers to corporate entrepreneurship, which can be assumed to provide these students with a good starting point for a future career as a corporate entrepreneur working within established companies. The findings show that students with experience from undertaking external projects have improved their networking skills from interacting with a large number of various external actors as well as actors inside the company. The exposure to not only internal but also various external actors and the improved networking skills seem to provide these students with a good starting point for a future career as a management consultant in corporate entrepreneurship in which they will make good use of networking experiences and skills in their future role as a consultant interacting with and meeting top management in different companies.

Hence, program directors are advised to communicate to students in advance the potential nuanced differences in learning they will experience should they decide to work on an internal as opposed to an external corporate development project. It can be assumed that students are interested to know in advance what learning they will face and how it can potentially prepare them for different future career paths in corporate entrepreneurship.

Bridging theory and practice through the corporate development project – A two path model

Conceptual framework of outcomes from work-integrated learning

Analysis between internal and external corporate development projects

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Corresponding author

About the authors.

Joakim Winborg is an associate professor at Lund University with a PhD in entrepreneurial finance focused on financial bootstrapping in new and small businesses. His current research interests include entrepreneurial finance and entrepreneurship education. His research in entrepreneurship education is in particular focused on outcomes from corporate entrepreneurship education and conditions fostering outcomes.

Gustav Hägg is a postdoctoral researcher at Lund University and assistant professor at Malmö University with a PhD in the research field of entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial learning focused on how reflective thinking could become more integrated in the learning process of students' entrepreneurs. His current research interests include theorizing learning in entrepreneurship education and the post-entrepreneurship education career of graduates through alumni research. He has also a general interest for entrepreneurial decision-making and the role of ethics in relation to entrepreneurship.

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Work Integrated Learning (WIL) model – A win-win process between university, postgraduate business students and industry

Isolde Lubbe I ; Goran Svensson II

I University of Johannesburg, South Africa 3 II Kristiana University, Norway 4

A project-based work integrated learning (WIL) model that is a match between business postgraduate programmes, business postgraduate students and industry partners can increase employability and job opportunities. This study is based on a qualitative and inductive approach and a longitudinal study initiated in 2014 and evaluated in early 2020. Based on empirical findings in a South African setting, the model reflects that in gaining a sense of the environment via a WIL partnership, postgraduate students are better able to connect innovatively to grow the business. A win-win situation can be achieved where a university, business postgraduate students and industry interact to achieve consensus and a match between industry needs and educational skills. The challenges of companies to find and employ appropriately skilled employees among business postgraduate students can be met through the use of the model. The model contributes to WIL knowledge in a business disciplines. This study presents the argument that if universities and industry partners are able to match their needs, connect, collaborate and engage successfully, postgraduate job opportunities and employability could increase.

Keywords : work integrated learning (WIL), project-based learning, win-win process, business graduate job opportunities, employability

INTRODUCTION

Work integrated learning (WIL) is a process whereby students transfer theoretical knowledge into practice. Universities, industry, and students regard graduate skill, employability and job opportunities as critical success factors for degree programmes (Ohei & Brink, 2019; Ibrahim & Jaaffar, 2017) and WIL enhances a graduate's chances of employability and job opportunities (Freudenberg, Brimble & Vyvyan, 2010). Through building a student's practical and basic skills, graduates can become more employable and WIL is being respected as an important instrument to enhance graduate job opportunities (Ohei & Brink, 2019; Ibrahim & Jaaffar, 2017; Hamilton et al., 2015). WIL also improves learning outcomes by enhancing personal and cognitive development, student learning, and work-readiness (Smith, Ferns & Russell, 2016), reinforce skills learned, and transfer skills from one context to another (Crebert et al., 2004). The issue is that most WIL studies have tended to focus on undergraduate students' work-integrated experiences, and most WIL models do not easily translate to postgraduate programmes (Karim, Campbell & Hasan, 2020; Campbell, Stewart & Karim, 2018). The compressed nature of a postgraduate degree makes industry involvement difficult to incorporate, but the benefits far outreach the constraints.

One of the reasons graduates do not find jobs is that employers look for not only a university qualification, but also some form of work experience and practical 'on-the-job' knowledge (BizTrends, 2017). The South African economy demands experienced and skilled work-seekers. Not having some form of experience makes it difficult for young people to find employment (StatsSA, 2021). For universities or higher education institutions (HEIs), providing these 'practical skills' is not possible if good partnerships between university, industry, and student are non-existent (Henderson & Trede, 2017). HEIs are expected to adopt a 'market-economy-oriented pedagogy' that will equip students to become global citizens (Kalafatis & Ledden, 2013). A gap exists in literature addressing conceptual or empirical research on project-based WIL models and strategies to achieve linkages between universities and industry partners, specifically for postgraduate business graduates.

This research aims to meet the challenges of business postgraduate students entering the labour market; enhance their employability; and improve the match with industry needs. It also aims to assist companies to find and employ appropriately skilled employees among business graduate students. The research question is how a Work Integrated Learning (WIL) Model can establish a win-win process between university, business postgraduate students and industry. The research objective is therefore to describe a WIL-model for business postgraduates.

The study describes a win-win situation where a university, business postgraduate students and industry interact in a quest for consensus and a match between industry needs and educational skills. It contributes to theory by adding to the body of knowledge on WIL and its practical contribution lies in the WIL model presented to attract industry stakeholders and academics to engage in WIL projects. The study is limited to describing the application of a WIL model in business disciplines with postgraduate students.

In a project-based learning approach, the 'project' is central to the learning making sourcing and scoping of the project's key essentials to craft a meaningfully challenging learning endeavour in constructive alignment with its objectives (Vande Wiele et al., 2017).

LITERATURE REVIEW

Industry needs for business managers

According to Branson (2017), there is an element of marketing behind every successful business. Consumers have a desire for products and services that serve their needs, but without marketing, they would not be aware of these (Johnson, 2015; Barwise & Meehan, 2011). Substantial evidence shows that business and marketing, and specifically business functions and tasks such as strategic planning, lead to increased profit margins and ultimately improved business performance and success (La Marca, 2017; Van Scheers & Makhitha, 2016), but this is not possible without skilled business graduates (Melaia, Abratt & Bick, 2008), and specifically business graduates with some form of practical experience (Okoti, 2018; Baker, 2015).

Graduates prefer to find the best job, while employers prefer the best candidate for the job; whether in an emerging economy or a developed economy, employers share common concerns about gaps in graduate skills (McArthur et al., 2017; IOA, 2017; Vaaland & Ishengoma, 2016). Recruiters constantly refer to their need for 'employable' graduates (McArthur et al., 2017) or 'work-ready' graduates (Greenacre et al., 2017). These requirements constitute a good mix of skills that are not only academic and technical, but also include soft skills (Mutalemwa, Utouh & Msuya, 2020; Greenacre et al., 2017; Kausar, 2015), as soft skills contribute to work-ready graduates (Karim et al., 2020; Schlee & Karns, 2017).

Soft skills are defined as the 'interpersonal, human, people or behavioural skills needed to apply technical skills and knowledge in the workplace' (Weber et al., 2009: 356). Business is a challenging, fast-changing, and a dynamic field that requires managers to have the soft skills necessary to constantly adapt, while regularly updating their 'technical skills' (Mutalemwa et al., 2020; Schlee & Karns, 2017; Saeed, 2015). Table 1 presents a summary of soft skills, technical and academical skills proposed in literature as essential to shape 'work-ready' graduates.

Soft Skills

Interpersonal skills are built on good communication skills (Rackova, 2015). Good written communication, oral communication, and presentation skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities and timelines are other important skills that employers are looking for (Mutalemwa et al., 2020; Schlee & Karns, 2017; McArthur et al., 2017). Additional requirements include problem solving skills, project management skills, creativity, the ability to work in teams, the ability to adapt to new technologies, and the willingness to learn, together with conflict resolution skills (Mutalemwa et al., 2020; Hall, 2018; Schlee & Karns, 2017; McArthur et al., 2017; Saeed, 2015; Ince, 2011). Mutalemwa et al. (2020) elaborate that the employers further seek initiative, self-awareness, ethical skills, and stress tolerance. Ince (2011) even proposes that graduates should be taught how to handle an interview, draft a CV, and dress for the workplace. Masole and Van Dyk (2016) propose that graduates should present emotional intelligence, and the ability to persevere towards goals and show resilience to attain success. Iyengar (2015) argues that although all these skills are important for graduates, postgraduate WIL programmes should specifically focus on critical thinking, creative solutions, solving complex problems and to grow managers for the digital world. Gannon, Rodgrido & Santema (2016) add that postgraduate programmes should encourage teamwork, inter-culturally contact, and create opportunities for digitally literate skills to develop.

Table 1 above presents a summary of soft skills proposed in literature. Although educators can assist with technical knowledge and skills and provide opportunities for students to exercise the softer skills, the gap between theory and practice is too wide and must be eliminated if educators are to create the skilled, business managers that industry needs (Krell, Todd & Dolecki, 2019).

Technical and academic business skills

From the actual degree, recruiters expect graduates to have more than academic and/or technical skills, but to interpret complex information, solve problems, apply critical thinking, go beyond reporting and metrics, and to be proficient in a full range of analytical skills (Mutalemwa et al., 2020; Whitler, 2018; Schlee & Karns, 2017; Saeed, 2015). Furthermore, graduates, specifically postgraduates are expected to plan and conduct research, but to interpret the research in such a way that they can identify problems and use the insights gained to develop strategic plans (Ferreira & Barbosa, 2019; McArthur et al., 2017; Greenacre et al., 2017; Kausar, 2015). It is important for postgraduate students to understand concepts, have the breadth of knowledge in their field, be up to date with latest trends and know how to apply knowledge gained (Mutalemwa et al., 2020). The issue is that many recruiters require some form of business 'hands-on' or 'know-how' experience when hiring, but these business postgraduate students are less likely than most to be involved in decision-making while studying (Alharahsheh & Pius, 2021; Keegan, 2017; Kausar, 2015; Baker, 2015).

Students, especially those in postgraduate studies, need opportunities to develop their thinking, research and practical skills, specifically on the strategic aspects of business, in order to engage with potential employers (Mutalemwa et al., 2020; Meza Rios et al., 2018). Strategic thinking is an important skill and companies are in serious need of managers equipped with strategic thinking savvy (Seyed Kalali, Momeni & Heydari, 2015; Moon, 2013). Strategic thinking, heightened by today's market uncertainty and technological turbulence, has become a key management tool. It is essential for setting direction, growing a business and shaping the future goals of that business (Vega, 2018; Haycock, Cheadle & Bluestone, 2012).

The main elements of strategic skills include soft skills, business thinking and practical skills. Strategists need as much social skills as they need intellectual skills (Carucci, 2018). For example, analytical skills, planning and teamwork are not possible if a manager does not have good communication skills, a sense of responsibility and the ability to delegate and resolve conflicts (Mustata, Alexe & Alexe, 2017; Gurchiek, 2010). It is further argued that vision and analytical skills affect the strategic manager's questioning ability positively, and inspire innovation and creativity (Mustata, Alexe & Alexe, 2017; Seyed Kalali et al., 2015; Fodness, 2007). Strategic thinkers are able to recognise and solve problems by defining objectives and developing a strategic action plan to resolve daily challenges. Each objective should be broken down into tasks, while each task is allocated resources, budgets and timelines with measurable standards (Bradford, 2018; Mustata, Alexe & Alexe, 2017; Grecu & Denes, 2017). Table 1 summarises the technical and academic skills proposed in literature.

Strategic skills have to be developed by more than just theoretical teaching; they are better acquired through hands-on experience than classroom learning (Meza Rios et al., 2018; Seyed Kalali et al., 2015). Workplace experience and improving personal skills are a means to enhance the graduates' chances of gaining employment and being work-ready (IOA, 2017). Market turbulence and technological turbulence foster strategic thinking at the organisational level and there is a positive relationship between strategic thinking and performance (Moon, 2013). Work-integrated learning (WIL) models and strategies offer many benefits to all related stakeholders, especially industry, by creating work-ready, business postgraduates as future talent for the global marketplace.

Work-integrated learning (WIL)

WIL is also known as project-based learning or practise-based learning and occurs when there are partnerships between the higher education institution, such as a university, and a business organisation (referred to as 'industry' in this paper) to facilitate learning in providing hands-on experience (Prior et al., 2021). Students engaging in this type of learning, are able to enhance their skills development as well as their professional demeanour required to be a work-ready postgraduate (Clausen & Andersson, 2019). In this study, a project-based WIL adheres to three characteristics: (i) students engage with an industry partner, (ii) students undertake activities for industry, and (iii) students are assessed on these activities. This is different from authentic learning, as authentic learning 'exist[s] along a continuum where WIL encapsulates the learning that occurs in close situation to the experience of work' (Karim et al., 2020: 159). It seems though that universities tend to focus more on undergraduate WIL (Campbell et al., 2018) and that literature on postgraduate studies tend to be few and far in between (Valencia-Forrester, 2019: 389) with benefits for postgraduate WIL not entirely explored (Karim et al., 2020; Ferreira & Barbosa, 2019).

Industry benefits from strategic WIL

University-industry linkages are fast becoming the norm in developed countries and emerging economies (Clausen & Andersson, 2019; Vaaland & Ishengoma, 2016). Agnew, Pill and Orrell (2017) as well as Vande Wiele et al. (2017) argue that partnerships between educators, industry (business) and students are important because all three should share an understanding of the expected requirements and responsibilities and value gained. This multi-stakeholder partnership provides lucrative benefits for all stakeholders, including students, educators, businesses and government (Govender & Wait, 2017; Vaaland & Ishengoma, 2016).

By engaging in WIL models and partnerships with universities, industry benefits from the opportunity to showcase its expertise, brand and organisational culture (Johnson et al., 2016; Vaaland & Ishengoma, 2016). When industry experts join Advisory Board discussions in graduate programmes, they are able to influence skills sets those graduates bring to the workplace. University graduates are the future talent that workplaces seek when recruiting new employees and creating talent pools. Leaders and managers benefit from WIL students who present recruitment and talent scouting opportunities when they showcase their theoretical knowledge of business competencies (Hemmert, Bstieler & Okamuro, 2014; Johnson et al., 2016).

Future-fit graduates present business and industry with fresh ideas, innovative creations and futuristic knowledge, skills, values and attitudes (Jackson, 2015). Graduates are 'techno-savvy', with knowledge on how to access and utilise the latest technological devices and applications in the local, national and global arena. University graduates present businesses with strategies for growth and development, especially to meet future, global market trends (Govender & Wait, 2017). Qualified, professional Gen-X, Gen-Y and Gen-Z talent pools are naturally created by tertiary institutions and are fast becoming sought-after talent in the global strategic sector (Wiedmer, 2015).

Industry benefits by engaging in WIL projects, especially when it employs graduates or commits to internships and graduate empowerment programmes after WIL implementation. WIL industry partners meet national and international skills development and human resource strategic imperatives and may gain tax benefits from engaging with university-industry linkages (Govender & Wait, 2017).

METHODOLOGY

Research Design

This study is based on a qualitative and inductive approach. It is an ongoing longitudinal study, initiated in 2014 and evaluated in early 2020. The process of developing a WIL model between a university and industry partners is based on empirical findings in a South African setting.

Population and Sample

The initiative was set up to meet the challenges of business postgraduate students in the labour market and to improve their employability by enhancing their match with industry needs. It was also designed to assist companies to find and employ appropriately skilled employees among business postgraduate students. It is ultimately about creating a win-win situation where a university, business postgraduate student and industry interact in a quest for consensus and a match between industry needs and educational skills.

Data Collection

The evolutionary stages of the empirically developed project-based WIL model, from inception in 2014 until end of 2019, are depicted in Figure 1 . It is evident from the stages implemented, that the project-based learning programme evolved every year and was transformed to better meet and match all stakeholders' (students, recruiters, industry partner and the university) changing needs. To understand the needs and expectations of all parties involved, they need to be involved from the commencement of the project. All stakeholders have to be consulted so that they feel they have influence and a voice to what the outcomes might be and to better manage and match expectations and needs.

Ethical Considerations

Participants in this study were granted strict confidentiality and anonymity. Furthermore, there was no obligation whatsoever to participate, but business postgraduate students, recruiters and industry partners all gave their consent and volunteered in good faith to collaborate in the process of establishing a Work Integrated Learning (WIL) Model to develop a win-win process between university, business graduate students and industry.

To determine needs and expectations from postgraduate students, feedback was gathered in 2020 from participants in the 2018 group (depicted in Table 1 ), who by this time had had a year of work experience and were better equipped to reflect on the WIL programme. The response rate on interviews was 38% (23 out of 60 students). Of the participants providing feedback, 78% indicated that they are more employable based on the WIL-model and 78% indicated better job opportunities.

This section reports the findings based on the WIL-model stages applied and described in the previous section. Table 2 structures a summary of the skills and benefits gained from interviewing students on the WIL model. Multiple skills are gained as a result of participation in the programme. Key skills reported were: (i) working under pressure / tenacity, (ii) presentation skills, (iii) team dynamic skills, (iv) conflict resolution skills, (v) problem solving skills / critical thinking skills, (vi) project management skills, (vii) research skills, and (vii) digital business and marketing skills.

The top three skills mentioned by interviewees were firstly (i) the ability to present to a variety of audiences, secondly (ii) to work under pressure were mentioned jointly with applying your project management skills as students had expectations from industry participants, their lecturer and their team members. Jointly in third place (iii) were critical thinking and problem-solving skills and digital business and marketing skills.

There are a range of benefits ( Table 2 ) recorded, such as: (i) skills and confidence to find a job/ internship; (ii) better preparation for the working world; (iii) application of skills to approach work promotions; (iv) application of oneself in various work circumstances; (v) adaption to changing world /new technologies; (vi) exposure to corporate structures and different work environments; (vii) exposure to different brands and a diverse customer base; (viii) 'real work' experience; and (viii) the WIL programme provided career direction to areas of business and marketing preferred or enjoyed more by students. The top benefit mentioned, was that students felt better prepared for the working world.

Participants provided proposals ( Table 2 ) for additions to the programme, such as: (i) increasing students' financial knowledge and specifically practical financial abilities by adding more course work and by exposing students to more industry-specific financial information; (ii) briefing guest speakers before their presentations on specific deliverables (e.g. what their industry is looking for, what they value, how to apply for a job); (iii) removing repetitive messages or module information (lectures to obtain knowledge of what is offered in the entire programme and become less silo focused); (iv) including a sales module or project to make students even more versatile in the job market; (v) ensuring industry participants also provide feedback on the projects and assignments - not just the lecturers; (vi) considering job shadowing opportunities where internships or graduate programme are not an option for the industry partner involved; (vii) including a variety of industry projects, not just for example financial services management and fast moving consumer good management opportunities; and (viii) guard against a silo approach.

DISCUSSION FROM FINDINGS

The authors propose a WIL-model for business graduates based on the feedback gathered from participants and the WIL-model stages outlined in the section of methodology. Current literature assisted in synthesising the steps that were followed to design, develop and implement the WIL model for business postgraduates described above, into the more formal model presented in Figure 2 .

Step 1: Determine industry needs

Since the process of obtaining industry input, be it from potential employers (Zakharchenko, 2017; Henderson & Trede, 2017; HRDC, 2017; McArthur et al., 2017) or past students (Atkinson, Coleman, & Blankenship, 2014; Jacques, 2014) is supported by current literature, the WIL model commences by conducting research with WIL stakeholders. To determine what skills the industry requires, educators conduct focus group sessions with current students, in-depth interviews with alumni and formal discussion meetings with selected industry members. Industry experts are invited to serve on the university Industry Advisory Board. Students are asked what skills they expect will be required for job opportunities and which skills they think they still lack. Alumni students are interviewed regarding the skills they would like to have learnt, or learned more about, and what skills, in their experience, the job market requires of graduates in the field of business.

The focus is on constructive feedback regarding where the degree fulfils job environment needs (so that the Department can continue doing this), and where the skills gaps exist. Feedback from students and the Industry Advisory Board includes constructive criticism of softer skills that students can improve on, such as time management, presentation skills, working in groups, and general communication skills. Examples of the latter include how to write a professional email, when to send an email, when to phone and how to adapt when a situation changes. Focus group discussions and Industry Advisory Board meetings also attempt to uncover participants' thoughts on future trends in general and how these will alter the skills sets that will be required in the workplace.

Feedback received from students and the Industry Advisory Board is then communicated to academic curriculum designers, where brainstorming takes place regarding changes that can be implemented immediately and those that need to be planned. It is at this stage that academic requirements need to be considered. The established Curriculum Committee agrees on time pressures and theory requirements regarding specific qualification modifications. Industry experts and business lecturers then collaborate to agree on WIL timelines, skills transfer, relevant assessments and further opportunities. These discussions are confirmed via email to the relevant industry and other partners, and WIL participants.

Step 2: Implement the WIL project

The project requires both educators and the industry partner to agree on time and budget commitments and constraints. Both partners need to obtain buy-in at different levels, and constant communication between the partners is essential. A designated manager from industry and one from the university need to be appointed, as the 'go-to' people for the two partners. At the first project briefing session, the industry partner explains a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) whereby students agree not to disclose business information with external parties, and each student is required to sign this before the project brief takes place. The Protection of Personal Information Act (applicable in South Africa) is also discussed, and students provide written confirmation that their personal particulars (e.g., name, surname, cellular phone number and email address) can be provided to the industry partner, especially if it should be required for recruitment purposes.

Once administrative issues are dealt with, the industry partner briefs students on three possible projects which they will complete as a group, with each student selecting one project in which they would like to participate. The lecturer is responsible for dividing students into equal groups and needs to ensure that an equal number of groups are allocated to each project. It would not be fair to project 1, as an example, if only two groups are allocated to this project, but six groups are allocated to project 2. Competition should be equal; it is much easier to 'win' a project if only two groups 'compete'. As far as possible it should be 'fair game' for everyone participating, the students as well as the industry participants. In this particular scenario, equal groups are proposed, to make it fair. A group of four members will have to work harder than a group of six members, and it is easier for individuals to get lost or hide in groups that are bigger than six members.

It is recommended that where possible, four groups participate per project, as experience has shown that this is manageable from a time management and project management perspective for a group of 60 students. The industry partner then presents an overview of the company, what it stands for, its culture, its work ethic, the history of the WIL project, how collaboration is shared, and how each project is expected to unfold, with specific requirements. Current market information, product information and sensitive 'real project' issues are shared, and it is reiterated that these details cannot be shared via any type of social media or informal conversation with friends. Students working on the project and the industry partner's sponsors and colleagues are the only partners' privy to the project specifications. The industry partner also introduces the main sponsors who are engaged with the brand/project internally.

The previous year's graduates who received an internship with the company are invited to assist with the project and mentor and coach current students. A group leader is appointed by each group, and after the general briefing session, the project groups break away and talk to the industry partner's sponsors and alumni graduates. Questions are asked, deadlines are agreed on and methods of communication are shared. Literature supports this step, stressing that collaboration between the university and the industry partner is crucial (Khuong, 2016; Etzkowitz & Ranga, 2015) as this working relationship provides lucrative benefits to all parties involved including student, educator and the business partner (Govender & Wait, 2017; Ferns, Russell & Kay, 2016;). Involvement from the industry partner is reiterated, delivering good guidelines, expectations and a well-written brief (Henderson & Trede, 2017).

Step 3: WIL presentation and assessment

The project briefing should be conducted as the first lecture or briefing session for the particular module, and the final presentation to the industry partner's directors and senior managers should take place at the end of the same semester/year. The lecturer meets with the students during the allocating lecturing slots, for three-and-a-half hours per session, before the final presentation. At these sessions certain themes are lectured, theories are explained, and all theories are linked to the different projects where applicable. Guest speakers are invited to address the latest trends in business thinking and students are encouraged to engage with guest lecturers during these sessions. Class participation is encouraged through a debate, themed around an industry trend and/or challenge. An individual report is submitted initially, in which each student is required to portray a thorough situation analysis, identify the problem, and set the objectives for their project as a 'check point' to ensure that they start at the right place.

Student groups present their project ideas to the industry panel, where they have the opportunity to engage with the panel and critically and constructively address questions and comments. They are then steered in the right direction with recommendations for improvement. The groups next present their amended concepts to a Creative Agency, together with the industry partner's sponsors and industry interns. The Creative Agency develops one image from input and discussions at this meeting and the WIL students use this image in their final presentations. The lecturer, together with other academic colleagues, attends an event where each student group presents their proposals to industry and the Creative Agency to gauge progress, determine if students are on the right track and intervene if there are gaps.

At these presentations, student groups are awarded a mark by all panel members present. An average of these marks counts towards their academic semester mark. The rubric for marking is developed with the industry partner beforehand and is available to students before the presentation. The same procedure is followed with the final presentation at the end of the semester/year. Once again, a rubric is available to the students, and they receive the average mark of the industry attendees present. At the final presentation, student groups present for 30-45 minutes and receive feedback. Each group answers specific questions regarding their concept, proposed strategy and implementation suggestions. They are required to present a 'fictional budget', and show how they would implement it and how they would measure the success of their campaign. In the final part of the presentation, each group reflects on the journey of the industry project and highlights the project's strengths as well as challenges.

Students and groups who impress industry partners most are targeted for interviews for possible internships and/or employment positions. The winning group from each project is announced at various educator and industry year-end functions, where each group member is presented with a reasonable cash voucher. Leon-Garcia (2018) and Farr-Wharton et al., (2018) support the notion of lecturers preparing students for the real world by providing opportunities to engage in teams as well as with the lecturer. Student and lecturer communication, engagement, and class participation are crucial in preparing students to achieve the WIL industry-project's goals (Hunt & Madhavaram, 2014; Farr-Wharton et al., 2018).

RECOMMENDATIONS

Recommendations to Step 1: Determine Industry needs

Recommendation 1: Determine who are the 'behind the scenes' stakeholders

As mentioned in step 1, it is imperative to meet each year with the entire industry project team involved before the new projects are devised and approved. The benefits of evaluating the previous year's performance are to (i) gain an understanding about the industry participants perceptions and experiences of what can be improved; (ii) gain knowledge of new technologies that need to be implemented; and (iii) agree on expectations and outcomes. Currently proposed during step 1 of the postgraduate WIL Model, the industry's needs are evaluated and determined, but from the industry advisory board, the alumni, the current students and the Council of Higher Education. However, to improve this current postgraduate WIL-model, it is proposed that key stakeholders that are 'behind the scenes' from industry are interviewed to gain an understanding of what worked and did not work. Although industry participants are approached every year to evaluate the previous year's project and plan for the coming year's project, there are stakeholders 'behind the scenes' that are not approached. For example, the marketing director and/or divisional manager who attended the final presentations, but who are not formally part of the university-industry project or the Industry Advisory Board, might have valuable insights. It is not necessary for these 'behind the scenes' stakeholders to meet, but research strategies can be implemented to gain their input too.

Recommendation 2: Obtain input from lecturers from other disciplines who are involved in WIL projects

To incorporate the proposed recommendation by students to guard against a 'silo' approach, this can be overcome by inviting other lecturers from other disciplines to provide input into this particular WIL model. A lecturer from, for example, Applied Information Services, who is still in the business domain, can share his or her experiences and 'know how' to improve the current postgraduate WIL model.

Recommendation 3: Involve all the lecturers on the course to evaluate the WIL model

To incorporate feedback from students who commented:

Remove repetitive messages or course information (other modules in programme,

the various lecturers on the programme need to talk to each other to ensure repetitiveness is avoided. Constructive criticism on the entire course will influence the perception of the WIL project that builds on all the modules presented in the course. Repetitive information can be removed if transparency is adhered to. Another suggestion from students were:

To address the issue of a variety of experiences on the course.

Again, if there is transparency about what each lecturer is doing in each of the modules, variety can be introduced.

Recommendations to Step 2: Implement WIL project

Recommendation 4: Agree and negotiate expectations between the student and the lecturer

Although the WIL-model for postgraduate students is refined after each year, it is evident from some students' responses that their expectations were not met. One student wrote

I never plan to work in FMCG, so I wasn't sure why I had to participate in this project.

Another student wrote:

I am an entrepreneur and will start my own business and I didn't see how this project align to my future business plans.

Although there were only four negative responses on the project itself, it is proposed that the university, specifically the lecturer in charge should communicate and negotiate expectations and projected outcomes before the project commences. Furthermore, it will be good to hear what students' expectations are, before they start with the project and to agree together: students, industry and university on guidelines and ground rules before the project starts. To address the need to have exposure to more than one industry, all the lecturers on the course have to meet during step 1 as explained above in recommendation 3.

Recommendation 5: Facilitate strategic thinking

Literature states the need for strategic thinking skills (Vega, 2018; Haycock et al.,2012; Seyed et al., 2015; Moon, 2013), and propose that it is easier to gain these skills when students are involved in practical, hands-on projects (Meza Rios et al., 2018). In straddling the business theory and practical business challenges, opportunities arise for creative problem solving, together with novel ideas and innovative solutions that facilitate strategic thinking. Undergraduate numbers hinder the practicality of hands-on, work-related industry projects, and thus the increased need for postgraduate WIL projects is highlighted where classes are smaller with less students that makes such a project more manageable. It is recommended that students are provided with the opportunity to incorporate all their knowledge gained from undergraduate studies as well as on the rest of the postgraduate course. The only way to do this, is for the lecturer to be involved in undergraduate programmes too, to understand what is offered and how the postgraduate scaffolds on the undergraduate foundation.

Furthermore, to address students' feedback that financial skills are not fully addressed with this particular postgraduate WIL model, it is recommended that experts are brought in, from other disciplines at the particular university, or from other parts of industry to provide students with this hand-on practical financial expertise to better their strategic thinking skills.

Recommendations to Step 3: WIL assessment and presentation

Recommendation 6: Assess industrystakeholders' benefits received after final presentations

It is not possible to increase benefits if the expectations and needs are not known. It should not be assumed that what the university sees as a benefit, is what the industry participants or the students see as benefits. The only way to determine needs, is to ask what they are and to monitor various' parties' experiences throughout the entire process. It is therefore proposed that the university WIL project leader, identify stages during the WIL process to obtain feedback. Currently the postgraduate WIL project proposes that stakeholders meet before and after the project, however expectations can be better managed if it is monitored throughout the process. This will provide all the participants the opportunity to adapt during the process to provide a better experience for all participants involved.

CONCLUSIONS

This study critically evaluated an existing WIL model for postgraduate business students. The two strengths of this study are firstly, the promotion of input and feedback from all stakeholders involved in the postgraduate WIL project, and secondly this proposed WIL model can be a good starting point for universities or industry considering a future postgraduate WIL project for business students. Although feedback from stakeholders have been obtained to refine and improve the model over the years, the authors recognise that there are yet more improvements to implement: (i) determine who are the 'behind the scenes' stakeholders, (ii) obtain feedback from lecturers from other disciplines, (iii) involve all the lecturers on the course to evaluate the WIL model, (iv) agree and negotiate expectations between the student and the lecturer, (v) facilitate strategic thinking, and (vi) assess industry stakeholders' benefits and experiences throughout the WIL process.

The challenges for implementing future postgraduate WIL projects are the increasing postgraduate student numbers. Pressure from management to increase postgraduate student numbers put strain on lecturers to manage this increasing classes sizes. Furthermore, it becomes harder to manage WIL projects when there are many students involved. Industry also faces challenges, with financial pressures to make a profit with increased economic pressures leave little time to involve industry participants in university related WIL projects, when they could be billing their hours. However, in this particular project the industry partner recognises the privilege to be involved in shaping future business leaders and to be first to spot talent.

This study presents the value for postgraduate business students and the benefits to industry of partnering in WIL projects for a win-win situation. It presents a working WIL model for postgraduate business students, which is aligned with trends documented in literature. Step 1 of the model determines industry needs. Step 2, enables students to experience WIL as a practical activity and Step 3 allows students to present and showcase their unique talents and skills to potential employers. It is this phase that has the potential to increase job opportunities for graduating business students in the immediate short term. In the long term, all students experiencing the WIL model stand a chance of becoming absorbed into the workforce, locally, nationally or internationally.

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1 Date of submission 24 June 2020; Date of review outcome: 11 February 2021; Date of acceptance 4 June 2021 2 Thank you to Cookie Govender from the University of Johannesburg, who assisted with the article's structure. 3 ORCID: 0000-0002-7399-2886 4 ORCID: 0000-0002-4857-9408

Taking issue with how the Work-integrated Learning discourse ascribes a dualistic meaning to graduate employability

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• Published: 05 January 2021
• volume  82 ,  pages 307–322 ( 2021 )

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• Ville Björck   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7028-9469 1  

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Work-integrated Learning (WIL) is renowned for providing a bridge between ‘theory’ and ‘practice’ that fosters ‘employable graduates’. This study critically argues that the WIL discourse continues to ascribe a dualistic meaning to graduate employability that primarily contributes to creating the so-called theory–practice gap for students. As an argument towards such a conclusion, a genealogical discourse analysis of how the graduate employability idea operates in 87 present and past official documents concerning the Cooperative Education (Co-op) WIL model is used. Two accounts of graduate employability, the antagonistic practice acclaiming account and the harmonious theory and practice account, recur in both the present and past documents. Both accounts contribute to creating the gap, while the latter also contributes to bridging it. The non-dualistic account, which involves knowing that the key to becoming employable is understanding how both research-based and informal theory shape daily occupational work, could be a useful alternative to these accounts. This is because it could encourage students to see how theory is a form of knowledge manifested in, rather than disconnected from, this work. However, the usual WIL design, whereby universities and workplaces outside universities are respectively institutionalised as the places where ‘theory’ and ‘practice’ is learnt, is not so much instrumental in spreading this non-dualistic account, but rather implies to students that ‘theory’ is absent from daily work until they apply it. Thus, I discuss how establishing physical and/or virtual countersites to the usual WIL design could potentially spread this account to students.

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Introduction

To foster ‘employable graduates’, higher education must become more ‘practice-based’. This statement sums up a key message of a policy agenda that has been urging higher education institutions (HEIs) worldwide to prepare students for the job market since approximately the mid-1990s, namely the employability agenda (Letts 2019 ). A related aspect of this agenda is that since the mid-1990s, employers and governments have pushed people worldwide to adhere to a neoliberal interpretation of employability (Letts 2019 ). While the global spread of this interpretation in the 1990s makes it easy to think that the employability idea itself emerged in the late twentieth century, it had already been used as a policy concept in the early twentieth century (Gazier 1998 ). The neoliberal interpretation claims that contemporary working life is constantly changing and cannot guarantee secure employment, and emphasises that people themselves must deal with this uncertainty by becoming and staying employable. Here, employable means being able to constantly adapt to changes in working life (Garsten and Jacobsson 2004 ).

Research has problematised that this interpretation stems from a neoliberal governmentality  that is widely established in contemporary society (see e.g. Lakes 2011 ). Governmentality is a Foucauldian concept referring to that different modes of governing the conduct of people have been used throughout history (Foucault 1991 ). In modern times, everyday institutional practices, and the mentalities they spread are especially used to shape the collective and individual conduct of people (Foucault 1991 ). A neoliberal governmentality (mode of governing) spreads the mentality that each person is largely responsible for their own success or failure in life (Lakes 2011 ), and, as such, the neoliberal interpretation of employability has been criticised for largely placing the onus on becoming and staying employable on the individual (see e.g Fejes 2010 , who problematises this interpretation ).

Furthermore, research has criticised the employability agenda for pressuring HEIs into educating students in the skills that employers demand (Suleman 2018 ). In this study, I consider this criticism and the criticism of the neoliberal interpretation of the employability idea while exploring a generally ignored research topic, that is, what happens when this idea under the label of graduate employability enters the discourse that is used to discuss different standard models of the form of higher education called Work-integrated Learning ( WIL ). I label this the WIL discourse , and these various models make use of a standard setup of placement WIL (Jackson 2017 ). Placement WIL is a popular WIL design (Zegwaard and Rowe 2019 ) whose standard setup in many degree programmes involves splitting students' education into on-campus training and placement-based training off-campus. I refer to this setup as the usual WIL design , and there is also non-placement WIL , whereby students engage in so-called real-world-like activities on campus to acquire both technical and soft skills (Jackson 2017 ).

The research topic looks at how the WIL discourse continues to ascribe a dualistic meaning to graduate employability because it remains founded on a theory–practice terminology that uses a dualistic order of discourse Footnote 1  to speak about graduate employability (Björck and Johansson 2019 ). This means a terminology in which conceptual pairings such as theory–practice, academia-real world, and study-work are used as opposite terms to define graduate employability. I will argue that when said dualistic meaning is spread to students it contributes primarily to the creation, as well as to the bridging of the gap between the stated forms of training that WIL seeks to bridge , the so-called theory–practice gap . In other words, the argument put forward is that this meaning’s primary contribution is to create this gap for students, not that the gap exists solely because the WIL discourse continues to spread the meaning in question. In the stated terminology, theory and practice respectively mean the abstract research-based knowledge in the form of principles and explanatory models, etc. that is taught on campus, alongside the concrete activities carried out at work placements (Björck and Johansson 2019 ). When I use single quotations marks around theory and practice, I am using these concepts in the same manner as this terminology.

Furthermore, in my previous studies (Björck and Johansson 2019 ; Björck 2020 ) and in other studies that also problematise the polarising WIL discourse, the focus has been on ideas that reveal their dualistic nature because their labels include the kind of conceptual pairings stated above (see e.g. Orr 2002 who problematised the notion that there is an ‘academia’ and a ‘real world’). This study adds to contemporary research by problematising an idea whose label does not include such a conceptual pairing and that, in a WIL context, is not known to be ascribed a dualistic meaning that arguably contributes primarily to creating the so-called theory–practice gap, i.e. graduate employability . The purpose is to problematise this dualistic meaning and discuss how a non-dualistic account of graduate employability could be spread to and, in a decisive way, avoid creating this gap for students.

A genealogical discourse analysis of how this idea operates in 87 present and past official documents promoting the Cooperative Education (Co-op) standard WIL model that emerged at the University of Cincinnati in 1906 is used to problematise the said dualistic meaning (Sovilla and Varty 2011 ). More specifically, 83 of them are paper- or web-based documents, with content produced by the University of Cincinnati, USA, the University of Waterloo, Canada, and University West, Sweden, and distributed between 1928 and 2019 to promote the Co-op model to their prospective and existing Co-op students. Some of these documents are also directed at employers with the intention of maintaining and acquiring new workplaces where prospective or enrolled Co-op students from these HEIs could complete their work placements. The remaining four documents are from 1914, ca. 1930, 1944, and ca. 1960. They also promote Co-op but are either (a) not university-based or (b) documents whose content was originally not produced by HEIs with the intention of promoting Co-op to their prospective and enrolled Co-op students. As the graduate employability idea has been traced back more than 100 years, the documents distributed between 2000 and 2019 were treated as present-day documents.

Furthermore, since 1906, Co-op is typically organised in such a way that students alternate between periods of on-campus training and periods of paid work placement outside the HEIs. Co-op emerged during the second industrial revolution , an event generally dated at between 1870 and 1914. Primarily in Britain, Germany and the US but also elsewhere, this industrial revolution expanded and changed the manufacturing industry to the extent that an increased demand for people with an engineering education oriented towards this industry was created (Sovilla and Varty 2011 ). In the early twentieth century, US engineering education had generally moved to HEIs (Jolly 2009 ), and the worldwide norm at the time was that HEIs only offered students a training in ‘theory’.

However, a few voices argued that engineering students also needed a ‘practice’ to be prepared for the changes that had taken place in the manufacturing industry. In connection with these voices, Co-op emerged at the University of Cincinnati’s engineering college, an emergence that many ‘academicians’ opposed because they wanted higher education to be kept separate from working life (Sovilla and Varty 2011 ).

Furthermore, there is currently a global trend among HEIs to apply the usual WIL design in their attempts to foster employable graduates (Zegwaard and Rowe 2019 ). Here, employable graduates mean in general graduates who are ready for the daily practices of a profession and for working life in general (Lau, Baranovich and Leong 2018 ). There are also other features of the usual WIL design that are important to note. While all different models of this design offer on-campus training and placements at workplaces outside HEIs, they also often differ in certain respects, for instance regarding (a) the number and length of the placements they offer students and (b) whether they offer paid or unpaid placements. Furthermore, while on-campus and work placement-based training are, respectively, in a key way, intended to teach students ‘theory’ about and the ‘practice’ of a profession, this does not mean that students only study ‘theory’ on campus and only carry out ‘practice’ (concrete work) at placements. However, the WIL discourse implies this, not only by labelling the former way of training ‘theory-based’ training and the latter ‘practice-based’ training but also by labelling gaps between these forms of training, theory–practice gaps .

In this study, gaps between the said forms of training are not seen as gaps between abstract theories about how a profession should be practised and a purely concrete professional practice. Rather, they are seen as gaps between the theories and the approaches for applying these theories that students are taught on campus and the theories and the ways of applying them that are tacitly or explicitly used at the students’ workplaces.

Furthermore, as long as they are not too extensive, this study does not see gaps between students’ on-campus and work placement-based training as a problem, nor does it advocate for a perfect match between what students are taught on campus and at placements (see e.g. Allan and Evens 2019 , who criticised the established research focus that such gaps should be bridged). Rather, what I see as problematic for WIL is the reproduction of the very notion that these gaps are theory–practice gaps per se. This is because the said notion provides scope for the dualistic thinking that gaps occur because these forms of training respectively deal with two very different forms of knowledge that often do not combine well. This way of thinking contributes to disconnecting on-campus and work placement-based training for students because it arguably encourages them to question the use of trying to integrate what they have been taught on campus and at work placements.

There are two more bases I need to explain before outlining the previous research section. One is why this study can draw conclusions about how the WIL discourse in general ascribes a dualistic meaning to graduate employability when the empirical material examined concerns the Co-op WIL model. The basis behind this is that there are accounts of the dualistic meaning ascribed to graduate employability that are not specific for statements about Co-op but are general for the WIL discourse. The empirical material includes such types of accounts, and how they were identified is explained in the theorisation and analytical approach section.

The second basis in need of clarification is that this study recognises that there have been changes over time to both how Co-op is applied and to the context in which Co-op is applied, for instance in terms of changed working conditions. However, the present study does not focus on this. Rather, it problematises two interconnected conditions. One is that, since Co-op emerged, the most common format of WIL has in many cases been to split students’ education into campus- and work placement-based components with a key intention of this being their training in ‘theory’ and ‘practice’, respectively. The other condition is that this split has over time institutionalised a WIL discourse founded on a terminology in which WIL-related notions, such as graduate employability, are ascribed a dualistic meaning.

Previous research

Research has emphasised that the employability idea emerged as a policy concept in early twentieth century debates on unemployment (see e.g. Gazier 1998 ). The current, common neoliberal interpretation of employability was first introduced by corporations in the 1980s and, thereafter, adopted by the policy discourse of governments and the European Union (EU). This interpretation represents a shift from earlier ways of speaking about people as employed or unemployed to speaking about them as employable or unemployable (Garsten and Jacobsson 2004 ). Research has criticised that a key aspect of this shift is that both the responsibility for being employed and the blame for being unemployed is shifted towards the individual (see e.g. Lakes 2011 ).

Another notable aspect about the employability idea is that it was in the past, and still is, irrespective of context, often used in a vague way (Gazier 1998 ; Sin and Neave 2016 ). Take the WIL context, where this idea is currently often labelled graduate employability, as an example. Here, an employable graduate is currently often used as a tacit term for a work-ready graduate (Lau, Baranovich and Leong 2018 ), i.e. a graduate that is ready for the ways of working that are established in a profession and in working life in general. I call this the traditional work readiness interpretation of graduate employability because this interpretation is not specific to contemporary society. An example of this is that a key idea behind Co-op’s emergence was that Co-op would foster engineers who were ready for the manufacturing industry (Sovilla and Vardy 2011 ). The said interpretation has also received much criticism in research. Trede and McEwen ( 2015 ) emphasised that graduate employability is not only about being ready for but also about being able to question and change established ways of working. Clarke ( 2018 ) argued that there is a need to transcend the perspective that HEIs must foster graduates who in the eyes of employers are work-ready. HEIs are currently also accused by employers and governments for failing to foster such graduates because their education is not connected sufficiently enough to working life (Tomlinson 2017 ), and the usual WIL design is earmarked as a way for HEIs to foster work-ready graduates (Jackson and Collings 2018 ; Crisp, Higgs and Letts 2019 ).

In conclusion to this section on previous research, I want to point out that while there is a current trend in research to speak of employability as something the individual students must acquire for themselves, contemporary research also tends to emphasise that fostering employable (work-ready) graduates should be the joint responsibility of students, HEIs and employers (Crisp, Higgs and Letts 2019 ).

The empirical material and how a key genealogical principle was used to select it

The 87 documents I examined were all selected because they promote Co-op by ascribing a dualistic meaning to graduate employability. This meaning was not only promoted in these 87 documents, but also promoted in all documents that I came across when gathering my empirical material. This is not strange because, as stated, the terminology used to discuss the Co-op and other standard WIL models use conceptual pairings such as theory–practice, academia-real world and study-work as opposite terms to explain how such models foster graduate employability. In this study, I was inspired by Foucault’s approach to genealogical discourse analysis, a key principle of which is to trace a figure (e.g. an idea) from the present back in time by examining one or more types of present and past documents in which this figure is represented (Foucault 1984 ; Dahlstedt and Fejes 2017 ). Based on this principle, I traced the graduate employability idea from the present back to the early discourse on Co-op by selecting 87 documents from different dates in the period in which Co-op has existed. Of these documents, 83 have a content originally produced by the University of Cincinnati, USA, the University of Waterloo, Canada, and University West, Sweden, with the primary intention of promoting Co-op to their prospective and existing Co-op students.

Documents from these HEIs were selected because they have a history of using Co-op, and together they have used Co-op since its emergence. More specifically, the three HEIs were first to introduce Co-op in the country where they are located, and respectively the University of Cincinnati, the University of Waterloo and University West began to use Co-op in 1906, in 1957 and in 1989. Assisted by archivists at these HEIs, I found around 200 documents dating back to 1928. Many of them include multiple pages whereas others are shorter in the form of a paper-based information sheet or a text from the website of one of the three HEIs stated above. Moreover, some documents only discuss Co-op, whereas others also discuss other topics such as specific degree programmes.

After reading them carefully, I concluded that they are very similar in terms of how they promote Co-op by ascribing a dualistic meaning to graduate employability. Against this background, I selected 83 such documents using the following selection criteria. I chose documents that were used at different dates between 1928 and 2019, so that together they would provide both explicit and implicit examples of how this meaning is ascribed to graduate employability and used to promote Co-op.

The other four documents selected were published in 1914, ca. 1930, 1944, and ca. 1960. The first document is a transcript of Herman Schneider’s 1914 hearing about Cooperative and Vocational Education before the US House of Representatives’ Committee on Education, which I obtained from a research contact. Schneider was the dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Cincinnati (UC) who promoted Co-op before its emergence there. The document dated around 1930 is a newspaper article about Co-op at UC, entitled A university based on a new idea.  This newspaper article is written by a former journalist named Myron M. Stearns. The document from 1944 is a UC pamphlet entitled Is Higher Education obsolete? This pamphlet comprises six articles initially published in different US newspapers. The document published ca. 1960 is entitled Excerpts from Writings and Speeches about Cooperative Education and is a collection of past quotations about Co-op, several of them voiced by Schneider between ca. 1900 and 1935.

The last three documents were found with the assistance of archivists at UC, and all four stated documents were not only selected because they promote Co-op by ascribing a dualistic meaning to graduate employability. The transcript of Schneider’s hearing and the document including excerpts from writings and speeches about Co-op were also selected because they allowed me to trace this meaning further back in time than was possible with the 83 documents described above. Furthermore, the four documents were selected because they provide past examples of the fact that the dualistic meaning ascribed to graduate employability is not only used by HEIs, but is also promoted more broadly in society.

Theorisation and analytical approach

In this study, I was not only inspired by a Foucauldian approach to genealogical discourse analysis but also by a Foucauldian interpretation of discourse and power. One of the two working definitions of discourse applied sets out that a discourse is a group of statements that has a main topic, but which also discusses other related topics (Foucault 1972 ). Present and past statements regarding Co-op were seen to belong to the WIL discourse, a discourse founded on the theory–practice terminology that is mainly used to discuss the Co-op and other standard WIL models, but also to discuss higher education and working life in general. There are also two ways in which these present and past statements follow this terminology’s dualistic order of discourse in ascribing meaning to graduate employability. One is antagonistic , using conceptual pairings such as theory–practice, academia-real world, and study-work as terms for rival and/or incompatible opposites, and the other is harmonious , using such pairings to describe opposites that fit well together (see Webb 2013 , who emphasised that people generally tend to use these antagonistic or harmonious ways of speaking when treating two concepts as opposite terms). In the ‘Results’ section, I seek to demonstrate that an antagonistic account of the dualistic meaning ascribed to graduate employability merely contributes to creating the so-called theory–practice gap for students, whereas a harmonious account of this meaning contributes to both creating and bridging that gap.

The second working definition of discourse applied is that a group of statements forming a discourse shape and are also rooted in and (re)produced by our institutions and their practices (Foucault 1990 ). Thus, I saw the Co-op and other standard WIL models as institutional arrangements that embody and reproduce the messages of the theory–practice terminology and its key ideas. For instance, through the decisive embodiment of the idea that you study an abstract knowledge called ‘theory’ on campus and carry out concrete work called ‘practice’ on work placements, these models imply to students that what is taught on campus and during placements are very different things.

Furthermore, inspired by Foucault ( 1990 ), I saw and examined power as a productive force that in various shapes, for instance in the form of an assumption, operates through and underlies how we (people) speak about a topic.

This section will now describe how I conducted the genealogical discourse analysis with the intention of problematising how the WIL discourse continues to ascribe a dualistic meaning to graduate employability (see Foucault 1984 , who argued that the aim of a genealogical discourse analysis is to problematise how a figure, such as an idea, is discussed at present). As such a discourse analysis starts with the present, I began by examining the contemporary documents on Co-op and applying in this examination a few interrelated analytical processes.

First, I read through the documents several times and took notes of (a) how they used concepts such as theory and practice, academia and real world, and study and work as opposite terms to describe how Co-op creates employable graduates and (b) what these descriptions mean by employable graduates. Based on these notes, I looked through the documents to discern accounts (descriptions) of how graduate employability is created that were not only common there, but that also reflected how WIL in general and not just Co-op is emphasised as a way of fostering graduate employability in contemporary research. I did this to identify accounts that are typical of the general WIL discourse and not specific for statements about Co-op. Two such accounts emerged. By looking into the characteristics of graduate employability in these accounts, I determined that one took on an antagonistic approach and the other, a harmonious one. I also explored how and why the antagonistic account could be said to merely contribute to creating the so-called theory–practice gap for students, and how and why the harmonious account could be seen to both contributing to the creation and bridging of this gap.

Furthermore, according to the Foucauldian view that power is a productive force that underlies discourse, I investigated whether and, if so in what ways, there are productive forces, such as assumptions, that underlie these accounts. It was also in connection with the analytical processes previously mentioned that I selected several quotations that belong to the antagonistic and the harmonious accounts.

My next step was to examine the past documents. Since a key focus of genealogical discourse analysis is the comparison of past and present interpretations of a current idea such as graduate employability (Dahlstedt and Fejes 2017 ), the analysis of these documents focused on two things: to examine whether the antagonistic and harmonious accounts discerned in the present documents also mirrored the accounts of the dualistic interpretation of graduate employability common in the past documents and, if so, whether these accounts have the same characteristics in the present and past documents. It was determined that these accounts mirrored the accounts of this interpretation common in the past documents and that they had the same characteristics in the present and the past documents. Based on this, I selected several past quotations that illustrate these characteristics, and the following results section outlines present and past quotations belonging to the antagonistic and the harmonious accounts.

In the documents I studied, both accounts generally adopt a work readiness interpretation of graduate employability. This interpretation defines an employable graduate as a graduate who is ready for daily professional work, which here means the daily expert work of an occupation that an individual must train for to be ready for such work. The ‘Results’ section outlines quotations of these accounts that adopt such an interpretation. Thus, in this section, the term employable graduate is used according to the above stated meaning and graduate employability has the meaning of readiness for daily professional work . Such quotations are outlined because they are common in empirical material and because, in the discussion, I intend to problematise how the said work readiness interpretation is linked to the dualistic meaning that the WIL discourse ascribes to graduate employability. The two accounts of graduate employability are presented separately and are respectively called the antagonistic practice acclaiming account and the harmonious theory and practice account. I start by outlining contemporary quotations to illustrate that current key characteristics of these accounts can be traced back in time and have, over the years, reproduced the dualistic meaning ascribed to graduate employability.

The antagonistic practice acclaiming account

The key characteristic of this account is that it praises so-called practical or work experience for fostering employable graduates, often by implying rather than stating this explicitly. A quotation that belongs to this account is the following student statement that was available on University West’s website in September 2019 :

It was the Co-op that was the decisive factor when I had to choose what to study. I felt that it was great to have the opportunity to get out and work a little. There are also lots of employers who are looking for newly qualified engineers with work experience, and, in this regard, the Co-op is really good ( https://www.hv.se/utbildning/intervjuer/grundniva/maskiningenjor ).

By positioning work experience as something that employers seek, this quotation implies rather than explicitly states that this ‘experience’ fosters employable graduates. Underlying the said account is the assumption that ‘practical experience’ and craftsmanship , rather than formal schooling and knowledge in ‘theory’, makes students ready for professional work. This assumption is antagonistic because it represents a devaluation of formal schooling and ‘theory’, and, in connection with the said assumption, craftsmanship means the ‘expertise’ that you can only learn from practising an occupation and that professional work is founded upon. The assumption stated above can also be expressed in other words, namely that an employable graduate is a graduate who has the ‘practical experience’ and thereby the craftsmanship to be ready for professional work.

In the documents studied, instances of the practice acclaiming account seldom voice this assumption explicitly, but instead allude to it, masking the account’s antagonistic nature. Some instances do allude to this assumption more clearly, however. For instance, a  2014  University West brochure called CO-OP contains a student quotation emphasising that it is the work periods rather than ‘theory’ which ensure that ‘I learn how you work as an engineer’ (p. 7). This quotation alludes to the ‘saying’ that you do not learn a profession by attending classes and reading books but through work experience, a saying which is also implied in a 2006 University of Cincinnati document where a student states: ‘my co-op will provide me with work experience that no classroom or textbook can match’ (Celebrating 100 years of Co-op: Growth, Experience and Connections, p. 15). The stated saying reflects a scepticism of formal schooling that can be traced back in time and forms a key foundation for the assumption that it is ‘practice’ which prepares you for professional work. This scepticism is clarified in connection with a quotation from a 1990s University West document called COOP – The education that will earn you more than just money:

Nothing impresses an employer more than a student who isn’t always stuck in the classroom (COOP – The education that will earn you more than just money, p. 2).

This quotation tacitly alludes to the scepticism that formal schooling is too focused on abstract ‘theories’ to be of ‘real’ use in ‘practice’, and thereby unable to foster employable graduates, a scepticism often implied by the examined documents. This scepticism is spread through the antagonistic assumption underlying the practice acclaiming account and by spreading this assumption, albeit often tacitly, this account simultaneously implies that you study a form of knowledge called ‘theory’ on campus that is of no ‘real’ use in ‘practice’. By implying this, the said account gives students the message that they study a form of knowledge that is not useful in ‘practice’. This message arguably contributes to creating the so-called theory–practice gap because it discourages students from trying to connect what they are taught on campus with what they are taught at placements.

Furthermore, many instances of the practice acclaiming account that refer subtly to this account’s underlying assumption also contain equally subtle references to the said scepticism of formal schooling. For instance, in a 1977 University of Waterloo Undergraduate Admissions Handbook used ahead of the 1978 spring semester, it is emphasised that Co-op ensures that ‘you can learn theory and train for a career at the same time’ (p. 5). This subtly suggests that preparation for a career is gained from ‘practice’ and not from reading ‘theory’, a suggestion which implies that it is ‘practice’ which makes you ready for professional work, and which subtly reminds students of the scepticism that ‘theory’ is too abstract to prepare you for such work. This scepticism and the assumption underlying the practice acclaiming account are now further discussed in connection with a quotation that belongs to this account and that appears in Myron M. Stearns' newspaper article about Co-op at the University of Cincinnati (UC) that is dated around 1930 and called A university based on a new idea . The quotation appears in connection with two statements, one of which accuses higher education of being too ‘theoretical’, and the other discusses the 1906 emergence of Co-op and the idea behind locating parts of students’ engineering education in industry:

There (industry author’s comment) was the real college that could teach life–in the steel mills, in the machine shops, in the drafting rooms of production plants, in the myriad business offices of industry ( Stearns ca. 1930 , p. 82).

By being voiced in connection with the said scepticism, and by implying that industry is the ‘real’ place for learning industrial work, this quotation alludes to the antagonistic assumption underlying the practice acclaiming account . This assumption forms an asymmetrical ranking order that devalues formal ‘schooling’ and ‘theory’ for being unable to foster employable graduates, and praises ‘practical experience’ for doing so. Such praise is also apparent in the transcript of Herman Schneider’s 1914 hearing about Cooperative and Vocational Education before the US House of Representatives’ Committee on Education where it is emphasised that work experience ensures that you ‘can go right out into a job’ after graduation (p. 15).

Furthermore, the practice acclaiming account and the assumption underlying it are not specific to Co-op, but key elements of today’s general WIL discourse. Contemporary WIL research praises ‘practical experience’ for its role in fostering employable graduates (see e.g. Boud 2012 ; Jackson and Collings 2018 ) and the assumption that this ‘experience’, rather than formal schooling and ‘theory’, fosters such graduates is also emphasised in research (see e.g. Raelin 2016 , who argued that work-based and not classroom learning is the ideal preparation for management work). Scepticism of formal schooling is also not just a thing of the past. It is still present among employers, for instance (Masschelein and Simons 2013 ; Letts 2019 ). However, although still being established today, this does not mean that the said account, assumption and scepticism are currently unchallenged. The following account of graduate employability is an example of this.

The harmonious theory and practice account

The key characteristic of this account is that it praises how the mix of training both in ‘theory’ and in ‘practice’ fosters employable graduates, often by implying, rather than stating this explicitly. The following text supports this account and was available on the University of Cincinnati’s website in November 2018 :

Through an on-going alternation of semesters of classroom study and discipline-related, paid work semesters, co-op provides students a bridge to integrate theory and practice. The well-structured nature of the program enables students to develop competencies that are deemed important by faculty in the disciplines and by professional practitioners… and program graduates have many advantages when seeking career employment. ( https://ceas.uc.edu/future_students/Coop/professional_practicefacultystaffforengineering.html ).

Here, it is implied that students combining on-campus training with work placements gain a bridge between ‘theory’ and ‘practice’ that fosters employable graduates . Underlying the theory and practice account are the two assumptions that the basis for professional work is that you know (a) both ‘theory’ and ‘practice’ and (b) how to integrate (unite) them. In connection with these assumptions, an employable graduate can be described as a graduate who knows ‘theory’ and ‘practice’ and can integrate them. The said assumptions are harmonious because they rate knowledge in ‘theory’ and ‘practice’ as being equally vital foundations for professional work. They differ from the antagonistic assumption underlying the practice acclaiming account that positions knowledge in ‘practice’ as the only foundation for this work.

The theory and practice account and the two assumptions underlying it are not specific to Co-op, but are key elements of today’s general WIL discourse. A clear indication of this is that the usual WIL design is emphasised in research as fostering employable graduates by offering students a mix of, and a bridge to integrate, ‘theory’ and ‘practice’ (Jackson 2017 ). The two assumptions underlying this account are seldom voiced explicitly, but instead alluded to in the documents studied. A student quotation in a 2005 University of Waterloo Admissions Brochure for degree programmes in Accounting and Financial Management exemplifies an instance of said account, alluding to the assumption that graduates are only employable if they can integrate ‘theory’ and ‘practice’. The quotation emphasises that employers want graduates who can ‘apply what they know in real situations’ (p. 1), a quotation alluding to the idea that employers do not want a graduate who is merely well-educated in ‘theory’, but one who can integrate ‘theory’ and ‘practice’. A student quotation from a 1990s University West document illustrates how an instance of the theory and practice account alludes to the other assumption underlying this account:

I am in a better position than those students who did not opt for the COOP format when it comes to competing for jobs in the labour market. It is important to possess both theoretical and practical ability (Cooperative Education – Putting higher education to work, p. 2).

Here, the assumption that you must know both ‘theory’ and ‘practice’ to become an employable graduate is implied by the statement that you are less attractive in the labour market if you do not ‘possess both theoretical and practical ability’. Furthermore, because the theory and practice account , albeit often implicitly, spreads the assumption that being able to integrate ‘theory’ and ‘practice’ makes you employable, I argue that it contributes to bridging the so-called theory–practice gap for students. After all, this assumption arguably encourages students to learn how to integrate what they are taught on campus and at placements under the labels of ‘theory’ and ‘practice’, respectively.

However, because this account uses the very distinction whereby theory and practice respectively mean the abstract research-based knowledge studied on campus, alongside the concrete activities carried out at work placements, it arguably also reinforces the message that ‘theory’ and ‘practice’ are essentially different. I argue that this means that the said account also contributes to creating the gap because this message arguably encourages students to look for and notice gaps between their on-campus and work placement-based training, and also to believe that these are theory–practice gaps per se.

A final quotation belonging to the theory and practice account is now outlined. This quotation is about how Herman Schneider concluded that students need training in both ‘theory’ and ‘practice’ and was stated in the ca. 1930 newspaper article called A university based on new idea . The quotation is written in connection with a key message of this article, i.e. that students must know how to integrate ‘theory’ into ‘practice’ to become useful in and thus ready for professional work:

During his years at college he had supported himself by working in an architect’s office … He knew from experience how much he had learned that could not be taught in the classrooms alone; he also knew what his first master lacked in the way of schooling that might have made him a far more able and useful citizen, a constructor and builder instead of a mere carpenter (Stearns ca. 1930 , p. 82).

By being written in this context, this quotation implies that if you have not acquired both ‘practical experience’ and formal schooling you will either lack the knowledge in ‘theory’ or the knowledge in ‘practice’ that you must both have and learn to integrate to become employable. The quotation also demonstrates that the theory and practice account and its two underlying assumptions are not just elements of the present WIL discourse. While the said account arguably not only contributes to creating the so-called theory–practice gap for students, it reinforces, in itself and together with the practice acclaiming account, the very dualistic meaning ascribed to graduate employability that arguably contributes to primarily creating this gap. Before I problematise this meaning further, discuss the potential value of a non-dualistic alternative to said meaning and how to possibly establish such an alternative, it is necessary to clarify a limitation within the documents studied. These documents tend to be written from the employer perspective that graduates must be able to deal with the conditions existing in working life, which can explain why the documents tend to imply that formal school activities such as book studies do not make you prepared for these conditions.

This scepticism of formal schooling remains alive at present (Letts 2019 ) but is also challenged (Masschelein and Simons 2013 ), and not all employers outside university are sceptical of formal schooling. By confirming that the two accounts of the dualistic meaning ascribed to graduate employability I examined are often emphasised in contemporary WIL research, I argue that, despite the above limitation of the documents, I have examined accounts that are widely established.

I have problematised the dualistic meaning ascribed to graduate employability as research has generally ignored that this meaning arguably contributes primarily to creating the so-called theory–practice gap for students. Said meaning is linked specifically to the traditional work readiness interpretation of graduate employability, ensuring that this interpretation remains an established one.

While research has criticised this interpretation for ignoring that employability is not only about being ready for but also about being able to challenge and change the ways of working established in a profession (Crisp, Higgs and Letts 2019 ), it has generally not recognised this link. The link is that the work readiness interpretation belongs to the dualistic way of ascribing meaning to graduate employability and reflects the established dualistic notion that the working-life domain existing outside HEIs is the ‘real world’ that students must be prepared for. A non-dualistic way of ascribing meaning to graduate employability could, as research has called for, provide scope for alternatives to the work readiness interpretation (Trede and McEwen 2015 ).

Such a method of ascribing meaning to graduate employability is now outlined, explaining how it could contribute decisively to avoiding the creation of the so-called theory–practice gap for students. One way of ascribing a non-dualistic meaning to graduate employability is to speak of an employable graduate as a graduate who knows how research-based and informal theories (ideas and principles, etc.) are embedded in professional work and how they can be used in various ways. Such a way of speaking could not only encourage students to graduate as experts in how research-based and informal theories are and could be used in this work. It could also encourage students to view theory as a form of knowledge that, in a research-based and informal form, shapes daily professional work, rather than a form of knowledge that is absent from this work until they have successfully integrated it. In the sense that the former view can give students the realisation that theory is a form of knowledge that shapes daily professional work, I argue that the said non-dualistic way of ascribing meaning to graduate employability could avoid creating the so-called theory–practice gap.

I further argue that the usual WIL design is not really suited to giving students this realisation, since it implies that only one form of theory exists, and that this is the research-based theory students study and shall bring to ‘practice’. Furthermore, this WIL design institutionalises the very terminology whose dualistic way of ascribing meaning to graduate employability arguably contributes to primarily creating the so-called theory–practice gap. In this manner, the usual WIL design arguably contributes to creating this gap, and while it also gives students opportunities to bridge the gap, it seems reasonable to at least question how effective this WIL design really is when it comes to bridging the gap for students.

There is a research trend to promote third spaces as learning environments that could avoid creating this gap (Forgasz et al 2018 ). Third spaces have been described as environments operating at a distance and ‘freely’ from the learning environments students encounter at HEIs and at workplaces outside HEIs, forming hybrids of these environments that are able to illustrate how research-based and informal theories shape daily professional work (Forgasz et al 2018 ). The concept of third places has also been introduced to emphasise that to become the ‘free’ environments they are intended to be, such hybrids need their own habitats where they can take hold and grow, in relation to but outside the learning environments students encounter at HEIs and workplaces (see Björck and Johansson 2019 ; Björck 2020 , who discussed physical forms of such habitats, though these could also be virtual).

However, while the kind of hybrid environments stated above are debated in research, they have not become established institutional arrangements that could counter the dualistic way of thinking about what theory and practice mean and how they relate to each other, as is spread by the usual WIL design. Thus, there is arguably a lack of environments in students’ education that, in contrast to this WIL design, could really show students how research-based and informal theories shape professional work and thereby avoid implying to students that theory is a form of knowledge with limited use. Further discussions on how such environments can look like are needed if they are to become established arrangements. They could be physical and/or virtual sites that introduce students to a profession's daily work practices, with a pedagogical focus on them trying out how various research-based and informal theories are and could be used in such practices alongside faculty and professionals working outside HEIs. It is also vital to note that there is no guarantee that establishing such sites would in fact have the potential effect discussed in this study.

However, because the theory–practice terminology and its dualistic way of ascribing meaning to graduate employability are institutionalised in and spread to students through the usual WIL design, the following argument could be put forward. Physical and/or virtual sites designed to embody how research-based and informal theories shape daily professional work could institutionalise a non-dualistic way of ascribing meaning to graduate employability, which could encourage students to see theory as a useful form of knowledge. Finally, I would like to emphasise that to avoid reproducing the neoliberal thinking whereby employability is framed as something individuals are responsible for, a non-dualistic way of ascribing meaning to graduate employability must embrace a perspective emphasised in research. The perspective is that not only students but also HEIs and employers are responsible for graduate’s employability (Crisp, Higgs and Letts  2019 ).

Here, the concept of order of discourse refers, in a Foucault-inspired manner, to an order for how language is organised and used (Foucault 1971 ).

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by University West—thank you. I would also like to thank the employees at University West, the University of Cincinnati and the University of Waterloo who helped me gain access to the empirical material. A final ‘thank you’ goes to Göran Lassbo, Kristina Johansson and Tomasz Szkudlarek for all their constructive criticism throughout the writing process.

Open access funding provided by University West.

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Björck, V. Taking issue with how the Work-integrated Learning discourse ascribes a dualistic meaning to graduate employability. High Educ 82 , 307–322 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00650-y

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Work Integrated Learning Report

The analysis on the provision of public transport by the city of Windhoek is one that has been on the frontier for quite a while. Issue that are problematic include among others, the inadequate provision of bus services, inadequate bus terminals, late arrival and departure of buses at terminals, overloading, buses that have bypassed their road usage (buses that have been in operation since the late 70's. This study aim to iron out pertinent issues that are hampering the smooth operation of the public transport provision by the city of Windhoek, and ways on how to mitigate the outlined issues.

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The Complete Guide to Building a Sales Forecast

Set your company up for predictable revenue growth with the right forecasting processes and tools.

Paul Bookstaber

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Building a sales forecast is both an art and a science. Accurate sales forecasts keep your leaders happy and your business healthy. In this guide, we’ll explain everything you need to know about sales forecasting — so you can get a clear picture of your company’s projected sales and keep everyone’s expectations on track.

We’ve organized this reference guide by the top questions sales teams have about the sales forecasting process, based on our internal conversations and more than 20 years of experience developing  sales solutions .

Build sales forecasts with accuracy

Use the real-time data updates and insights of Sales Cloud to keep your forecasts accurate and your teams on track to hit targets.

What you’ll learn:

What is a sales forecast, why is sales forecasting important, who is responsible for sales forecasts, who uses sales forecasts, what are the objectives of sales forecasting, how do i design a sales forecasting plan.

• What happens to sales forecasting in unpredictable times?

How accurate are sales forecasts?

What tools do you use to forecast sales revenue and how do crm systems forecast revenue, how is forecasting better with crm vs. other methods.

If you’re a sales leader who’s already well-versed in the who and what of sales forecasts, skip to the sections on  designing a sales forecasting plan  and  tools to improve sales forecasts  for more relevant knowledge. Sales forecasting can become especially tough when we face an unexpected turn of events, so head to the section on  what happens to sales forecasts in unpredictable times  for more on that.

A sales forecast is an expression of expected sales revenue. A sales forecast estimates how much your company plans to sell within a certain time period (like quarter or year). The best sales forecasts do this with a high degree of accuracy, and they’re only as accurate as the data that fuels them.

A strong data culture is at the heart of an accurate sales forecast. This means all sales data is available to everyone at the company, and all teams do their part in keeping it updated, leaning on AI and automation to help. More on that in the section on  tools used to forecast sales revenue .

All sales forecasts answer two key questions:

• How much:  Each sales opportunity has its own projected amount it’ll bring into the business. Whether that’s $500 or $5 million, sales teams have to come up with one number representing that new business. To create the number, they take everything they know about the prospect into account.
• When:  Sales forecasts pinpoint a month, quarter, or year when the sales team expects the revenue to hit.

Coming up with those two sales projections is no easy feat. So sales teams factor in the important ingredients of who, what, where, why, and how to make their forecasts:

• Who:  Sales teams are responsible for sales forecasting.
• What:  Forecasts should be based on the exact solutions you plan to sell. In turn, that should be based on problems your prospects have voiced, which  your company can uniquely solve .
• Where:  Where is the buying decision made, and where will the actual products be used? Sales teams see better accuracy when they get closer (at least for a visit) to the center of the action.
• Why:  Why is the prospect or existing customer considering new services from your company in the first place? Is there a compelling event making them consider it now? Without a forcing function and a clear why, the deal may stall inevitably.
• How:  How does this prospect tend to make purchasing decisions? If you’re not accounting for how they do it now and how they’ve done it in the past in your forecast, it may be fuzzy math.

Forecasting lets leaders set realistic sales targets, create attainable and motivating quotas for sales reps, and gauge expected revenue, aiding in budgeting and spending decisions for the whole company. If forecasts are inaccurate, businesses may overspend (putting themselves in a risky spot), and set unreachable quotas (which is demoralizing for reps).

To understand why sales forecasting is so important to business health, think about two example scenarios: one with a car manufacturer and another with an e-commerce shop.

In the case of a car manufacturer, cars take a long time to build. The manufacturer has a complex supply chain to ensure every car part is available exactly when they need to build cars, so the number of cars available to purchase will meet demand.

When you buy something online, whether that’s from a large marketplace or a small boutique, you get a delivery estimate. If your delivery comes a day or a week after it’s promised, that’ll affect your satisfaction with the company — and decrease your willingness to want to do business with them again.

Sales forecasting is similar in both cases. Sales forecasts help the entire business plan resources to ship products, pay for marketing, hire employees, and beyond. Accurate sales forecasting yields a well-oiled machine that meets customer demand, both today and in the future. And internally on sales teams, sales revenue that delivers in its estimated time period keeps leaders and collaborators happy, just like a shipment that arrives on time.

If forecasts are off, the company faces challenges that affect everything from pricing to product delivery to the end user. Meanwhile, if forecasts are on point and  sales quotas  are met, the company can make better investments, perhaps hiring 20 new developers instead of 10, or building a much-needed new sales office in a prime new territory.

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Each organization has its own sales forecast owners. These are some of the teams who are usually responsible:

• Product leaders:  They put a stake in the ground for what products will be available to sell when.
• Sales leaders:  They promise the numbers that their teams will deliver. Depending on the seniority of the leader, how they forecast varies. For example, first-line managers forecast collections of opportunities, where third-line managers consider a wide set of numbers and traditional close rates to come up with an overall forecast.
• Sales reps:  They report their own numbers to their managers.

No matter how a company calculates its sales forecasts, the process should be transparent. And at the end of the day, sales leadership has to be responsible to call a number. Whether met, exceeded, or missed, the forecast responsibility falls on them.

Sales forecasts touch virtually all departments in a business. For example, the finance department uses sales forecasts to decide how to make annual and quarterly investments. Product leaders use them to plan demand for new products. And the HR department uses forecasts to align recruiting needs to where the business is going.

At some level, sales forecasting affects everyone in the company.

The main objective of sales forecasting is to paint an accurate picture of expected sales. Leaders are looking to these numbers when they’re building out their operational roadmap and budget. If they’re confident in the projected growth, they can get to planning.

They could decide to staff more customer service touchpoints, fund more external marketing events, or invest more in the community. They could get ahead of purchasing new equipment or upgrades that get more expensive the longer they wait. Without a sales forecast, leaders are making critical spending decisions in the dark. If sales don’t go as planned, it could lead to cutting workforce, reducing support, or halting product development.

Sales forecasting is a muscle, not an item to check off your to-do list. While you should absolutely design a framework for your sales forecasting plan each year, you should also change up your strategies from time to time so new muscles develop.

Craft a sales forecasting plan with your team by focusing on three primary activities:

• Calculating number and time  period:  Your plan should explain how you’ll calculate the estimated monetary amount and what the timeframes will be. See the section on  how a CRM can help with forecasting  later in this guide for more on the sales forecasting tools you can use to do this.
• Reviewing and revising:  You should also plan to review the forecast at key milestones and revise it if necessary. Most sales leaders track progress against their forecast daily! But you’ll also want to schedule designated check-ins throughout the quarter. Make sure you’re reviewing the latest numbers with  sales automation tools  that sync your CRM’s forecast data.
• Breaking the patterns:  Even the best sales organizations need to shake up their  sales process  once in a while. Breaking your patterns can help you find new ways of crafting even more accurate forecasting. Try skip-level forecasting, ask different questions, have executive sponsorship reviews, and take different angles of the data.

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What happens to sales forecasts in unpredictable times.

Unpredictable events have an enormous impact on your sales forecast. Extreme weather or economic crises all dramatically change your forecast. What you thought you knew about expected revenue growth can be suddenly flipped on its head.

As soon as an extraordinary event hits, sales and finance leaders at your company will quickly want to know:

• How’s our  sales pipeline  looking today?
• What are the best- and worst-case scenarios?
• How has the forecast changed from a week or a month ago?

Your forecast implicates resourcing, headcount, and more (see the section on  sales forecasting objectives ). So although things may be changing quickly, you don’t want to give up on your forecast.

Rather than attempt to recalculate your forecast based on dubious estimates or conjecture, your best bet is to  rely on a CRM solution  to get an accurate view of deal status and pipeline in real time.

During a crisis, reps need to feed their CRM with data as events unfold so leaders have clear visibility into the rapidly evolving pipe. That data enables those leaders to support their reps with corporate-level decisions about where they should be focusing their time — and craft the new forecasts. Your forecast is only as good as the data coming into it from your sales teams.

In uncertain times, quick access to sales data and the ability to pivot  sales territory  and resource deployment accordingly can make the difference between business continuity and dissolution. There’s no silver bullet to forecast perfectly in a crisis or unforeseen scenario. But vigilantly updating what’s in the pipeline and analyzing sales data more frequently than usual will help you see trends and retool your forecast accordingly.

Empathy and care are always fundamental, but this is especially true in these situations. Empathizing with your customers’ challenges and caring for your own sales reps should come before anything else. Build trust with internal and external partners. That trust will help you grow again in the future. Learn more about  maintaining customer relationships as a sales leader .

Only 45% of sales leaders are confident in their organization’s sales forecasts,  according to Gartner . While it’s natural for sales reps to bring in some intuition to their sales forecasts, that’s where room for error can creep in.

This brings us back to embracing a  strong data culture . To get a more accurate forecast, everyone in the sales cycle — from reps to managers to execs — should have a stake in making sure those numbers reflect the latest reality. Reps can keep all prospect info up to date, managers can track pipeline progress, and leaders can review how all teams are tracking toward those forecast numbers, with AI playing backup to spot any inaccuracies or chances to adjust along the way.

A  CRM  gives sales leaders a real-time view into their entire team’s forecast. The tool forecasts revenue by giving you:

• An accurate view of your entire business.  Comprehensive forecasts in a CRM come with a complete view of your pipeline.
• Tracking of your top performers.  See which reps are on track to beat their targets with up-to-the-minute leaderboards.
• Forecasting for complex sales teams.  Overlay splits allows you to credit the right amounts to sales overlays, by revenue, contract value, and more.

A forecast is based on the gross rollup of a set of opportunities. You can think of a forecast as a rollup of currency or quantity against a set of dimensions: owner, time, forecast categories, product family, and territory. You can collaborate on forecasts with all the necessary people to see how opportunities are stacking up. Drill down into opportunities by sales leader, operating unit, manager, and individuals.

We also love a CRM with  reports and dashboards . These highlight where the business challenges are, in plain and simple terms. It could be that four of five selling teams are at the right growth rate, and we just need to focus on another one. It could be that a certain product is challenged. The data opens up new doors to grow sales and see what could be working more effectively.

Another thing that’s great about a CRM is the guidance from AI. An  AI for sales  tool offers a neutral perspective on what’s actually happening in sales. For example, AI might note that an opportunity has been pushed out three quarters in a row — a finding that would’ve taken an individual reviewing the data longer to discover. Think of AI as your personal data scientist, taking your forecasting and entire sales operations to a new level.

Predictive AI tools take a look at historical sales data to give you a glimpse of what you might expect in the future. The AI will analyze factors like win rate or number of customer meetings. It takes some of the guesswork out of sales forecasting and helps you get to more accurate numbers. Try to analyze sales data for at least 12 months. Otherwise, there may not be enough data to get accurate sales predictions.

Sales forecasting is significantly more accurate when using a CRM instead of a spreadsheet. When a company is just starting out, sales teams usually rely on spreadsheets or back-of-the-napkin ways to calculate their sales forecasts. This may work for a while, but eventually, you’ll find this doesn’t scale.

The reality is, selling is more complex than ever. It involves everything from how demand generation campaigns are performing to how your phone calls to prospects are landing. The more you want to sell, the more you’ll want to  rely on a CRM .

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Paul Bookstaber is a writer at Salesforce. He has a decade of experience in content marketing in B2B tech. Before that, he published a magazine and ran a tabloid blog. Today, he splits his time between Florida and the Mountain West, and loves to hike, ski, and watch Bravo. He is in a polyamorous relationship with Luke and Roger, who are cats.

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