Abstract:
This study draws on the existence of a highly demanding business context marked
by aggressive graduate competition for successful placements, and companies’
demand for an assortment of work-related competencies (knowledge, skills and
abilities), which demands the university curriculum to embrace Work Integrated
Learning (WIL), in its exploration of the contribution of WIL in preparing Office
Management and Technology (OMT) students at the Central University of
Technology (CUT) for the world of work. The study particularly examines the
perceptions of CUT educators, students and the organisational workforce (business
owners who render attachments/WIL experience to students) with regard to the way
in which WIL enhances students’ professional competencies. Since WIL is widely
conceived as an educational approach that aligns academic and workplace practices
for the mutual benefit of students and workplaces, a survey involving educators,
students and organisational workforce (employers, management and employees)
involved in WIL was conducted to unravel the relationships between student
participation in WIL and the enhancement of their OMT competencies. The findings
of this study suggest that students’ participation in WIL develops their competencies
and prepares them to adapt sufficiently in the real world of work. This quantitative
study revealed that competencies acquired by OMT students during their successful placements are transferable across a wide range of contexts, activities and tasks.
The study draws from awareness of many challenges that face WIL to recommend
that the need for a strengthening of the partnership between organised industry and
higher education in order to develop more communication that focuses on the
placement of the students who need to complete their WIL programmes.
