Influence of work integrated learning on the enhancement of office management and technology competencies of students

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.