A strong call was made for all academic departments with the Work Integrated Learning (WIL) requirement to get more involved in placement and monitoring of students during their WIL.

This emerged during the Co-Op Forum held at the ML Sultan Campus last week. The Co-Op Forum was hosted by the Durban University of Technology’s (DUT) Department of Co-Operative Education, and it was attended by WIL coordinators, Academic, Co-operative Education and External Engagement staff as well as other staff involved in WIL.

DUT Co-operative Education is responsible for the liaison between the University, employers, professional bodies, professional societies and other relevant organisations, including student bodies. Part of their responsibilities also includes experiential learning or in-service training (IST) which requires the placement of a student in a relevant industry for integrated workplace learning, with the emphasis being on the student learning by doing.

DUT Co-operative Education Director, Shakeel Ori said the success of WIL is hugely dependent on students receiving support from their academic supervisors and industry supervisors. “One of the contributing factors to why some students are not able to get placement for their WIL is because most academic departments don’t have resources dedicated to WIL. Academic staff have to juggle between their academic work and coordinating WIL activities,” said Ori.

He encouraged academic departments to use the OLUMS Work Integrated Learning System in the execution of their WIL activities. OLUMS is an online management system that manages and tracks all aspects of WIL and placement of WIL students.

Ori said it is also critical to ensure that there is continuous engagement between DUT and industry, in order to understand their requirements. “Faculty of Health Sciences is a perfect example of how maintaining good relations with industry can assist when it comes to student placements. Their students don’t struggle with placements because they have established a good relationship with industry and they understand their requirements. Co-operative Education can always offer to support to academic departments but they need to be proactive because they understand their sectors better,” added Ori.

Delegates who attended the Forum, overwhelmingly encouraged DUT to consider introducing WIL to other programmes and to improve support for WIL because it increases employment chances for graduates. “WIL remains one of the key selling points for DUT, and we need to ensure that it is executed effectively, “said Ori.

Pictured: DUT Co-operative Education Director, Shakeel Ori addressing the Co-Op Forum at ML Sultan Campus last week.

Nduduzo Ndlovu