Benefits of work-integrated learning for educational institutions

A Higher Education Institution (HEI) derives significant benefits from programs of work-integrated learning (WIL) or Co-operative Education (Co-op). We focus here on four benefits that are most salient: 1) enhanced reputation from employability of graduates that derives from the three-way collaboration between the HEI, industry, and the student, 2) enhanced student satisfaction that derives from students’ active contributions to the workplace and the resultant learning maturity and identity development they experience, 3) enhanced curriculum relevance that derives from HEIs’ collaboration with industry, and 4) enhanced HEI opportunity and potential support for research and development and meaningful corporate and community engagement. We discuss these four benefits through the lens of our combined, and we infuse our discussion with the recent dramatic effects of the covid global pandemic on driving virtual or remote learning and work under the belief that many of these changes will persist long into the future.