Federation University will make workplace learning mandatory

In a bid to build work ready skills, Federation University will make workplace learning mandatory in every degree.

Duncan Bentley, vice-chancellor of Federation University.

On the eve of the Albanese government’s Jobs and Skills Summit, Federation University has committed to making workplace learning, which will earn academic credit, mandatory in every degree.

Vice-chancellor Duncan Bentley said that, by 2025, it will be compulsory for every student to do at least 150 hours of learning with an employer in the course of their degree.

“Some will do a heck of a lot more,” Professor Bentley said.

He said the university has also set a goal that students should be paid for the work they did with employers during their course. “That’s our ultimate aim,” he said.

Federation University – which is based in Ballarat with other campuses at Berwick on the eastern edge of Melbourne, Gippsland, Horsham and Brisbane – will introduce the new system, which it calls the co-operative education model, in several degrees next year including information technology, business and visual arts.

In the program’s initial stage, students will do 150 hours of workplace learning, which is equivalent to one academic unit, but the university wants to eventually increase this to as many as four academic units in a degree based in the workplace.

To ensure success, Federation University has started a major curriculum redesign to merge work-based learning with traditional academic learning. It is reaching out to employers for input on the new curricula, which will include interdisciplinary and digital elements.

Professor Bentley said the new model would bring “industry into the tent to co-design and co-deliver programs”.

The university hopes that employers will see advantages from employing students for workplace learning. One benefit is that it will produce a pool of graduates which is work ready, with verifiable work experience.

Professor Bentley said one model being planned was a “trainee consultancy” where groups of students would do supervised projects for small and medium enterprises, for example building a website, or developing a business plan.

He said the model would benefit regional areas because the majority of students who studied in the regions stayed in the regions once they graduated, particularly if they had built a relationship with a local employer during their workplace learning placement.

Federation University plans to incorporate existing workplace learning into the new co-operative model, although the two don’t fully match at the moment.

For example in some courses, such as teaching and nursing, there are already requirements for workplace learning which earn academic credit, but students are not paid. Other courses, such as engineering, also have a requirement for work experience, but it is not formally a part of learning and does not earn academic credit.

Professor Bentley will take part in a panel discussion at this week’s Jobs and Skills Summit which will explore skills and training for the future labour market.

Federation’s co-operative model builds on a long relationship it has had with IBM, which has operated from the university’s technology park in Ballarat since 1995. The university offers a bachelor of information technology (professional practice) which includes up to 1600 hours of paid work with IBM or other IT companies, and the new co-operative model will build on the experience the university has gained from this degree.

Professor Bentley said the co-operative model was taking the university back to its original establishment as the Ballarat School of Mines in 1870, when its purpose was to work with industry to train skilled workers.