Placement and WIL: policy and regulatory requirements

At Western, placements are governed by the Placement Policy and Placement Procedures.

This information relates to all placement experiences required in a program of study or subject, including placements in an elective subject.

What does the Placement Policy require us to do?

  1. Develop Placement Agreements with external placement organisations in relation to placements required within a program of study or subject that they, or their students arrange, unless otherwise advised by the Office of General Counsel.
  2. All current and valid Placement Agreements should be recorded in accordance with the University's records and archive management system (TRIM), and within the University's student placement system (InPlace).
  3. Ensure students adhere to any mandatory policies and procedures that stipulate compliance to inherent and special requirements and any other mandatory placement requirements (such as NSW Health student compliance and NSW Education requirements).
  4. All placement experiences (paid and unpaid) must be recorded in InPlace.

Acts, regulations and requirements relating to placements and WIL

Other key legislative and regulatory instruments with respect to placements and WIL experiences include:

Universities Australia illustrates effective placements and WIL practice through the interplay of these aspects:

(Referenced from Universities Australia: diagram adapted from the work of Patrick C-J et al (2014) Leading WIL: A distributed leadership approach to enhance work-integrated learning final report 2014)

How does Western define a "placement"?

Western defines a placement using the Universities Australia Work Integrated Learning (WIL) category of placement:

“Placement means all undergraduate and postgraduate coursework related placements that: include accreditation placement, cadetships, clinical placement, clinical practicum, clinical education, clinical experience, co-curricular work placements, community organisation placements, corporate internship, extra-mural placement, industry placement, internships, intra-mural placement, practical placements, practical work placement, practicum, practicum placement, professional experience placement, professional internship, professional placement, professional work placement, research practicum, service learning, teaching professional practice, voluntary placement (may not be discipline specific), work placement.”

Many of these examples are also listed in the Universities Australia report Work-integrated learning in universities (2019), and the NPILF Guidance Document.

How does Western define "WIL"?

Clink on this link to see how Western references WIL, or work integrated learning.

Universities Australia note other types of work integrated learning activities, which you may describe your learning activities for students as:

  • Field experiences and field work - learning activities that occur off-campus and in person
  • Consulting
  • Projects - an activity designed with and for business with authentic engagement
  • Micro-placements
  • Inter-disciplinary student teams
  • Multi-company projects
  • Incubators and start-ups
  • Competitions and Hackathons
  • Simulations - where a student experiences all of the attributes of a placement or workplace tasks in a provider setting.

Onshore and offshore placement processes

This link provides access to both onshore and offshore placement agreement processes.  You will be able to click straight into the ProMapp procedure and use the visual map or written procedure steps to lead you through the stages to create either an onshore or offshore agreement. You can start here!

Knowledge Article KB0019321

Where do I start with placements?

What if the activity is not credit bearing or being assessed?

For extra-curricular activities (not required in a program of study or subject), please seek information from Careers.