Drawing on the emerging findings from a two-year research project focusing on knowledge exchange (KE) in work integrated (WIL) based curriculum, this paper directs attention to the relationship between subject-related skills and theories, on the one hand, and industry engagement, on the other. Our starting point is the observation that while the number of graduates in age cohorts has increased, there are indications of both over-education and skill gaps in the labour force (DfE 2017). In this context, over-education refers to a phenomenon where graduates end up in roles that do not match their educational achievements, at the same time as employers claim that graduates do not have the required skills for graduate employment. To address the disconnect between acquired graduate skills and what is required in graduate roles, there have been calls to embed employability and employer engagement as part of higher education delivery. 

The notion of employability as well as the diverse forms of collaborations that occur between HEIs, employers and industry partners have provided a valuable field for higher education research. A critical line of work directs attention to the neoliberal underpinnings of employability (Krause-Jensen and Garsten, 2014), whereas others have focused on how employability skills are perceived by students or faculty (Succi and Canovi, 2019; Wickramasinghe and Perera, 2010), or how employability is understood in different fields (Ashton 2011). Educational collaboration, on the other hand, has been seen as way to address challenges in training professionals (Borah et al. 2019; Thayaparan et al. 2014), whereas motivations for academics to engage in educational collaboration range from student mobility, curriculum design and delivery to lifelong learning (Orazbayeva et al., 2020). While the various approaches and perspectives have offered insight into the benefits but also the pitfalls of employer engagement, there is a tendency to keep the different lines of work separate. Hence, there are gaps in our understanding of how industry engagement feeds into subject-specific curriculum and how this engagement is shaped by expected career outcomes. 

To bring these different lines together, this paper provides an additional perspective of work-integrated learning. We propose that to extend our understanding of how employability, disciplinary skills and knowledge, and industry engagement link with each other, we have to start from a practice that brings these three dimensions together. In this context, WIL provides a lens that allows to capture what Fern et al. (2014: 2) describe as  ‘authentical engagement with practices and experiences of the workplace’ that take place within a programme of study focusing on specific subject with the emphasis on learning outcomes and career pathways. Along these lines, WIL can be seen as a specific approach to university-business collaboration (Rampersad 2015) that is located in between disciplinary knowledge, industry engagement and career outcomes and as such, it provides a valuable starting point to examine how employability, disciplinary knowledge and industry engagement concur in HE delivery.  

The data collection for this paper has taken place in the context of 2-year funded research project that is still on-going at the moment of writing. The empirical context for this project is Pearson College London which consist of two schools - Pearson Business School (PBS) and Escape Studios (ES). The discipline areas range from business studies to animation, games and visual effects. Drawing on a case study method, data has been collected through interviews and focus groups with tutors, industry partners, current students and alumni. The analysis presented in this paper draws on in a total 12 of face-to-face interviews with tutors, 12 interviews with alumni, 9 interviews and 8 focus groups with current students, and 16 industry interviews with 14 partners. To explore further how to engage more students and to capture the benefits of a WIL-based curriculum, the project has run successfully 5 pilots in 2021 with an additional 3 pilots running in the first half of 2022. To analyse the organisation and benefits of pilot activities, we have conducted an additional 7 industry interviews and 9 tutor interviews. An additional student perspective is gained from longitudinal case study interviews with 4 PBS and 8 ES students. At the time of writing, these case studies are at second round of interviews amounting in a total of 14 interviews with current students. All interviews were transcribed using AI and quality checked by the principal researcher. The analysis commenced with line-to-line coding to identify how to conceptualise the benefits of KE activities for students, industry partners and tutors. As the numbers of interviews increased, this initial analysis was tested by selected focused coding.

Our initial analysis shows how the two schools at PCL have their particular approaches to WIL. These are simulation applied at ES and ‘immersion’ that underpins the approach at PBS.. The central tenet in simulation at ES to a mimic studio environment, and by doing so ES students can practice skills that are required for securing employment in their respective industries. Moreover, the link between taught skills and professional practice works in unison at ES, with, additionally, employers being involved in student mentorship and assessment, and also programme design consultancy. In this approach, employer engagement allows students valuable familiarity with industry practice and exposure to industry networks prior to graduation; while at the same time, tutors gain insight into the latest development in their respective industries. ‘Immersion’ can be summarised as placing students in the experiences and professional relations that allows them to make sense of their learning. ‘Immersion’ can take place through entrepreneurial activities of running a business or through student consultancy. As the PBS curriculum draws on a range of disciplinary traditions that are not necessarily linked directly with specific professional practice, industry engagement is used for two purposes. Firstly, to contextualise otherwise abstract theories through work-integrated learning, and secondly, to ‘immerse’ students in experiences and relations that allows them to apply their learning. In both cases, industry engagement supports the construction of learning contexts that enhances students career prospects, while allowing students to gain academic credit alongside. The differentiation between these two valid WIL approaches comes from the link between the specific discipline and professional practice, as well as the intended design of WIL. When the aim is to provide students with specific skills, simulation allows students to practice those skills, whereas ‘immersion’ provides a setting in which students can make sense of their learning.

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