WIL and Graduate Capabilities

Work Integrated Learning placements and projects offer students a prime opportunity to develop and advance their graduate capabilities. Graduate capabilities can be viewed as two distinct, but interrelated, aptitudes: discipline-specific abilities and generic abilities.

Discipline-Specific Knowledge and Skills

While at university students are focussed on acquiring knowledge and skills specifically related to a chosen academic discipline. Students learn the concepts, theories and research of their specialty as well as how this knowledge is applied in an ethical, professional and sustainable way in their field. For example, in the Bachelor of Business (Logistics and Supply Chain Management) some of the skills that students develop include:

• the ability to understand and implement concepts, techniques and applications that underpin supply chain management
• the ability to integrate, co-ordinate, and synchronise activities of a supply chain
• the ability to link strategic and operational system thinking with appropriate action to inform and facilitate day-to-day decisions in supply chain management (ability to integrate, collaborate and synchronize)
• the ability to articulate and deliver quality outcomes in a customer focused environment
• the ability to practice effective logistics and supply chain management within legal, regulatory, business, and ethical frameworks in local and international environment

Graduate Employability Skills

In addition to these discipline-specific skills students will also have the opportunity to develop “generic skills” or “employability skills” much sought after by employers. Employers want students who can communicate well; work in teams; solve problems; plan and organise their work and themselves; show initiative; are computer literate; and are committed to ongoing learning. RMIT, as a member of the Australian Technology Network (ATN) of universities, has resolved to provide students with an education for citizenships that includes:

• an international perspective
• an appreciation of global sustainability issues (environmental, social and financial)
• an awareness of indigenous issues
• information literacy
• an awareness of occupational health and safety issues
• an orientation to lifelong learning

Students are provided with the opportunity to develop these capabilities throughout their whole course of study -- in the classroom, in working groups, in individual and team projects, and of course, during Work Integrated Learning placements and projects. The co-op placement, in particular, provides students with a very rich opportunity to apply and advance both their discipline-specific and their generic graduate capabilities.