What Decades of Research Taught Us About Work-Integrated Learning
Around the world, when you walk into your first job after studying, you’ll likely be greeted with someone telling you to forget what you learnt at college / varsity, and get ready to learn the “real stuff”. Learning on the job means you get to apply what you studied, all while encountering unfamiliar problems, learning from experienced colleagues and discovering what happens when your decisions have real-world consequences.
So what is it about workplace learning that makes it such a powerful teacher? We dug into decades of research to understand why workplace learning experiences carry such high educational value. Why? If we want to understand work-integrated learning and find practical solutions to design and manage effective WIL programmes, peer-reviewed research on the topic is a great place to start!
Understanding How People Learn From Experience
The idea that adults and children learn differently was popularised in the 1970s. Malcolm Knowles (1970, 1975), for example, suggested that adults are more self-directed than children, and specifically that they draw on their experiences as a resource for learning, set their learning goals and strategies, and evaluate their progress. Despite ongoing debate about adult versus child learning, his work influenced a change in how educators approached adult and professional learning. In WIL programmes, this means creating opportunities for students to take an active role in identifying their learning needs, setting goals and evaluating their progress, with appropriate support from educators and workplace supervisors.
Reflection is a key component of WIL. Schön (1983) examined how professionals think during practice and then reflect on their actions, and Boud et al. (1985) described the learning that takes place when professionals revisit and interpret experiences. Hatton and Smith (1995) also examined different forms of reflection and how reflective practice could be developed in students.
These foundations from the 1970s-1990s help us understand the learning component of WIL. Key takeaways from this are:
Draw on past and new experiences
Design authentic, practice-related learning experiences that connect students' existing knowledge and experience with new situations and challenges.
Develop students’ self-directed learning skills
Help students identify their learning needs, set goals and evaluate their progress, with appropriate guidance and support.
Design for reflection
Develop students' ability to reflect on their experiences, examine their decisions and connect practice with what they've learned.
The 2000s: Bringing Workplace Experiences Into the Curriculum
By the 2000s, researchers were exploring how academic learning and workplace experiences could work together. The educational value can be strengthened, as Stephen Billett (2009) argued, by deliberately connecting these experiences.
Think of a student who studies conflict resolution and then encounters a difficult situation at work. She might manage the situation and move on, without recognising how the theories she studied could help her understand what happened. Her manager might simply see that she handled the situation successfully.
Now imagine that her educators had connected anticipated workplace activities to the learning goals of her course and discussed these with her manager. He would then know what she was learning and could provide relevant feedback. Back at college, her lecturer could help her examine the decisions she made, connect them to the theory and consider how she might handle similar situations in future.
The key takeaway from this:
- Integrate WIL into the curriculum: Plan workplace experiences around clear learning goals, with deliberate connections between theory and professional practice, supported by feedback from educators and workplace supervisors.
The 2010s: Understanding What Makes Workplace Experiences Valuable
During the 2010s, researchers examined what students actually experience at work. South Africa’s Council on Higher Education (2011) described ways to design WIL deliberately, while Jackson (2015) explored how workplace conditions influence opportunities to develop employability skills.
Two students can study the same qualification and spend the same number of hours doing WIL. One is welcomed into the team, given meaningful tasks, supported by colleagues who answer questions and a supervisor who provides regular guidance and feedback. The other mostly watches and waits, with little support or opportunity to practise. They return having had very different opportunities to learn.
The key takeaway:
- Make workplace experiences count: Plan meaningful tasks, opportunities to practise and appropriate supervision and feedback.
The 2020s: Developing Judgement and Practice
More recent research has continued exploring whether WIL assessment captures the full range of knowledge, skills and behaviours people need at work.
In South Africa, Daries et al. (2025) studied WIL among environmental health students. The assessment practices they examined focused mostly on knowledge and skills and rarely addressed workplace behaviours, attitudes and values.
These findings raise an important question for anyone designing WIL programmes, from artisan training to higher education: How do we help students develop the judgement, behaviours and values they’ll need at work? These aspects of learning also need opportunities for practice, guidance and feedback.
The key takeaway:
- Develop the person: Give students opportunities to develop and reflect on their judgement, workplace behaviours and values alongside knowledge and technical skills.
Where Does This Leave Us in 2026?
Decades of research have helped shape how we understand and design WIL today. In South Africa, the revised Higher Education Qualifications Sub-Framework, published in July 2026, reinforces the importance of structured, monitored and assessed WIL in higher education.
The research also gives us practical guidance on what to consider when designing and managing these learning experiences:
- Draw on past and new experiences: Connect students’ existing knowledge and experiences with authentic, practical challenges.
- Develop self-directed learning: Help students identify learning needs, set goals, and evaluate their progress, with appropriate support.
- Design for reflection: Help students examine their experiences and decisions, and connect what happened with what they’ve learned.
- Integrate WIL into the curriculum: Connect workplace activities to curriculum goals, with educators and supervisors helping students link theory to practice.
- Make workplace experiences count: Provide meaningful tasks, opportunities to practise, workplace support, supervision and feedback.
- Develop the person: Develop students’ judgement, workplace behaviours and values alongside knowledge and technical skills.
Which leaves us with a question we all need to consider carefully:
If we put decades of WIL research into practice, how would we design workplace learning experiences differently?
Next week’s blog digs deeper into this question, and particularly looks at tools to use in Moodle for Work-Integrated Learning.
References Consulted
Billett, S. (2009). Realising the educational worth of integrating work experiences in higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 34(7), 827–843. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075070802706561
Boud, D., Keogh, R., & Walker, D. (Eds.). (1985). Reflection: Turning experience into learning. Kogan Page.
Council on Higher Education. (2011). Work-integrated learning: Good practice guide (Higher Education Monitor No. 12). https://www.che.ac.za/index.php/publications/higher-education-monitor-12-work-integrated-learning-good-practice-guide
Daries, L., Hudson, L., & Reddy, L. (2025). Exploring competencies of environmental health students in South Africa: Insights from work-integrated learning. South African Journal of Higher Education, 39(6), 85–112. https://doi.org/10.20853/39-6-6608
Department of Higher Education and Training. (2026). Revised Higher Education Qualifications Sub-Framework, 2025 (Government Gazette No. 54941, General Notice 3999). https://www.gov.za/documents/notices/national-qualifications-framework-act-publication-revised-higher-qualifications
Hatton, N., & Smith, D. (1995). Reflection in teacher education: Towards definition and implementation. Teaching and Teacher Education, 11(1), 33–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/0742-051X(94)00012-U
Jackson, D. (2015). Employability skill development in work-integrated learning: Barriers and best practice. Studies in Higher Education, 40(2), 350–367. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2013.842221
Knowles, M. S. (1970). The modern practice of adult education: Andragogy versus pedagogy. Association Press.
Knowles, M. S. (1975). Self-directed learning: A guide for learners and teachers. Association Press.
Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Basic Books.
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Dr Isabel Tarling – CEO
Isabel Tarling is a learning sciences scholar, programme designer and education researcher, with a PhD from the University of Cape Town. Her research in online and technology-supported learning forms the foundation for much of her writing. She aims to build easy-to-understand bridges between evidence-based research and its everyday application in real-world contexts. Isabel is the founder of Limina, where these ideas are put to work to reimagine learning for organisations of all shapes and sizes.
Research has a habit of getting stuck between the pages of journals and books, or somewhere between academic language and everyday practice. Our blogs help get those ideas moving. We dig into the research, unpack complicated ideas and work out what they mean for people who design, support and care about learning. Then we draw out useful principles, processes and strategies that can travel into practice, across all the wonderfully varied places and ways in which learning happens.