Work-integrated learning is widely referenced in higher education, but often poorly understood. In many cases, it is reduced to short-term internships or workplace exposure at the end of a qualification. But, according to Dr Stan du Plessis, CEO of STADIO Higher Education, taking a narrow view of workplace integration limits its impact. Instead of being “an add-on” to qualifications, he believes, it should influence how students learn, throughout their educational journey.
Du Plessis believes workplace-integrated learning is crucial to addressing the disconnect between academic achievement and workplace readiness – an issue frequently raised by employers. He sees it as one of the key ways higher education needs to change to stay relevant and to play a meaningful role in addressing South Africa’s socioeconomic challenges.
“There is a rising unhappiness amongst employers that university graduates are not job ready when they leave university,” says Du Plessis. This, he says, is not simply about whether graduates have learned enough, but evidence of a deeper structural issue in how higher education is designed.
The traditional educational model separated learning and application. Students acquired knowledge in the classroom, and only later, once they had graduated, were they expected to apply it in complex, fast-moving work environments. This outcome is a result of programme design by academics who do not prioritise the world of work in their vision for the programme.
This model creates a discontinuity. Graduates may be academically capable, but unfamiliar with the realities of the workplace: its pace, its constraints, and its expectations. The result is a period of adjustment that employers must absorb, and that many graduates struggle to navigate. Du Plessis says he agrees emphatically with the Mauritian Minister of Tertiary Education, Science and Research, Dr Sukon, who said in a recent summit in Cape Town: “A curriculum misaligned with the labour market is not a sign of academic freedom, it is a sign of institutional drift.”
“If higher education is ultimately meant to prepare people for work, this gap is something we must work to minimise,” says Du Plessis. “Work-integrated learning is not a field trip. It is not a brief placement at the end of a programme. It’s about designing the academic programme deliberately to develop the knowledge and skills required in a particular industry.”
He says STADIO is trying to shift work-integrated learning from the margins to the centre of education. In practical terms, this means involving industry at multiple levels. First, in the design of programmes. Employers can help shape curricula so that what is taught reflects current realities, rather than historical assumptions about a field.
Second, in delivery. Learning does not happen only on campus, but also in real work environments, guided by practitioners who understand the demands of the profession.
Finally, industry needs to be included in assessment design. Du Plessis explains that students should be evaluated not only on their grasp of theory, but on their ability to apply it in contexts that mirror the workplace. “When they complete their studies, there is then greater confidence that they have the actual skills required within that sector,” he says.
When work-integrated learning is embedded in this way, it begins to close the gap between study and work. “Students gain more than knowledge. They develop an understanding of how that knowledge is used, how decisions are made under pressure, and how to operate within professional environments,” says Du Plessis.
Work-integrated learning also challenges long-standing assumptions about higher education pathways. Du Plessis says that the traditional divide between academic and vocational routes has often been framed as a hierarchy, with academic study positioned as more prestigious. “But what matters is not how a programme is labelled, but whether it develops useful capability,” he says. “Work-integrated learning does not dilute academic rigour. It strengthens it by ensuring that the knowledge gained can be usefully applied.”
“As higher education providers, if we want to ensure our graduates succeed in the workplace, we can’t treat exposure to that workplace as incidental,” says Du Plessis. “We must be intentional in integrating employers and the workplace into everything we do.”