2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Research on education models suggests work integrated learning (WIL) to be an effective approach for professional studies. An exhaustive, methodological review of literature on WIL reveals that in almost all of the cases the focus is on employability/ placement of college students and hardly any article on continuous learning or retention of employability skills of working professionals. This is of particular importance when evolving technologies are rapidly transforming the workplace. Research suggests that WIL adopted for working professionals can help them remain relevant and grow in their chosen profession. Our study confirms this and further demonstrates that such a model can be offered at scale in a sustainable way without compromising the quality of learning. We present here our descriptive study conducted in a multi-modal University that has institutionalized WIL to meet the continuing education demands of about 135,000 working professionals over a period of 40 years. We used direct observation, review of archived documents, social media posts by the students and open interviews/ discussions with the institute officials, students and the mentors of the collaborating organizations to collect data on five essential aspects, namely, employability, relevance, scalability, quality and sustainability. We believe this detailed account of the structure, processes and challenges will benefit institutions, business houses and policy-makers, who are involved in continuing education and skill building.