Impact of Work Integrated Learning (WIL) on graduate preparation for the manufacturing industry

We argue that a good partnership between academia, industry and learning communities is a key to\ud preparing students adequately for the manufacturing industry and for exchanging knowledge between stakeholders of ever growing innovation in manufacturing systems. A model of work integrated learning that has achieved benefits for all stakeholders in the manufacturing industry is described in this paper. The model has been in operation for 16 years for both Engineering and Information Technology students and the experience from this period is shared. The risks associated with such a model are also discussed