Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) needs to be broadened to include civic and community engagement to build scope for community impact and more effective learning experiences.
The 1,000th student to participate in a prison exchange program in Victoria demonstrates the importance of broadening community participation and learning through WIL.
Sometimes WIL in higher education can be conceptualised through an ‘other’ lens besides placements, internships and simulations to include volunteering, live performances, mentoring, and case-based learning activities or practical activities that focus specifically on the workplace.
Experiential learning has often followed suit, focusing on skills application in environments where students remain passive observers or temporary visitors.
But as the challenges facing our communities grow in complexity, we must ask: what kind of learning truly prepares students to lead change? It’s time we move from traditional or ‘other’ WIL forms that do not concentrate on civic and community engagement as part of a future-facing model, one grounded in partnership, co-creation, and real-world problem solving that aims to build safer and more inclusive communities.
With the rapid emergence of AI in higher education and its influence reshaping industries and automating routine tasks, it is increasingly vital for students to engage in civic and community-based Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) outside the classroom.
These experiences foster essential human capabilities, such as empathy, ethical reasoning, collaboration, and social responsibility, which AI cannot replicate.
By participating in community-engaged WIL, students develop a deeper understanding of real-world complexities, learn to navigate diverse social and cultural contexts, and contribute meaningfully to societal wellbeing.
This form of learning ensures that graduates are not only job-ready but also future-ready, and equipped to lead with purpose, adapt to technological change, and co-create solutions for social good.
Programs such as the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program exemplify this shift. Rather than sending students into a standard internship or to work on a problem with industry that is classroom restricted, the program brings together incarcerated individuals and university students in a shared learning environment behind prison walls.
Students are not “helping” or “serving” a disadvantaged group – they are learning with them, on equal terms, about justice, humanity, and policy. The result is transformative not only for those incarcerated, but for the students, the institution, and the wider community. This is where students become a part of the solution to create better and safer communities.
Based on USA’s Temple University’s Inside-Out model, it challenges students to confront their assumptions and dismantle the binary of ‘us’ versus ‘them’.
This goes beyond textbook, classroom, and/or placement learning. It cultivates empathy, deep listening, and a recognition of the value of lived experience in shaping policy and reform. Instead of viewing incarcerated individuals through a deficit lens, students begin to see them as collaborators, mentors, and change-makers. This shift in perception is powerful: it reshapes how students, graduates and community members understand justice, policy, and service across sectors, from law and social work to urban planning and education.
Traditional WIL, such as placements, can often focus on individual student development, networking, gaining confidence, for example. While valuable, this WIL model risks disconnecting students from the communities their work will impact. In contrast, programs like Inside-Out explicitly connect degree learning outcomes, such as critical analysis, intercultural communication, and ethical reasoning to systemic transformation.
The Marngoneet-Karreenga annex Correctional Centre’s closing ceremony in May 2025 demonstrated the strength of this model. Students shared policy briefs, collaborative projects, and poetic expressions that emerged from robust group discussions across the inside-outside divide. These activities are not ancillary to academic success. They are central. They demonstrate learning as authentic, mutual, and really show “knowledge as action.”
The legacy of Inside-Out extends well beyond the classroom. Graduates often continue their involvement through Think Tanks, prison-based and community-based projects co-led by incarcerated alumni and university students. These platforms are not symbolic; they drive consultations, produce public outputs (magazines, podcasts, art), and influence decision-makers. It’s an educational-civic WIL model that doesn’t just prepare students to enter the workforce. It prepares them to change it.
Over 1,000 graduates have participated in the Inside-Out program across eight prisons in Victoria, with more than 200 students going on to contribute to community engagement, awareness and change. If universities are serious about social responsibility, equity, and inclusion, then it is no longer enough to keep community-based WIL learning at the periphery. We need to structurally embed programs like Inside-Out into the curriculum at a degree level so all students can take part.
This involves more than pedagogical redesign. It means investing in partnerships with community organisations, rethinking risk frameworks, co-developing assessments with stakeholders, and advocating for student recognition of these engagements as credit-bearing and career-defining opportunities.
A future-facing WIL approach demands that we centre learning around doing good with others, not doing well for ourselves. The future graduate must be skilled, yes, but also empathetic, accountable, and equipped to co-create change in uncertain, diverse, and deeply interconnected communities. This is the key to being human in an AI world – where we build bridges instead of walls.
Professor Rachael Hains-Wesson and Associate Professor Marietta Martinovic, are from RMIT University’s School of Global, Urban and Social Studies