A case study on the effects of sustainability-oriented work placement on student mindset

About this initiative

Work placement programmes support the National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030 by providing employability opportunities for students. Higher education should address the skills required for effective engagement in both society and in the workplace and thus learning outcome, pedagogies and assessments should reflect this (Hunt, 2011). The National Strategy on Education for Sustainable Development – ESD to 2030 reiterates the need for dialogue and partnerships between educational institutes and enterprises to facilitate information sharing and engagement on Educating for Sustainable Development (Department of Education, 2022). 

With both strategies aiming to encourage Educating for Sustainability and Work Placement, my proposal is to collaborate both these agendas and introduce a sustainability-orientated work placement. 

This project involves the re-design of the work placement strand of an accounting and finance undergraduate degree, to re-frame placement within a sustainability-oriented ecology of learning. The integration of curriculum and teaching and learning approaches that offer opportunities for students to explore their values-bases via-a-vis sustainability (their normative competence) is critical in learning for sustainability. The re-framed placement programme will aim to integrate content and deploy  pedagogies that foster values (re-) orientation towards sustainability, and action for sustainability within the work-placement/ sites of practice.