Enhancing employment outcomes for psychology graduates: Developing a taxonomy of work-integrated learning

Despite a growing demand for mental health/psychological support in the Australian community, there is a deficit of appropriately trained professionals, due in part to psychology graduates who are not afforded meaningful applied learning experiences during their degree. Systematic integration of authentic WIL into undergraduate psychology degrees may offset this lack of industry exposure, but such learning is scarcely implemented within current curricula. The proposed research sought to address this gap in the undergraduate curriculum by constructing a tangible framework of work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities to enrich student education and preparedness for the workforce. Semi-structured interviews (n = 36) were conducted with four key stakeholder groups to elicit the current state of WIL in undergraduate psychology curricula and to generate industry specific WIL opportunities that will enhance the skillset and abilities of psychology undergraduates, heighten their psychological literacy, and endorse their transition to an increasingly diverse workforce.