Conclusion
Hosting a WIL student is both a significant responsibility and a valuable opportunity to shape emerging professionals in your field. Throughout this guide, we have explored practical strategies for managing that responsibility—from setting clear expectations and monitoring performance to providing meaningful feedback that supports genuine workplace learning. Whether you are an experienced mentor or taking on a supervisory role for the first time, the frameworks and resources provided here are designed to be flexible enough to complement your leadership style whilst maintaining the rigour that quality placements demand.
The Placement Performance Framework sits at the heart of effective supervision, offering a structured yet adaptable approach to planning, supporting, and assessing student learning in your workplace context. The downloadable tools and templates throughout this Guide when customised to reflect your organisation’s culture, the student’s individual learning needs, and the realities of your mentoring approach, should fast-track your approach to guiding your student’s workplace learning, with the added bonus of also providing tools for the formal review of their placement performance.
Top tips: Effective strategies for providing feedback and monitoring your student’s progress during the placement include
Schedule regular check-ins – Establish a consistent rhythm of informal and formal conversations to discuss progress, celebrate achievements, and address challenges early
Connect feedback to learning goals – Relate your observations back to the placement objectives and performance framework to help students understand how feedback supports their development
Your hosting role, which sits at the intersection of university and real-world learning is a highly regarded activity for HEI’s. Your co-creation of this authentic activity (and the related assessments) are a much-valued investment. Your contribution, not only to their development but also to the broader capability learning and capacity of your profession is where student learning becomes concrete.
We hope this guide has provided you with both confidence and practical support to do support us in future-proofing the next generation of STEM graduates.
