british journal of educational studies 'get foot in the door': international...

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British Journal of Educational Studies

ISSN: 0007-1005 (Print) 1467-8527 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rbje20

‘GET FOOT IN THE DOOR’: INTERNATIONALSTUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF WORK INTEGRATEDLEARNING

Ly Thi Tran & Sri Soejatminah

To cite this article: Ly Thi Tran & Sri Soejatminah (2016): ‘GET FOOT IN THE DOOR’:INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF WORK INTEGRATED LEARNING, British Journal ofEducational Studies, DOI: 10.1080/00071005.2015.1128526

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00071005.2015.1128526

Published online: 07 Jan 2016.

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‘GET FOOT IN THE DOOR’: INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS’PERCEPTIONS OF WORK INTEGRATED LEARNING

by LY THI TRAN and SRI SOEJATMINAH, School of Education, Deakin University

ABSTRACT: Work-integrated learning (WIL) is regarded as an importantvehicle to assist students’ development of relevant professional skills, knowl-edge and attributes that can enhance their employability. WIL arrangementfor international students is a challenging issue for institutions, internationalstudents themselves as well as other related stakeholders. While there is anemerging body of literature that examines WIL for international students,how the value of WIL is perceived by this cohort is little known. This paperresponds to this dearth of the literature by exploring the different meaningsthat international students in the vocational education and training sectorattach to WIL. Using Bourdieu’s thinking tools of capitals and habitus tointerpret interview data from 105 international students, this paper showsthat WIL is seen to not only add value to student learning, career aspirationand employability but also transform and enhance their symbolic and socialcapitals. The paper underscores the instrumental, symbolic and develop-mental meanings that international students associate with WIL. In particu-lar, it highlights the reciprocal relationship between students’ developmentof vocational ‘being’ and personal ‘being’ through WIL.

Keywords: international students, international education, work-integratedlearning, WIL, employability, Bourdieu, capital, habitus

1. INTRODUCTION

Providing students with real-world experience and practice-based learning hasgained increased emphasis across institutions around the world. At the institu-tional level, rationales for promoting students’ work-integrated learning (WIL) aspart of a university education are framed within the agenda to enhance graduateemployability. WIL has been seen as a crucial response to the demand to developgraduates who are work ready, especially in the current context of changinglabour markets and the rise of the knowledge economy with new and hybriddemands on graduate skills, knowledge and attributes. From the students’ per-spectives, WIL is regarded as the most influential factor on advancing theircareer trajectory (McKenna et al., 2001). WIL provides access and scaffoldingto meaningful employment opportunities. Within the institutional agenda, it hasbeen argued that WIL programmes should take into consideration the develop-ment of global competence and the skills required by multinational organizationsgiven the popularity of the global workplace (Gamble et al., 2010). The shifttowards placing WIL as core to curriculum is happening alongside with the

British Journal of Educational Studies2016, pp. 1–19

changing demography of the student body in tertiary education, of which anotable trend in English-speaking countries is the growing presence of interna-tional students. Globally, more than 4.5 million students are enrolled in tertiaryeducation beyond their national border (OECD, 2014).

Recently, WIL has also been increasingly linked to institutions’ strategy toposition and project themselves in the competitive international education mar-ket. The promotion of WIL has been regarded by a number of institutions andstates as being key to their agenda to provide quality education for and thusattract international students who are positioned as an important source ofrevenue for host institutions as well as for the national economy of the hostcountries. In Australia, for example, international education is the biggest serviceexport industry generating about 18 billion Australian dollars for the nationaleconomy in 2014.

There are two sectors of tertiary education: higher education (HE) andvocational education and training (VET) in Australia. VET provides most ofthe vocational training courses. The courses can be long term from one to threeyears, for professional degrees including Diploma and Advanced Diploma, orshort term (less than 12 months) to deliver professional or skill certificates. HEinstitutions award diploma, bachelor, master and doctoral degrees. VET pro-grammes are driven by competency-based training (CBT) and training packageswhich are centred on the development of industry-derived competency standards.Within Australian VET, there are private registered training organizations (RTO)and public VET institutes which are often referred to as Technical and FurtherEducation (TAFE) institutes. In the public VET sector, there are stand-alonepublic TAFE institutes and dual-sector universities. Dual-sector universities areregistered training organizations which deliver both VET and HE programmes.The Australian VET sector currently hosts more than 130,000 internationalstudents (AEI, 2015). International students are seen as an important source ofincome to VET institutes in the context of decreased government funding.Though they contribute not only financial revenue but also cultural richnessand transnational links, they are often positioned as being a challenge to teachand as ‘outsiders’ in the Australia’s Euro-centric VET programmes (Pasura,2015; Tran, 2013a).

While a significant body of literature has focused on the provision andnature of WIL in tertiary education, there is a relative paucity of empiricalresearch on WIL for international students (Gribble, 2014; Orrell, 2011; Patricket al., 2008). Within the field of international education, though internationalstudent experience in the academia has been put under increased scrutiny byeducation institutions and policy makers, international students’ voices andexperiences in relation to WIL appear to be less taken into account. Both theneeds and potential contributions of international students with regard to WILare important but under-researched (Orrell, 2011), especially in the VET sector.This paper addresses this paucity of empirical research on WIL for internationalstudents enrolled in Diploma and Advanced Diploma courses in VET and dual-

2 INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS AND WORK INTEGRATED LEARNING

sector institutes. Gibson and Busby (2009) argue for a critical need to developpolicy, practice and support for WIL that is ‘fully considered, fit for purpose,contemporary and student-centred’ (p. 478). To facilitate the development of‘student-centred’ WIL, it is essential to understand students’ perceptions andexpectations of WIL. Based on a research project that includes 105 interviewswith international students and fieldworks in the Australian VET sector, thispaper analyses international student’ diverse and complex expectations withregard to WIL. Using Bourdieu’s analytical tools of capitals and habitus, theresearch shows how WIL is considered to not only add value to studentlearning, career aspiration and employability but also transform and enhancetheir symbolic and social capitals.

The research finds the instrumental, symbolic and developmental meaningsthat international students attach to WIL. WIL is seen in pragmatic andinstrumental terms as it enables international students to enhance their employ-ability and ensure a good return on investment in overseas study. Mostremarkably, the study highlights the reciprocal relationship between the stu-dent’s development of vocational ‘being’ and personal ‘being’ and betweentheir present and future beings through WIL. Therefore, this research movesbeyond the dominant existing literature that focuses largely on the pragmatismand utilitarian aspects of WIL as merely helping students develop relevantskills and knowledge for the workplace, thereby enhancing their competitiveadvantage on the labour market. The students’ perception indicates the value ofWIL in enhancing their social connectedness and enabling their growth as a‘full’ human being and seeing this growth as reciprocal to the development ofvocational skills. Another compelling finding of the research is the symboliccapital as a form of cultural capital that some international students attach toWIL in addition to the economic and social capital. In this regard, WIL is seenas a ‘symbol’ of their familiarity with the Australian workplace and theirvocational capabilities rather than merely as a vehicle to assist their develop-ment of vocational skills and knowledge as often described in the literatureon WIL.

2. INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS AND WORK-INTEGRATED LEARNING

Australia strives to grow its population of skilled people in response to thecurrent labour and skill shortages. Australia’s recent policy efforts place empha-sis on retaining international student graduates from both the domestic VET andHE sectors rather than attracting migrants from off-shore (Hawthorne, 2014).Such strategy promotes both the lucrative education export market and theattainment of skilled locally trained human capital. However, this internationaleducation-migration nexus does not exist in many other host countries includingthe USA and most European countries. Therefore, the discussion and findings ofthis research should not be over-generalized given the different migration and

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS AND WORK INTEGRATED LEARNING 3

international education policies in different countries. A report from the Centrefor Population and Urban Research’s Immigration Overshoot (CPUR, 2012)shows that between a half of and two-thirds of Australian international studentsreturn home after graduation in 2011–2012 and the rest remains in Australia ontemporary visa, further study visa, tourist visa or permanent residency visa. Forthose international students who stay on as permanent residents in Australia,work experience is seen to complement their Australian degrees and give themthe positional advantage in the Australian labour market.

For international graduates who return to work in their home country or a thirdcountry, foreign work experience becomes ‘a necessary part of the overseas study‘package’ (Gribble, 2014, p. 2) as this helps to position them well in an increas-ingly competitive labour market and in a local context that foreign qualificationsare no longer highly valued as before. Work experience, especially internationalwork experience, thus plays an increasing role in differentiating graduates in acompetitive market. In Vietnam, for example, there is a paradoxical problem interms of national human resource development and demand as there is a surplus ofgraduates but the nation still faces skill shortage as graduates lack or have littlereal-work experience. The number of graduates has risen by 15 times over the past20 years with 300,000 graduates every year, and the labour market is still in urgentneed of a qualified and educated workforce (Tran et al., 2014). In China and India,only 10% and 25% of graduates, respectively, are considered ‘work ready’ by largeorganizations (Farrell and Grant, 2005; Nadu, 2007).

WIL holds great potential to assist international students to gain authenticreal-world learning experiences and develop workplace readiness. Under theCBT that drives Australian VET, WIL accompanied by assessment in the actualworkplace is an integral component of VET courses. In Australian universities,WIL also plays an increasing important role (Gibson and Busby, 2009; Inuiet al., 2006) even though HE programmes are not designed as CBT and manyHE qualifications do not require WIL as a core component. Wheelahan andMoodie (2010) stress that the availability and quality of work placements play amore imperative role in influencing teaching and learning in VET than in HEbecause the nature of VET course is more hand-on and practice-based than HE.Blake and Smith (2007) argue that effective learning in VET is intimately linkedto drawing on the workplace to create a meaningful context for learning to takeplace through applying skills and theories in a real-world environment andbuilding their familiarity with professional practice. This is supportedSimonset al.’s (2006) research which indicates the importance of learners ‘making senseof their experience and building their knowledge based on these experiences’(p. 4). WIL can take place in a number of forms ranging from fieldtrips, intern-ships, work placements, practicum, project-based learning experience and volun-tary work in industry.

Patrick and Crebert’s (2004) study found that graduates with WIL experienceperceived that they have greater awareness of their generic skills and abilities aswell as being sufficient opportunities to develop these generic skills. Further

endorsing the important connection between academic learning and vocationalpractice that WIL fosters, Gibson and Busby (2009) argued that WIL is alsovaluable in providing exposing students to both ‘planned and unplanned learningopportunities’ (p. 467), including establishing social and professional networks andbuilding their professional awareness and understanding of workplace contexts.

Research evidence suggests that the need to apply the skills learnt through thecourse and gain ‘hands-on experience’ in a ‘“real- world environment”’ has beenidentified as being critical for international students in Australian VET (Tran,2013). Yet, arranging ‘work placements’ for international students is often regardedas being much more challenging than arranging it for domestic students. Teachersin this study reported that this challenge mainly stems from employers’ hesitation inaccepting international students into their workplaces, a lack of recognition of thesestudents’ potential contributions to their organizations and the complexities aroundthe ‘international student visa’ regulations.

The body of literature on migration is also useful in shedding light on thechallenges international students as transient migrants face when seeking workplacements or building work experience in the host country. Using Bourdieu’sworks including social capital theory, several studies on migration found that socialcapital plays an important role in migrants’ life, particularly during their adjustmentto new country (Alfred, 2010), in which they have to navigate their way toemployment (Webb, 2015) and develop social competence required for theirintegration into the host culture (Morrice, 2007). This body of literature addressesthe development of social capital among migrants by examining the learning ofmigrants within their social networks (Alfred, 2010; Webb, 2015) and withininformal and non-individual learning opportunities (Morrice, 2007). In particular,Alfred (2010) suggests taking into consideration the distinct transnational identityof migrants who carry their social capital from home country in designing supportin the host country. In this regard, recognition of prior learning and source oflearning including networks and communities should be seen important. Notably,Webb’s (2015) research highlights cases of misrecognition, deskilling and mis-match among migrants seeking jobs. Other factors which affect migrants’ employ-ability can be rooted in the ‘interplay of social, cultural and economic forces’ (Shan,2013, p. 919). Overall, these studies reveal that social capital enables migrants tosecure jobs relevant to their skills and previous employment when they resort to the‘right’ social networks. It shows that getting a job is a social-cultural process inwhich local knowledge and perception of ‘fit-in’ are important criteria for selection.The idea of interconnection between migration, education and the skill needed for aposition is relevant only when there is a shortage unfilled by local applicants.

3. BOURDIEU’S WORK AND INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS’ WORK

INTEGRATED LEARNING

To interpret international students’ perceptions and expectations of WIL, thispaper draws upon Bourdieu’s (1989) ‘thinking tools’ – capital and habitus. In the

Bourdieuian scheme, there are three primary forms of capital: the economic, thesocial and the cultural. Cultural capital which appears to be the most cited formof Bourdieu’s capital refers to the skills, knowledge, titles and sensibilitiespeople possess. Bourdieu (1989, p. 21) considers cultural capital as existing ‘inthree distinct forms: connected to individuals in their general educated character– accent, dispositions, learning, etc.; connected to objects – books, qualifications,machines, dictionaries, etc.; and connected to institutions – places of learning,universities, libraries, etc.’ The notion of cultural capital thus entails the embo-died (including language competence and style), the institutionalized (e.g. educa-tional qualifications) and the objectified (including books and artwork)(Bourdieu, 1986). Economic capital is defined as the access to material andfinancial resources (Bourdieu, 1986; Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992). Socialcapital encompasses the social assets arising from social memberships, networksand relationships. In this research, cultural capital is manifested in how interna-tional students attach the meaning to WIL as a resource to assist with theirdevelopment of the skills, knowledge and sensibilities associated with theirvocational study. Social capital relates to the family’s social and professionalnetworks that international students wish to develop through their engagement inWIL. Economic capital encompasses the material and financial values thatinternational students desire to acquire as a result of their engagement in WILand their increased employability.

Habitus is one of the key notions in Bourdieu’s work which offers a useful lensto interpret students’ aspiration to develop relevant understandings of and prepared-ness for workplace practice. Bourdieu and Wacquant (1992) define habitus as a setof schemes, generated by particular conditions that influence the ways individualsthink and act (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992). Habitus is considered as ‘the learnedset of preferences or dispositions by which a person orients to the social world’(Dumenden and English, 2013, p. 1080) or ‘functions, at the level of the individualagent, as the organising principle of the agent’s action’ (Edgerton and Roberts,2014, p. 195). Thus, habitus is instrumental for understanding how internationalstudents as social actors develop a feel for the ‘rules of the game’ at workplace ororient towards the workplace. The discussion of data in this paper suggests howinternational students see WIL as a means for them to mediate and develop habitusfor their future workplace and thus enhance their employability.

4. THE RESEARCH

This paper emerges from a research project funded by the Australian ResearchCouncil through the Discovery scheme. This research includes interviews withboth international students and staff and fieldworks conducted in dual-sector andVET institutions in three main states of Australia: New South Wales (NSW),Queensland (QLD) and Victoria (VIC). It aims to examine international students’learning and work experience and teachers’ adaptation of pedagogic work in

teaching this cohort. This paper focuses specifically on how WIL is perceived bythe international student participants.

International student participants in this study were enrolled in Diploma orAdvanced Diploma programmes at a VETor dual-sector institution. Participants arefrom a range of fields, including hospitality, nursing, business, community welfare,building and carpentry. As these students are expected to graduate from diplomaand advanced diploma programmes and work in trade and service areas, mostaspire to have some work experience related to their area of study to position themwell on the labour market. Also, work placement has emerged as an important issuefor VET where, under the Australian competency-based approach, courses mustinclude assessment in the actual workplace. Despite this, work placements are notalways available to international VET students. To protect the confidentiality of theparticipants, their names and institutions are kept anonymous.

The participants were recruited through an invitation sent to their institutions.Those who agreed to participate were asked to attend a face–to-face interviewwhich lasted between 30 and 60 minutes. The interviews were digitally recordedand transcribed. Second interviews were also undertaken with a small number ofstudents who were willing to do so. With consent from the participants, the leadresearcher took part in various student activities and visited them at workplaces.Participation in and observation of these activities enabled the researcher to havedeeper insights into the multiple dimensions of international students’ experi-ences in Australia, some of which may otherwise be invisible through formal

TABLE 1: Participants’ profiles

Nation of originNumber ofinterviewees VET course

Number ofinterviewees

South Asia Food and hospitality 40India 22 Management &

commerce10

Other 2 Building & carpentry 16Northeast Asia Information technology 9China 18 Hairdressing 8Korea 10 Community welfare

Japan 2 Automotive 4Southeast Asia and thePacific

Others 13

Vietnam 18 Total 105Other (Malaysia,Philippine, Thailand)

Mauritius 5Europe and the UK 12South America 3Others 6Total 105

interviews. This paper focuses primarily on the semi-structured interview datawith 105 international students about their intercultural interactions.

The students’ national origins and courses are summarized in Table 1:The interview data were coded and categorized using NVivo version 10. The keyaspects on which this paper focuses were identified through a thorough processof critical engagement with the excerpts. This process enables the researchers todevelop a deep interpretation of the key themes. The following themes emergefrom the students’ excerpts reflecting how they perceive the value of WIL. Asdiscussed in the above section, Bourdieu’s ‘thinking tools’ – capital and habituswere used to interpret these key themes and conceptualized them within thecontext of international student mobility.

5. WIL AS VENUE TO DEVELOP VARIOUS CAPITALS

WIL Associated with Cultural Capital

As discussed above, the concept of cultural capital encompasses the embodied(including language competence and style), the institutionalized (e.g. educationalqualifications) and the objectified (including books and artwork) (Bourdieu,1986). In this regard, some students consider WIL as highly importance as itprovides learning opportunity highlighting student’s key objective of studywhich is to gain knowledge.

It’s mixed together like, like if as a person I grow, then obviously whatever I amdoing, I also grow. It is altogether. It’s richer. So if my work is learning capabilities,my business skills are growing then also it helps to me myself also, I can also growby employing my vocational skills. So it’s mutual, together. It’s a one in togetherso. (Indian, Hospitality Management, QLD)

The main thing is that if we can work in the same field, we can get more knowledgeabout the work we are doing. (Indian, Building, VIC)

They require the students have to attend in there to get experience. They have tolearn about how to run the business, how to do a business plan, how to coaching theother colleagues. Those sort of things and customer service, blah, blah, blah.(Vietnamese, Cookery, VIC)

All above excerpts suggest that WIL is perceived by those international studentsas a valuable pathway to develop knowledge and skills related to their vocationalstudy. Thus, WIL is considered as a venue to cultivate cultural capital which inthis case is connected to individuals in their general educated character in thefield of VET. In particular, the student referred to in the first excerpt abovereveals that such development of cultural capital is interrelated to his growth as afull human being. This reciprocal relationship between the development of thestudent’s vocational ‘being’ and personal ‘being’ emphasized by the student iscompelling. It attaches deeper and more dynamic meanings to WIL which ismainly seen as adding value to students’ learning and employability as described

in the majority of the literature about WIL (Ashman et al., 2013; Gribble, 2014;Lawson, 2012; Patrick et al., 2008; Tran, 2013).

WIL is valued as it enables personal learning in addition to professionallearning as shown in the excerpts, to which Bourdieu refers as individual agency(Reay, 2004). This is relevant to the study of Edgerton and Roberts (2014) whoexplain that Lareau and Weininger (2003) extended the interpretation ofBourdieu’s definition of cultural capital to comprise adaptive cultural and socialcompetencies. They argue that these cultural and social capabilities can beentwined with academic or technical skills, which tends to manifest ‘a morestrategic conception of agency’ (ibid, p. 196).

International students’ description of learning from WIL such as vocationalskills, knowledge about work and customer service mentioned in the thirdexcerpt resembles forms of cultural capital, which in the Bourdieuian schemeis connected with social ‘institutions’ including places of learning and workplace. Edgerton and Roberts (2014) refer to this aspect as familiarity withrelevant institutional contexts, processes and expectations, possessions of rele-vant intellectual and social skills (e.g. ‘cultural knowledge’ and ‘vocabulary’).Similarly, Harrison and Ip (2013) define cultural capital as ‘proficiency in andfamiliarity with dominant culture codes and practices’ (Aschaffenburg and Maas,1997, p. 573 cited in Harrison and Ip, 2013, p. 236). Hence, students regard WILas essential since it enables an exposure to relevant practices in the work placeilluminating dominant culture codes and practices as mentioned in the thirdexcerpt above.

WIL can also be regarded as a vehicle for international students to enhancetheir cultural capital and thus their employability in the sense that it adds value totheir portfolio. This student articulates on how WIL is seen as giving interna-tional students more competitive advantage in the labour market:

I know the vast people I work with are in college whereas they’re finding it reallyhard to get a job in accounting environment because obviously they’re interna-tional. It was the same for me. It took me a year to try and get in. No one looks atyour CV because you’re an international student. So I think if they had two weeksinternship it might help them get their foot in the door and people can see that theyare capable of doing it. (Irish, Business, VIC)

The participant’s description of how international students are disadvantaged in thelabour market in the host country is supported by previous research. Related literature,in particular, indicates the importance of ethnicity in relation to transient migrants’employability and vocational cultures. Among the tertiary educated, non-English-speaking backgrounds (NESB) migrants appear to have worse employment outcomesthan the Australia-born and UK-born (Colic-Peisker, 2011). Despite being an Irishwhose mother tongue is English, the student in the last excerpt above has found itquite challenging to secure a job in the Australian accounting profession. NESBinternational students even face more challenges in job seeking. Challenges forinternational students’ access to work opportunities in the host countries have been

attributed to work place biased cultures and employers, institution-related factors andinternational students themselves (Harrison and Ip, 2013; Spooner-Lane et al., 2009;Tran, 2013). Key barriers include employers’ discrimination and prejudices of inter-national students due to their ‘outsider’ status which is often linked to their unfami-liarity with the Australian workplace culture and their lack of cultural and linguisticcapital privileged in the Australian contexts.

Within this context, the participants see WIL via internships as not onlyenabling international students to get ‘foot in the door’ of employment butimportantly as an indication of their capabilities and familiarity with the work-place in the host country. In other words, WIL in this case is regarded as asymbolic capital that acts as a sign of reassurance for prospective employers withregard to international students’ vocational capabilities. Such a symbolic capitaladds weights to their professional portfolio.

WIL Associated with Social Capital

The data analysis also revealed that WIL is considered valuable not only in termsof cultural but also social capital. In Bourdieuian terms (1998, p. 88), socialcapital is defined as

the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of adurable network of more or less institutionalised relationships of mutual acquain-tance and recognition- or in other words, to membership in a group- which provideseach of its members with the backing of the collectivity-owned capital, a ‘creden-tial’ which entitled them to credit, in the various senses of the word.

The following excerpts reflect students’ perceptions of the value of WIL as itoffers opportunity to connect with people outside colleges:

I prefer to working in the hotel because it’s going to be like, you know, big groupand more organisation, more system. Yeah, if we work just in the restaurant, justlike a small restaurant and we don’t know about the organisation that much. (Thai,Hospitality, VIC)

That is not enough, you know. The more you will learn, the more it will be helpfulto you. So I think I need much more exposure than at the moment because it’s justthe third semester. Maybe after the fourth semester when I’ll finish that one, I couldbe getting appropriate knowledge that I can move to the industry, you know, then,but then I would be actually working in the industry, then I’ll get much moreknowledge of the people. (Indian, Community Welfare, NSW)

That gives me good exposure in my community welfare [the participant’s discipline].Because when I was just in my first semester, I was just getting the books knowledgeonly. Actually I was put into that field like particular things whether to adapt to peoplesurround you in a big meeting. The supervisor was sitting there. Then he was liftingeverybody squarely, how he was sorting out things. We have problems. We haveboundaries. We have a personal life, their self-reflection, everything was really goodto learn. (Mauritius, Community Welfare, NSW)

The first excerpt shows that exposure to the relevant workplace, in this case theservice industry, enables the student to learn about organization of a workplace.Interestingly, the student reveals that working in a small workplace was notdesired as it did not offer opportunity to have a clear picture about the organiza-tion and the system in which they will enter after the vocational course. Thesecond excerpt points to the link between WIL and social capital as it says thatWIL opens up access to building more knowledge about people in workplace.The third excerpt illuminates lessons learnt about communicating, connectingand working with people outside the classroom. In this regard, WIL can beconsidered crucial in developing students’ social capital and social connectednessas it includes both forms of potential and actual relationships.

These findings echo research by Gibson and Busby (2009) and Tran andNyland (2011) which shows that WIL is valuable as it provides internationalstudents the opportunity to establish social and professional networks, which areimportant for their job application and career pathways. Therefore, internationalstudents perceive WIL as being important to help them not only enhance relevantvocational skills and capabilities but also develop social capital. Related literatureindicates that building social capital and using ‘right’ social networks enablestransient migrants to position themselves better in the labour market (Alfred,2010; Webb, 2015). Perna (2006) points out that possessing social capital, anindividual is able to get access to human, cultural and other forms of capital, aswell as institutional resources and support (Coleman, 1988); Morrice (2007) furtherargues that to develop social capital requires capacity which is built through ‘havingaccess to, and being embedded in’ social relations.

WIL Associated with Economic Capital

International students consider the exposure to the industry in their field of studyessential to build economic capital, to which Bourdieu (1998, p. 20) refers as‘literally money wealth: it can be “cashed” in any part of society.’ The followingexcerpts reflect students’ perception of WIL, which is framed as playing a keyrole in helping them secure a job in the area of study.

Because it is, of course, good for my work experience. If I have the workexperience, I can apply into the big company. It counts the good wages. (Korean,Accounting, NSW)

Yeah. Because study here, like a career, it’s special for me. Yeah. Because I just,once I learn, I just straight to go to work. And I ask a chef as well. And then so thatmeans like once I’m done and I’m practising my work place. (Korean,Cookery, VIC)

So I could get the experience on the job that I want. But if I don’t and if I just getthe certificate and I’ll have no experience with that sort of job and it will be a littlebit harder for me to cope with. Yes, I would like to have those exposures. (Korean,Hospitality Management, NSW)

The excerpts show that WIL is linked to a passport to future work prospects.Therefore, the lack or absence of WIL opportunities becomes a concern as itrestricts their employability. For those students, the provision of WIL meansenhancing prospect of getting a job reflecting its direct association to the form ofeconomic capital.

These students value WIL as through WIL they will be able to reproduce theeconomic capital which they invested in study, once they get future job. Thus,WIL is perceived to be closely linked to a return on investment in overseas study.This finding is in line with the studies about students’ motive to engage ininternational education, which report that international education is considered asa mean to develop work readiness in order to increase employability (Gibson andBusby, 2009; Inui et al., 2006; Tran and Nyland, 2011). A recent study reportedthat work experience in host country gain higher appreciation overseas as it givescompetitive advantage and differentiates graduates seeking employment(Gribble, 2014).

Other students stress the influence of the economic capital of their familieson their investment in overseas education and in the formation of vocationalhabitus:

I want to study this business course. After graduating my course I will go back tomy country. My father is managing five companies so I have to do that. I have tomanage them. . . Yes, my father is the CEO. . . so I have to be inheriting this CEOposition. (Korean, Business, QLD)

This Korean student uses his family’s economic advantage as a vehicle toacquire his educational, vocational and positional advantage. In this case, theprivileged possession of the economic capital and social capital is central tohis investment in education and vocational prospects. Drawing on Bourdieu’sconcept of habitus, Colley et al. (2003) consider the nature of vocationalhabitus as ‘individual aspects of identity, as well as collective predispositionsor habits structured by factors such as social class and gender’ (p. 487). Suchprivileged access to the family’s economic capital contributes to enabling theKorean student in the above excerpt to reproduce his family’s vocationalhabitus. Family’s economic capital is also central to the intergenerationaltransmission of social status in this case. Holloway et al. (2012) point outthat students’ ability to ‘realise the value of their cultural capital is not onlyshaped within the labour market but also, crucially, within the family’ (p.2287). The classed nature of this Korean student’s habitus is cultivated withinthe family as well. Korea is among the long-standing Confucian-heritagecultures in which fulfilling filial piety via promoting the family’s vocationalhabitus, inheriting the CEO position of his father as in the case of this student,is still common.

6. WIL AS A PLACE TO CULTIVATE RELEVANT HABITUS FOR WORK PLACE

Bourdieu’s concept of habitus is relevant to make sense of how students valueWIL. Bourdieu (1990, p. 53, in Swartz, 2002, p. 625) defines habitus as

system of durable, transposable dispositions, structured structures predisposed tofunction as structuring structures, that is, as principles which generate and organizepractices and representations that can be objectively adapted to their outcomeswithout presupposing a conscious aiming at ends or an express mastery of theoperations necessary in order to attain them.

In this regard, Swartz (2002) and Dumais (2002) link habitus including to formsof know-how and competence both tangible and intangible that is initiallydeveloped during early childhood. The concept of habitus enables us to under-stand how students orient towards or carry out themselves in the educationsystem. This implies the effect of socialization through family life and later onthrough schooling system and society as ‘habitus generates perceptions, expecta-tions and practices that correspond to the structuring properties of earlier socia-lization’ (Swartz, 2002, p. 635). International students studying vocationaleducation have their own habitus, including dispositions about what they expectand aspire from pursuing their overseas study. Some of them may start theirstudy with ideas of doing WIL as they want to acquire relevant work experienceoutside their home country or just desire to taste the Australian work place.

Swartz (2002) further describes disposition as the key word in understandinghabitus since it reflects the capacity of an individual to think about the action to take.Thus, as an individual student has original habitus that guides them in makingjudgment and informing them what to learn or what is good to do in their overseasstudy. Hence, some international students value WIL as an avenue to experience areal-world work environment and develop particular habitus relevant to theirworkplace.

Because I think I work as a chef. I prefer in the kitchen. We can learn more.(Chinese, Cookery, QLD)

I think they should increase the practical class and work much more than now.(Vietnamese, Accounting, VIC)

So it can be one subject in the course. Yeah, this is the best. Like one subject, like apractical subject. So the students have one section to learn the real work experience.Maybe from the teacher, maybe from all the mentors. But I mean the subject willprovide specific work, how to do that in terms of the business environment.(Vietnamese, Accounting, VIC)

I probably the reason is they said you going to go to one of the hotel which is fivestar hotel that you get experience on the industry as well. Yeah, that’s probably thereason why. It’s a good offer when you can go to actual hotel where you can workand experience the thing that you actually want to do. (Vietnamese, Cookery,Hospitality Management)

The excerpts show students’ understanding of the exposure to specific workplaceas providing a useful opportunity for gaining relevant knowledge and skills ofworkplace. In the third excerpt, the student proposes a strategy to increaseexposure to workplace, which reveals that they consider WIL as crucial fortheir study. The fourth excerpt stresses that real workplace provides genuinework experience. Obviously, the above excerpts also reveal that every workplacerequires different habitus comprising distinctive disposition and practices orculture. These findings are in line with the findings of Clark and Zukas (2013)and Colley et al. (2003) who suggest that particular habitus exists in a workplace.

Colley et al. (2003, p. 487) introduce the term ‘becoming’ to capture themeaning of ‘vocational habitus’ among students doing vocational courses.Moreover, drawing on the context of the role of institution in students’ choicesof HE, Reay et al. (2001) argue that the presence of institutional habitusinfluences student decision making. These studies revealing the existence ofparticular habitus in a field (workplace) support the finding of this researchthat students value WIL as an avenue for learning about particular habitus inthe workplace. In particular, as Swartz (2002, p. 635) describes that ‘the disposi-tions of habitus are acquired informally through the experience of social inter-actions by processes of imitation, repetition, role-play, and game participation’,WIL has been recognized by the international students in this research asappropriate for them to learn about workplace culture and practices.

Indeed, this finding that students value WIL as an opportunity to learn aboutworkplace is in accordance with the study of Tran and Nyland (2011).International students in their study reported that one of their main motives ofstudy abroad is to gain some experience operating in the Australian workplaceculture, which implicitly is about vocational habitus.

The following quotes reflect more strongly how students are not providedwith WIL opportunities but aspire for WIL as a field whereby they could learnvocational habitus.

I think you know it would be nice to actually get on if they can expose students tothe outside world. Like for example, internships. . . Take them out to tour placeslike say, if you do marketing then you do advertising then. Take a tour to advertis-ing agencies. Show them how is it like. And then later on if there is from each classwhatsoever, maybe select one or two outstanding students to maybe go for aninternship or something and give them a chance to do things like that. And thatwould actually help because I think in the classroom you talk and talk and talk. Andalso the teacher are trying to talk English to the students and he keeps repeating thesame thing and it actually wastes a lot time. And when you’re in class so much youdon’t remember. (Malaysian, Cookery, VIC)

More practical, like more field trips, more being outside working and looking atmore places. Yeah, like more of getting outside of the college. Because what I’mstudying is most of the time you have to be outside. You know, in sites and in parksand gardens and so between in the classroom all the time, it’s good but it’s alsogood to be outside looking at projects and stuff. (Mexican, Horticulture, NSW)

Most of my friends, we did not know what the industry is like. We did not go toeach single four star hotel yet because we could not effort the pay. We could notafford the dinner there yet. For me, the school needs to get some relationship withsome four star hotels or very profession organisations so you can go there forsometimes like two months or one month for practice. We need someone powerfullike professional people not like the formal course, but like the people who standthere and talk there for one to two hours. So we really want the meeting like that.(Chinese, Hospitality Management, VIC)

In all excerpts above, the students contrast imagination of workplace withexperience of daily classroom. Students’ perceptions of the value of WIL provi-sion can also be understood through Bourdieu’s concept of field. Edgerton andRoberts (2014, p. 195) point out that

the term field refers to the formal and informal norms governing a particular socialsphere of activity (e.g. family, public school, higher education, art, politics, andeconomics). Fields are organized around specific forms of capital or combinationsof capitals, which ‘are both the process within, and product, of a field’ (Thompson,2008, 69). Fields are relational in nature and are characterized by their ownparticular regulative principles – the ‘rules of the game’ or ‘logic of practice’ –which are subject to power struggles among different interests seeking to controlthe capital (and ‘rules’) in that field.

In this regard, work place where the WIL is conducted can be seen as a dreamfield that the students wish to enter. There are particular capitals including cultureas product of it representing particular nature or characteristics of the field andprinciples of working in the field that are necessary for new comers tounderstand.

7. CONCLUSIONS

Overall, the findings of this study suggest that the international VET studentparticipants largely recognize the importance of WIL. This contradicts the find-ing from Gribble’s research that shows that international university students didnot see the value of WIL until too late (Gribble, 2014). This might be due to thedistinctive difference between VET and HE contexts in which VET study issupposed to be more hands-on and practical in its orientation. Also, the respon-dents of this study are vocational students who might consider the opportunitiesfor work-based learning and industry exposure in making their decision toundertake VET study and thus might be more generally conscious of WIL.

This paper indicates some compelling findings about international students’perceptions of WIL. The interviews show that students’ perceptions of WIL canbe explicitly explained through various lenses of Bourdieu’s work includingforms of capital and habitus. This research supports other studies, indicatingthat WIL provides opportunity to enhance employability entailing economiccapital gain and enables learners to develop knowledge and skills reflectingcultural capital development. In addition, this paper extends the current literature

about WIL which focuses mainly on international students at universities toinclude those undertaking vocational courses. In this regard, borrowing theterm vocational habitus from Colley et al. (2003) this paper suggests that somestudents consider WIL as important since it provides opportunities for develop-ing vocational habitus.

Most remarkably, the study highlights both the instrumental, symbolic anddevelopmental meanings that international students attribute to WIL. Thisresearch extends the existing literature that sees WIL largely in instrumentalterms in helping students enhance their employability and competitive advantagein the market economies (Kariwo et al., 2014). It instead highlights the reciprocalrelationship between the student’s development of vocational ‘being’ and perso-nal ‘being’ through WIL. The students’ perception of WIL also stretches beyondthe conventional assumption about WIL as they also regard WIL a means to helpthem enhance social connectedness with people other than their peers andteachers. Some students therefore see WIL as not only assisting them to developthe skills to serve the immediate need of the labour market but also for theirholistic personal and social development. This important finding suggests thatthe development of meaningful WIL programmes should take into accountstudents’ aspirations for the holistic human development.

The research shows that international students attempt to accumulate variousforms of capitals through WIL. This echoes with a new line of literature whichsuggests that individuals not only passively receive and reproduce capital butalso engage in building and enhancing kinds of capital in different ways (Mills,2008; Wood, 2013). Interestingly, some students in this research perceive WIL asthe symbolic capital as a form of cultural capital that international students attachto WIL in addition to the economic and social capital. WIL is also seen as asymbolic strength of their vocational capabilities to their professional portfolios.Overall, this research indicates that more nuanced understandings of internationalstudents’ dynamic and distinctive aspirations in relation to WIL in the context ofcross-border education are essential to the development of meaningful student-centred WIL programmes for this cohort.

8. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their invaluable comments whichhelp us considerably improve this paper. We acknowledge with thanks thecontributions from the international student participants and the funding fromthe Australian Research Council for this project.

9. DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

10. FUNDING

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council under Discovery [grantnumber DP0986590]

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CorrespondenceDr Ly Thi TranSchool of EducationDeakin UniversityAustraliaEmail: ly.tran@deakin.edu.au

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