At MADA Design, WIL – or Work Integrated Learning – is the official term we use to describe short-term academic credit-linked work experience that students can apply for, through a competitive selection process. We use the term 'WIL Placement' to generally describe students undergoing a WIL engagement with a host.

The semantics can be understandably confusing, especially when 'internships' are often used by the industry to describe a similar activity – an opportunity for students to gain work experience by embedding themselves into 'real-world' scenarios and projects.

We use Work Integrated Learning (or WIL in short) to describe a specific scenario – students going through a WIL Placement channel gains academic credit for their efforts, which also includes their submission of an assessable placement report and diary.

General 'internships', on the other hand, are not managed or overseen through MADA Design WIL. Students can make their own decisions to apply for their own internships without seeking academic credit, although we provide our students with some general advice around safety and legal liabilities.

WIL Placements secured through this academic credit-awarding program do not require any monetary 'payment', as the purpose of WIL is to provide students with work experience, and for hosts to also commit supervision and support for the students under their care.

Students successfully matched and selected (including self-sourced applications) for this WIL Placement unit (ADA3406/5406) will receive 6 credit points, the equivalent of an elective unit upon successful completion of the placement. There is an academic assessment of their folio, report and reflection at the conclusion of the placement, and is therefore part of their academic learning activity.

That said, payment to the student may be made, either to cover expenses associated with the placement, or as a salaried employee. Either of these payments may offer an incentive for applicants.

To expand on this further, there are a few options to consider when hosting WIL Placement student(s):

1. Hiring the student(s) as a salaried Employee – this means the student goes on your payroll and are subject to all aspects of the Fair Work Act 2009, and is effectively, a paid intern, and not a WIL Placement student. The company is fully responsible for providing Public Liability and Professional Indemnity insurance coverage (see previous FAQ item). Consequently, Monash University does not cover the intern(s)' liabilities.

2. Transport / meal allowance – companies can provide a separate allowance to WIL Placement students. This is particularly helpful for on-site placements where the location might be restrictive for the student(s).

3. Providing a one-off scholarship or prize payment, to cover expenses associated with the placement –  this must be a single payment made to the WIL Placement student(s) in recognition of costs associated with the placement associated with transport, educational costs, or special equipment. This payment is paid irrespective of the performance of the student on the placement, and is not associated with the performance of the student’s work during the placement. Public Liability and Professional Indemnity insurance cover (see previous FAQ item) from the company is also required. In addition, Monash University will also provide the insurance for the students(s), to protect Monash University's interests should litigation occur as a result of an incident during the WIL Placement.

The legal agreement will need to stipulate appropriate payment terms (employee, or scholarship award direct to student to cover expenses, or invoiced through Monash) – this will be finalised and require signing from all parties before the WIL Placement can begin.

Generally, yes. The nature of every research project, either withing Monash University or beyond, is always going to be different, and require different skill sets and roles. The key points to consider are: how are the students gaining valuable work experience? Do you need Ethics approval, and NDAs (non-disclosure agreement, next point below)?

If you bring in WIL Placement student(s) to help you on the research project, you must consider how they are going to be involved in the project. If the student(s) are asked to assist in conducting research (e.g. interviews, observations, experimentation), they should be included in the Ethics application. However, if you are requesting WIL Placement student(s) to only produce media assets or process research data without direct engagement with the core research, you may not require Ethics approval.

It is important that you review Ethics guidelines relevant to your organisation. For Monash University, please refer to the Research Ethics & Integrity portal.

There are typically three stages involved in the selection.

Stage 1 is our internal selection where preferences are sorted and reviewed for quality and eligibility.

Stage 2 goes out to requestors, weighted towards an applicant's higher preference. This varies depending on the 'popularity' of the posting. We tend to be able to match most students here.

Unsuccessful applicants in Stage 2 flow to Stage 3 for final selections. Please note that applicants may not necessarily be 'lower quality'. They might be deemed incompatible with the initial reviewer's job scope, or that a previous offer had to be withdrawn due to unforeseen circumstances.

As each design placement may vary depending on the job scope, we ask that each requestor arrange their own interviews, if required, to assess the quality of the provided candidates. We will also share each student's folio as a PDF link to assist in your review. We ask that you complete the reviews in a timely manner to facilitate the successful matching of as many applicants as possible.

If you already have some student(s) in mind and have started conversations with having them on board, let us know in the request form. We will still conduct the necessary reviews to ascertain suitability with Design-centric job scopes. Also, see our first point regarding insurance requirements.

Some students might prefer to take on an unpaid, non-credit-awarding internship (and therefore not a WIL Placement). If this is the case, you can arrange that internship with the student(s) separately. This will fall outside the purview of the Design WIL Placement and Monash University.

In addition, some students may have approached you as their first step in submitting a self-sourced WIL Placement application. In this scenario, students are applying to gain 6 academic credits for their successful WIL Placement completion, but have made their own initiative to seek out opportunities relevant to their design interest.

In either case, we ask that you forward the students to this website, so that they are aware of the credit-awarding opportunity. If they choose to take this on as a credit-awarding WIL Placement, a formal legal agreement between your agency, student(s) and Monash will need to be made (also, see our first point regarding insurance requirements below).

While we will endeavour to expedite the process, the timeline we have is intended to provide sufficient lead time for the following:

• Negotiating requests, agreement preview & due diligence checks (1 month)

• Call-outs to students to respond to each round (1 month)

• Candidate review/interview process (2-3wks)

• Legal agreement signings (2-3wks)

Most selections take a shorter time to confirm, but we want to advise a standard timeline for our new and ongoing industry partners.

To ensure equity amongst all WIL Placement students, we require that students complete 80-100 hours of WIL to satisfy the unit they are enrolled in. Engagement beyond this 80-100 hours MUST be negotiated clearly with the student(s), and a separate agreement should be organised between you and the student(s).

Please note that additional insurance and contractual obligations will have to be worked out with the WIL Placement student.

This is possible – let us know in the additional notes in your WIL Placement request.

In addition, our students will need to fulfil their academic requirement of submitting a placement diary and report. Therefore, the work that they have accomplished should ideally include a milestone, so that they are able to include more complete work in their folio and bookend their work experience with clarity.

In general, we suggest that you 'stage' project handovers in between the WIL Placement periods. This could involve organising meetings between incoming/outgoing students that you set aside as part of their work commitment.

You are welcome to pencil in your request(s) via the same request form below, especially if your project(s)/role(s) are still in motion. We will get in touch with further details.

Please refer to Monash University's procedure on Industry Experience for more information.

Only one agreement needs to be signed. There needs to be absolute clarity on WIL engagement (and not just an 'internship') in the agreement. For students to qualify for credit, all agreements MUST NOT use the term 'intern'. We therefore ask that our standard Monash placement agreement be used. Other agreements will need to be liaised with our General Counsel on a case-by-case basis to verify the details and compatibility of the agreements. Please allow for 2 additional weeks of processing time.

Intellectual property (IP) will remain with the company/research project stakeholder(s); this can be set in the agreement. However, WIL Placement students will be granted a royalty-free use of the produced materials to support the submission and assessment of their work on Moodle, which is not accessible to the public. We ask that the WIL Placement supervisor vet the reports before the student(s) submit their work for assessment.

Additional NDAs can be signed to limit the disclosure of projects, which can cover the inclusion of produced work in the student's report & submission. This is particularly relevant for projects that involve external commercial partners. The NDA is left to the requestor to arrange with the WIL Placement student(s).

This applies to both commercial and research projects.

Certainly! While this online resource provides the necessary information to get started on your request, we are available to have a chat.

Please get in touch with Dr Ilya Fridman (Design Coordinator) or Dr Jean-Paul Rollo (Chief Examiner) for further details.