Success stories

Peel Native Flora and Fauna Reserve

We love this example of WIL from the engineering students in Bathurst. Co-taught by Dr. Saeed Shaeri and Ms. Karen Brakell and initiated by Deborah Munns from the Peel Native Flora and Fauna Reserve. This is a perfect overview of how WIL can help our students develop their skills within real-world experiences, giving them the confidence to have the skills to pursue a future professional career. The Land Managers, a small group of volunteers, also benefit from the expertise of the students and their lecturers. A very special thanks to Dr. Saeed Shaeri, Karen Brakell and Deborah Munns for sharing this project.

Project details

Engineering studentsEngineering students inspect the lookout site

Featured here are our first-year student Engineers, gathered for their team-based project design challenge, co-taught by Dr Saeed Shaeri and Karen Brakell.

They will work together for a real project at a lookout near Bathurst where they will design site entrances, visitor parking, a toilet block, a stormwater drainage network, a series of fauna crossings, signage, and park benches for Peel Native Flora and Fauna Reserve.

This is a great example of how Work-integrated learning (WIL) can be used to help fix real-world problems. Project-based learning is a crucial element of WIL, giving students the opportunity to:

  • model real-world problems
  • enhance toolkit for future careers
  • develop hands-on experience.

Charles Sturt University’s Three Rivers Department of Rural Health

Rural Health students standing in front of a paddock of flowering canola.

Charles Sturt University’s Three Rivers Department of Rural Health is a key initiative of the Australian Government under the Rural Health Multidisciplinary Training Program. The objective of Three Rivers is to improve the recruitment and retention of nursing, allied health, dentistry, and paramedicine students in rural and remote Australia.

Initiative details

Rural Health students

The Rural Health Education (RHE) Team is comprise of lecturers in Rural Health in key locations within the Three Rivers footprint - Albury, Dubbo, Griffith, Orange, Forbes and Wagga Wagga - with extensive clinical experience in different health professions.

The aims of the RHE Team are to:

  • increase the number of effective rural training experiences (placements) for health students
  • ensure these rural training experiences are of high quality.
  • engage with the local community to support the delivery of training to health students
  • provide regional leadership in developing innovating training solutions to address rural workforce recruitment and retention
  • work with Fist Nations communities to support positive healthy outcomes.