Work experience is generally understood to mean the performance of work within or for a business, non-profit organisation or government agency, in order to gain experience, skills and/or contacts that will help the worker obtain employment or other work opportunities in the future. Work experience may be undertaken as part of a government assistance program, or an ‘internship’ scheme established for an organisation’s purposes, or (as with most of the arrangements considered in this report) as part of a formal scheme of education or training.

The research project has resulted in a number of publications and presentations, which are listed in Appendix A. These include a comparative study of the regulation of internships and other forms of work experience commissioned by the International Labour Organization (ILO) to inform the development of international policy on this subject (Stewart, Owens et al. 2018). There is also a collection of essays that brings together established and emerging scholars from around the world to discuss the use, benefits and regulation of such arrangements (Stewart et al. 2021).

This report presents a summary of the project’s research findings that relate specifically to the tertiary education sector in Australia.