The WIL Australia Quality WIL Standards Taskforce is hosting a live webinar to introduce the newly refreshed WIL Australia Quality Standards Framework (2026). Throughout 2025, the taskforce peer reviewed and updated the 2019 Australian Quality WIL Standards to reflect recent research, national consultation insights, contemporary WIL practice and the priorities identified in the NPILF Roundtable report. The result? A refreshed comprehensive framework spanning the four key domains for quality in WIL: Student Experience, Curriculum Design and Delivery, Partnership Engagement, and Institutional Requirements.
In this webinar, participants will:
- Discover why the standards were refreshed and what aspects are new;
- Be provided with the resources and practical entry points for how you/your institution might adapt and apply the framework to design, evaluate, and research quality WIL (implementation guide).
- Explore new directions for using the refreshed framework at their institute by connecting with WIL peers for ideas sharing.
Speakers
Leoni Russell
Lead, WIL and Employability
RMIT University
Leoni Russell is the Lead, Employability and Work Integrated Learning (WIL) in the Employability and Careers Education team at RMIT University. Leoni provides academic support to build staff capability across a range of educational strategies including industry partnered Learning, work integrated learning (WIL), career development learning (CDL) and the embedding of employability initiatives into curriculum. Leoni has extensive experience in WIL policy, governance, national research and facilitating professional development to support WIL practice.
Professor Felicity Blackstock
Director, Engaged and Work Integrated Learning
University of Sydney
Felicity Blackstock, PhD, PFHEA, is a leading academic currently serving as Professor and Director of Engaged and Work Integrated Learning at the University of Sydney since June 2023. In this role, she leads the strategy of the University in WIL curriculum design, delivery, evaluation and quality assurance to enhance student employability and ensuring that learning is transformation for all at the University. She received a citation for excellence in teaching from Australia Award for University for pioneering simulation-based learning nationally in physiotherapy in 2015 and admitted as a Principal Fellow of AdvanceHE in 2019.
Dr. Ricky Tunny
Manager, Work Integrated Learning
QUT
Dr Ricky Tunny is a nationally recognised leader in work-integrated learning (WIL), with over 13 years of experience leading WIL initiatives in the Faculty of Health at QUT. He has held both academic and professional roles, including Senior Lecturer, WIL and Manager, Work Integrated Learning Support (WILS). Ricky currently serves as Co-Chair of QUT’s WIL Strategy Group and WIL Community of Practice, driving institutional WIL strategy and collaboration.
At the national level, Ricky has made significant contributions through his long-standing involvement with the National Association of Field Experience Administrators (NAFEA), serving as President for over nine years and currently as Vice President. His leadership has seen the implementation of impactful programs including equity and Indigenous rural placement scholarships, professional development initiatives, research funding schemes, and recognition programs for WIL administrators.
Ricky is also the Managing Editor of the open-access journal Work Integrated Learning in Practice, supporting the dissemination of applied WIL research and practice. His research interests include equity and access in WIL, quality assurance, rural and remote WIL, and risk management.
Associate Professor Karen Young
Academic WIL Director, Faculty of Science Engineering & Built Environment
Deakin University
Leads strategic and operational curriculum-led action-research WIL projects. Initiatives and research focus on assessment design of scaffolded employability learning. Karen has over 15 years of experience as a WIL leader and her work focuses on capability building and curriculum interventions that enhance student employability. She draws upon her background in industry to provide an authentic-lens to WIL approaches in Australian Higher Education contexts.
Karen is a Senior Fellow (SFHEA) who is committed to effective approaches to high quality student learning. Earlier roles included convening a range of placement-based and foundational WIL subjects. She now leads strategic and operational curriculum-led projects in employability. Scholarly approaches have guided and supported the development of the WIL program across all courses in the Faculty.
