Twenty-sixth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

To date, not much attention has been given to the use of industry councils in higher education by researchers. There has been research exploring community involvement as a scholarly activity. Pienaar-Steyn (2012) writes about South Africa’s effort to better understand community engagement and the benefits to higher education. And, although, Pienaar-Steyn does not directly write of the use of industry to aid in universities reaching their goals of providing but one can see the connection between the two. There are decades of research examining the values of active learning practices in the classroom and the experiential learning of internships. As mentioned there is scarce research examining the role industry plays, outside of serving an internship site, in higher education. One of the goals of higher education is to produce highly functioning graduates that are prepared to talk their next step. The authors argue that for business schools the goal is to produce workplace-ready students. Industry professionals can serve an important part of linking higher education with business. Students can benefit from being immersed alongside their faculty with industry professionals. Faculty help model appropriate professional behaviors for students such as dress, networking, communication, etc. Also, students are eased into an uncertain territory as well as the role of young professional. Industry councils should be developed with intention and purpose. It is posited that a workplace-ready student has the sophisticated ability to navigate the complex environment via classroom experiences, internships and industry councils.