Professional Learning Webinar
Voices and insights on Service Learning as a form of WIL
13 August 2026
1:00pm-2:00pm AEST
Date:
Time:
1:00pm-2:00pm AEST
Location:
Online
Contact:
admin@wilaustralia.edu.au
Voices and insights on Service Learning as a form of WIL
Service learning is often described as the social justice arm of Work Integrated Learning (WIL). By connecting students with for-purpose organisations, it seeks to foster meaningful three-way partnerships between students, the university, and community organisations. Like WIL, service learning places emphasis on the learning process rather than solely on the outcomes of the engagement. It provides students with opportunities to apply their disciplinary knowledge to real-world social challenges, strengthen their critical thinking, deepen their commitment to civic engagement, and engage in purposeful reflection.
In conversation with Bec Healy, founder of Boxhead Plastics, subject coordinators Simone Faulkner (UTS) and Laura Rook (UOW) and former manager of engaged teaching and learning, Mehal Krayem (UTS), Maddy Langabeer (UTS) will facilitate a discussion on the opportunities service learning creates for student engagement, as well as the challenges of managing a three-way partnership where each stakeholder brings different priorities, pressures, and expectations, and where organisational contexts are constantly evolving.
Participants will then be able to discuss priorities and outcomes for different stakeholder groups and gain perspectives from different institutions.
Presenters
Mehal Krayem
Manager Advocacy and Policy, University of Technology Sydney
Mehal is the former manager of engaged teaching and learning at UTS, overseeing UTS’s curricular and co-curricular engaged learning programs. Mehal is currently Manager Advocacy and Policy (student equity) at the Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion, UTS.
Maddy Langabeer
Project Officer, University of Technology Sydney
Maddy is the former Lead of UTS Shopfront, UTS’s flagship service learning program. She is currently a Project Officer within the UTS Student Equity Team at the Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion.
Laura Rook
Senior Lecturer, University of Wollongong
Laura is a Senior Lecturer in Management and Deputy Head of School (Education) in the Business School at the University of Wollongong. She established a community partnership model in which multidisciplinary student teams act as consultants for local organisations.
Simone Faulkner
Subject Coordinator, University of Technology Sydney
Simone is currently the subject coordinator of ‘Managing for Social Impact’ and ‘Diversity Management’. Here she equips students with critical thinking skills, global awareness, and practical application, fostering a new generation of socially conscious leaders prepared to navigate diverse workplaces and positively impact society.
Bec Healy
Founder, Boxhead Plastics
Bec Healy is the founder of Boxhead Plastics, a non-profit social enterprise that locally collects, recycles, and remanufactures scrap plastic car bumper bars.