Developing university learners enterprise capabilities through entrepreneurial WIL

The changing and dynamic nature of contemporary work is contributing to a compelling need for innovation and enterprise capabilities within organisations. Both small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) and larger organisations are increasingly looking for evidence of these enterprise capabilities in graduates. In response Australian universities are endeavouring to embed entrepreneurial experiences in the curriculum with entrepreneurial WIL emerging as a pedagogical approach for learners to develop these enterprise capabilities. Through entrepreneurial WIL experiences, such as innovation incubators, bootcamps and interdisciplinary industry/community projects, learners engage with industry and community partners and apply their developing enterprise capabilities to identifying opportunities and creating value. This chapter outlines four entrepreneurial WIL illustrations of practice which were re-designed with support from the multi-institutional Edge project. Drawing on these illustrations and current research, the chapter advances key considerations for WIL curriculum, seeking to develop entrepreneurial experiences with a focus on learners’ enterprise capabilities development.