WIL AWARDS 2026
WIL Australia proudly recognises and awards individuals, teams and industry/community partners for their outstanding and sustained contributions to quality WIL practice. The bi-annual awards are presented at the WIL Australia conference. The Awards are open to the following:
- Local Hero Award – Organisation
- Innovation and Excellence Award – Individual or Collaborative Team
- Collaboration Award – Organisations
- People’s Choice Award – Individual or Collaborative Team (Top 5 Case Study)
- Honorary Life Membership – Individual
WIL Australia recognises that work integrated learning needs institutions and partner organisations to collaborate to provide an authentic learning experience for students engaged in WIL. We also know that individuals within many of our institutions and partner organisations go beyond our expectations and integrate WIL into their operations and activities and work hard to improve the WIL experience for students.
Local Hero Award
Innovation and Excellence Award
Collaboration Award
People’s Choice Award
Honorary Life Member Award
Best Poster Award
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Key Dates
Applications Open: 30 November 2025
Applications Close: 30 June 2026
Applicants Notified: September 2026
Local Hero Award
The Local Hero Award is awarded to a partner organisation that is a small-medium enterprise (SME:0-199 employees) whose engagement with a university in WIL and whose contribution to the WIL experience of students, is above and beyond the expectation of the size of their organisation.
Successful applications will be able to demonstrate how the partner organisation has tailored discipline-related WIL experiences for students that are innovative and industry-relevant.
Innovation and Excellence Award
The Innovation and Excellence Award recognises an institution/individual who demonstrates quality and innovative WIL practices across a diverse range of disciplines, models and methods.
This application can be submitted as an institution, individual or partnership between institution and industry partner.
Collaboration Award
The Collaboration Award is awarded to a partner organisation that is collaborating with a university to provide a sustained and significant contribution to WIL. Applications will be able to demonstrate how partner organisations have fostered and sustained exceptional WIL experiences for their students and provide a description of the nature and extent of an ongoing relationship with your institution, over the past several years.
People’s Choice Award (Case Study)
The video case study approach this year will see you develop a short video (3-4 minutes long) that aligns to the WIL Australia 2026 Conference sub-themes. Your application will be evaluated by a panel and judged against key criteria as outlined in the supporting resources. Should your case study be ranked in the top five, you will be shortlisted for the WIL Australia Conference 2026 People’s Choice Award, this will see your case study presented at the WIL Australia Conference 2026 and conference delegates vote for the winning case.
Honorary Life Member Award
Honorary Life membership recognises significant service and contribution to Work Integrated Learning (WIL) in Australia and or internationally in areas of practice, pedagogy or research.
Best Poster Award
At each WIL Conference, an award is given for the best poster presentation. Posters are judged by conference delegates and consideration is given to contribution to the field, relevance to the conference theme and overall presentation.