David Zhang

Higher education plays an important role in supporting sustainability through teaching, research, advocacy or key projects and initiatives. One of the innovative ways to achieve this is using an intercultural approach to work-integrated learning (WIL). This research shows how an award-winning WIL program, “Eco-economy project: improving livelihoods above and below the surface” empowers domestic Australian students with real-world experiences in an international context - Indonesia. Aided by a hybrid mode of delivery, students partner with a local NGO (non-government organization) to help a disadvantaged fishing island community develop sound alternative business plans and strategies aimed at decreasing its reliance on shark fishing. Through analysis of three years’ data based on multiple sources including the program’s teaching and learning materials, the partner NGO’s responses, student reflective learning journals and interviews, videos of the study tour, and survey data from local communities, the findings of this research clearly show how the impact of an intercultural approach to WIL extends beyond academic learning in terms of enabling students to grow environmentally and socially conscious, enhancing their intercultural competencies, and boosting their global employability. Through hands-on engagement, they become agents of positive change, making a meaningful difference in the lives of others.