Please join us in congratulating EF Champion and academic A/Prof Leanne Piggott on her appointment as WIL Central Academic Director.
WIL Central is a new team in the PVCE established to provide enterprise-level leadership of Work Integrated Learning (WIL) at UNSW.
WIL Central is responsible for ensuring that each program at UNSW includes high-quality WIL opportunities that are compliant with government regulations and UNSW policy and procedures (including the WIL Procedure). In addition, WIL Central provides support to the Faculties and Schools to scale WIL opportunities through: the design of WIL courses; developing relationships with partner organisations; finalising WIL agreements; and undertaking reporting and analysis.
At UNSW Work Integrated Learning (WIL) is offered within an academic framework as part of coursework programs and courses that are designed on the principle that a work environment is provided in partnership with an organisation for the practical application of learning. This realises the UNSW 2025 Strategy to enable students to ‘obtain a holistic education, securing the real-world practical skills needed for a rapidly evolving workplace’.
The Academic Director, WIL Central reports to the PVC(E) and is responsible for driving the development and implementation of University-wide WIL governance including WIL policies and procedures, WIL placement risk mitigation, fostering academic excellence in WIL courses, internal and external reporting, and WIL related communications.
Leanne is also currently National Education Director at the Centre for Social Impact in the UNSW Business School, where she is responsible for leading curriculum quality and innovation. She joined CSI UNSW in August 2016 and has since worked to grow the CSI UNSW Education portfolio to a robust Social Impact & Sustainability offering across undergraduate and postgraduate levels of study. Leanne is a qualified Shared Value Consultant and, in addition to WIL, is a specialist in online learning with a broad network both domestically and internationally.
Before her appointment as WIL Central Director, Leanne was seconded to the UNSW 3+ Strategy team in 2017 to develop the whole-of-university strategy to scale opportunities for WIL across UG & PG coursework programs. During this time and throughout 2018 she lead the team working on the new UNSW WIL Procedure and in 2018, wrote the Viability Paper and in turn the Business Case to establish the WIL Central unit as part of the PVC(E). Leanne actively supervises PhD students, demonstrates successful capacity to attract grant funding and has been recognised for her education expertise throughout the course of her academic career, including becoming an EF Academic in 2017.
Prior to working at UNSW Leanne was at The University of Sydney Business School, most recently as their Director, Business Education, and in the years before this role she held a number of Academic, Director / Head of Department roles.