The transition from academia to professional life is critical for students, necessitating an effective approach to enhance their employability. Work integrated learning (WIL) is one approach that is embedded by higher education institutions (HEIs) in their curricula so students can work on industry projects where they can apply their theoretical and practical knowledge in a safe and constructive environment. The importance of WIL in enhancing students' employability has come into focus because of industry demands and expectations from the HEIs to turn out work-ready graduates. Because of this, WIL is recognised as an essential part of students' university experience to prepare them to meet industry expectations. Despite its significance, most research on WIL is industryoriented, lacking a student-centred perspective. This study aims to fill this gap by inquiring into the students' lived experiences in WIL to understand their needs based on their personal circumstances and learning proclivities.

The research question of this study is: What are the students' lived experiences in the work integrated learning (WIL) Team Project? Using a descriptive phenomenological approach, the lived experiences of 13 students from the Griffith University School of ICT engaged in a WIL Team Project were explored. Data collected via contextual interviews was processed using Giorgi's phenomenological method and further examined through Ilgen's input-mediator-output-input (IMOI) framework and a design literacy conceptual framework.

The findings reveal five major themes that described the stages of the students' lived experiences in the work integrated learning (WIL) Team Project: Stage 1: Limiting options and challenging self-confidence, Stage 2: Accepting behaviours and coping responses, Stage 3: Valuing the WIL Team Project stream, Stage 4: Working with others and dealing with challenges, and Stage 5: Problem-solving. Additionally, the advent and acceptance of virtuality in WIL, particularly during Covid-19 restrictions, were recognised.

With the aim of informing the design of WIL, this study contributes to understanding student perspectives on WIL and augmenting the limited literature from a student-centred perspective, informing pedagogies in higher education like learning-by-doing and experiential learning, as well as the cross disciplinary fields of User-experience research, Experience Design, and Human-Computer Interaction.

The results suggest that the combination of theory, practice, and virtual collaboration in WIL is instrumental in promoting students' professional identity and employability skills.