Beyond the desk: How Centre for Career Development is enhancing the benefits of SDGs at Work experiences
By Micaela Kelly (she/her)
Organizations across industries are advancing their sustainability efforts and those advancements require skilled staff. According to a LinkedIn report, demand for talent with green skills grew by 12.3 per cent between 2022 and 2023.
These in-demand green skills include climate action planning, sustainability education and supporting the global community. The challenge is, there isn’t enough talent with green skills to fill the needs of organizations globally.
Co-operative and Experiential Education (CEE), and its co-op employers, have the unique opportunity to help students develop green skills during their co-op work terms. CEE aligned its efforts to advance sustainability with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are 17 goals created by the United Nations as a call to action for all countries to work together to build a better future through economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protection.
To help students on work terms learn about SDGs and develop green skills, CEE created the SDGs at Work, an optional work term activity to encourage learning and understanding how the SDGs and business can integrate.
Co-op students complete a workbook that guides their learning of the SDGs, reflections of their sustainability priorities and values, and their learning about the organization’s sustainability goals and objectives. Supervisors provide resources and help support the students through ongoing discussions.
This activity helps students develop green skills they can use as they enter the world of work.
One department within CEE, Centre for Career Development (CCD), took the activity beyond the workbook and helps students apply it to their work.
Adding more to SDGs at Work
After two terms of offering the activity to co-op students, Mary Lynne Bartlett (she/her), communications specialist, CCD and Lindy Bancroft (she/her), career programming and event specialist, CCD, knew they had the opportunity to expand the students’ experiences when participating in SDGs at Work.
For the past year, Bartlett and Bancroft have worked together with their co-op students to add new initiatives and enhancements to the activity.
We’re seeing that students are interested in learning about the University’s sustainability goals and how they can help advance them.
Our co-op students have been so excited to help us enhance the program. We’ve added interesting components to the activity that they really like.
Here are a few of their additions:
- Working as a team: The co-op students in CCD work together to complete the workbook. “It’s giving them a lot of great opportunities to work collaboratively, get to know each other and learn from each other’s perspectives on the SDGs,” says Bancroft.
- Mid-term trivia game: After the students complete the organization-based questions, their supervisors quiz them in a trivia-style game. “One of our past co-op students made a trivia game for us about how the University advances the SDGs based on the workbook questions. We use this game every term and the students really enjoy testing their knowledge in a fun way,” says Bancroft.
- Applying the knowledge, their way: Once students complete the workbook, they work on a project, together or individually, to apply their newfound knowledge. Bancroft notes that each project has been unique. “We had one group create and execute a social media campaign about the SDGs that involved a giant tyrannosaurus rex asking students about their sustainability goals!” says Bancroft.
- A project celebration: At the end of the term, students gather to present their projects and celebrate their accomplishments. They present what they’ve created, talk about their ideas, and learn from each other. “This event gives students a chance to receive feedback and see how their peers approached similar goals,” says Bancroft.
For CCD, the SDGs at Work has become more than just a workbook assignment—it’s a part of how they evaluate students’ progress and growth during their co-op term.
Students say they enjoy the program, especially the teamwork and chance to work on real projects. Each term, the program is smoother and easier to follow, with students building on what past groups have done. For CCD, the biggest success is seeing students take ownership of their projects and bring these global goals to life in their everyday work.
When asked what advice they have for those who are looking to participate in the SDGs at Work Activity with their co-op students, Bancroft advises, “it gets easier every term. It’s worth the extra effort to see the creativity and hard work students put into this activity.”
