A timeline of Waterloo’s new WE Accelerate program

By: Matt King and Namish Modi

First work term co-op students sometimes find it challenging to find their first job. Unfortunately, that challenge was further amplified because of the COVID-19 pandemic. One of CEE’s strategic priorities is to future-proof our students by equipping and empowering them to succeed. Given the global economic situation, Co-operative and Experiential Education (CEE) identified the need to address this issue while recognizing the opportunity to build and develop talent for a complex future.

CEE decided the solution was to launch a brand-new work-integrated learning (WIL) program called Waterloo Experience (WE) Accelerate. The program is dedicated to helping co-op students who are unable to find a co-op position in their first work term and began with a pilot in Spring 2021 for students whose job search was impacted by the economic challenges of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

“The pandemic created unique and unexpected challenges for our students, and we are excited to introduce more flexible ways for them to upskill and engage in meaningful work-integrated learning,” says Dr. Norah McRae, Associate Provost, CEE.

The development of WE Accelerate began with an analysis of more than 74,000 job descriptions to identify the skills that employers were looking for in the changing world of work. CEE then leveraged existing relationships with co-op employers to help create the curriculum and skills development components for students.

“This is very much the heart of work-integrated learning. There is learning and then there’s the application of that learning in a workplace setting. Learning is assessed while the students are supported and then there’s a reflective component,” says McRae. “Those are the key components of quality work-integrated learning and we used that as the backbone for this program.”

CEE is committed to centering our work in equity, diversity and inclusion. The team carefully considered the fact that students may face obstacles to participating in the program and intentionally focused on addressing those barriers. Specifically, without the paid work experience they would have had during a co-op work term many students faced significant financial obstacles.

“We met with student members of the CEE Student Equity Advisory Group who identified some key barriers to participation,” says Brent Thornhill, Co-op student experience manager. “To address these concerns, we developed the program to be flexible enough to enable students to work part-time, take courses while participating, and be eligible for funding regardless of citizenship.”

The financial challenge raised by students was the driving force behind applying for a federal funding grant to supply students with a stipend for their participation in WE Accelerate. “In the spring and fall terms, we were able to successfully attain $500,000 in federal funding for Canadian students in WE Accelerate. The University of Waterloo Provost provided additional funds for international students in the program. In the end, each student that successfully participated in the program received a $1000 stipend,” says McRae.

Since its inception, the program has secured more than $700,000 in financial support for students to date.

The success of the program is apparent. Students who participated in the spring pilot of WE Accelerate are already seeing results from future-proofing their skills and the work experience they gained during the group projects.

"If it weren't for WE Accelerate, I don't know if the co-op experience would have been as smooth as it was this time around," says Shaili Kadakia, a Mathematics student and WE Accelerate pilot participant. “I think the main thing employers are looking for when they're hiring students, and really anyone, is experience. Building a project with five other students and then working in a small company as part of WE Accelerate, I think that really helped me stand out and it gave me what I was missing.”

The WE Accelerate program is not specifically targeted to students in a certain program, or those eyeing specific careers, but rather developing those in-demand skills that students can then leverage in a variety of future co-op positions and their future career.

“When I was looking into WE Accelerate, I vividly remember reading that they went through a bunch of job descriptions and found that there were the certain skills that employers were looking for the most,” says Aseel Osma, Engineering student and WE Accelerate Spring 2021 participant. “In my case, the skills I was able to put on my resume from WE Accelerate were exactly what my employer was looking for.”

The WE Accelerate program has been given the support of the Provost and Associate Deans to continue until the end of the 2022 calendar year. Learn more about WE Accelerate in the timeline below: