PD14 is shaping a new kind of workplace learning
A new approach to professional development courses puts real workplace challenges at the center — and students are noticing the difference.
By: Matthew King
When Jasmine Hu registered for PD14: Technological Futures: Responsible Digital Innovation, she was drawn in by a course description that promised something different.
"It sounded like a relatively new course," she says. "It seemed like it would teach me a lot about technology and AI, and I wanted to learn more about how I could use this in the workplace."
She wasn't wrong, but what she didn't anticipate was just how directly the course would shape the work she was already doing.
Hu, a Global Business and Digital Arts student heading into her 4B term, was an eLearning Developer Assistant with the Centre for Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) curriculum development team when she completed PD14. The course's module on technological implementation provided her with a framework that she applied to her work almost immediately.
"I was thinking about how we could use Copilot more ethically or use Adobe to recolour vector graphics — a really repetitive part of our workflow," she says. "I used the tech implementation form provided in the course to actually think through whether those tools were using data ethically and if we could bring them into our everyday process."
That kind of direct transfer from course content to a workplace context is exactly what PD14 was designed to produce — and the numbers show the course is doing exactly that.
Learning that lasts, skills that transfer
Students in the winter 2026 offering of PD14 highlight strong participation and positive learning impacts in some key results:
- 388 students enrolled across six faculties.
- 78.6% felt prepared to apply the skills learned in this course (e.g. critical thinking, technological agility, implementation) in the workplace.
- 82.8% often or sometimes connected their learning to their professional engagement (co-op work term or EDGE work/volunteer experience).
The course's WIL workplace application tasks students with transferring their learning from the course into their actual workplace by completing a real assignment in collaboration with their employer.
When given the opportunity to evaluate the workplace impact of students’ assignments, employers awarded a 97 per cent impact score, noting potential ranging from some to significant impact on their organizations.
Alita Thomas, a Global Business and Digital Arts and web associate co-op student with CEE, found that PD14 gave her a foundation she could build on in real time.
I definitely came into my co-op with skills and knowledge from PD14 that I could apply right away. I found it really useful, as it taught me the ethics behind AI use and how to communicate information clearly.
Work-Integrated Learning courses that feel practical
One of the most consistent themes among students is how PD14 stands out for its strong connections between course concepts and real-world application, helping learners see how their skills can be used in workplace contexts.
“With PD14, you gain real skills that you can take directly into the workplace. It’s not just about gaining knowledge, but also developing critical thinking and communication skills,” Thomas says.
That alignment also shows up in the course's structure.
With three focused modules rather than weekly deliverables, 93.9 per cent of students appreciated the flexibility they had in choosing one of the three activities to implement in their workplace as part of the WIL workplace application.
For Hu, the comparative analysis assignment was a standout.
Those skills — like how to create a one-pager, how to do a comparative analysis — I can literally use them in my current job. I actually used them in my work right now.
The mindset shift runs deeper than any single assignment, though. Both students described leaving PD14 with a more critical lens on how AI is deployed, and a stronger sense of their own responsibility as future designers, developers and decision-makers.
What comes next?
PD14's approach to connecting professional skill development to real workplace impact isn't a one-time experiment. This fall, the Centre for WIL and Co-operative and Experiential Education (CEE) will launch PD15: Cultivating Inclusive and Healthy Workplaces, which builds on the same embedded, application-first model.
If PD14 is any indication, students can expect a course that meets them where they are — on the job, working through real challenges and building skills they'll use right away.