Students gain more career skills training options with new WE Accelerate program streams
By: Matthew King (he/him)
Co-operative and Experiential Education’s (CEE) created its award-winning WE Accelerate program to give first work term students more options. In 2023, more than 600 students took advantage of this innovative option.
Now, by launching two new streams in the Winter 2025 term, the program will deliver even more variety in skills development to students. The two new streams are:
- Creating accessible digital learning environments
- Data-driven solutions for global challenges
We are committed to offering first work term students the valuable, in-demand skills they can leverage in their next work experience. Developing these new streams demonstrates that continued commitment.
Ben McDonald, senior manager of WIL programs, Centre for WIL
According to research from Waterloo’s Work-Learn Institute, Gen Z wants their work to be meaningful. The incoming generation of workers want their work to be part of a movement that enacts change in the world for the better. Both new WEA streams help enable that dedication to meaningful change.
Emphasizing accessibility
The new WEA stream for creating accessible digital learning environments will provide students with the skills to improve and develop course components, learning assets and training materials within the Brightspace platform, which is a learning management system. AccessAbility Services is a sponsor and advocate for the new stream.
Subject matter experts from the Centre for Extended Learning (CEL), the Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE) and Information, Systems and Technology (IST) collaborated to develop and curate the content for the skills curriculum.
By the end of this stream, students will use new skills to create educational and training materials for different audiences. They will be able to explain how diversity and inclusion are supported by the basic principles of universal design while designing with accessibility in mind.
Will Fawcett Hill, lead, WIL programs manager, Centre for WIL
Students in the WE Accelerate stream can work on projects with community or industry partners to create accessible training materials. They’ll have the skillset to help instructors identify opportunities for their materials to better align with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles and accessibility standards, like making documents accessible, captioning videos, providing accurate transcripts and revising materials to meet UDL principles.
“Given the impending changes to Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act’s (AODA) Education Standards legislation, this stream helps ensure students are technologically agile and well prepared for the changing landscape,” says McDonald.
“Whether that’s helping instructors and industry partners come into compliance with the legislation, or in educational and training materials – WE Accelerate students will be prepared.”
Data solutions striving for sustainability
The data-driven solutions for global challenges stream focuses on equipping students with high-demand skills in data collection, analytics and communication. The curriculum is comprised of content from Microsoft, eCampus Ontario and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). As part of the stream, students will also engage with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).
“Students in this stream will learn how to collect, analyze and visualize data using PowerBI. The curriculum focuses on skills that align with global sustainability efforts,” says Hill. “We are exploring options with leading organizations and campus resources to create high-quality lessons, offering context and expertise in SDGs and data analytics.”
As part of the new WEA stream, students get the chance to apply their learned skills to projects. Ideally aligned to the UN SDGs, but not limited to the sustainability sector, students will utilize data analytics and visualization to help address real and meaningful problems.